Quincy continues to consider downtown big rig restrictions

QUINCY — Semi-trucks, where they should and shouldn’t be on the streets of Quincy, is a subject of longstanding discussion, which continued during a public hearing April 15 on a proposed ordinance to change designated truck routes. 

The public hearing only prompted one comment; Melva Calloway, who said she owned property on Central Avenue, spoke in favor of the proposed changes.  

Quincy resident Remedios Morgan also spoke during the public hearing but had a concern about a different problem with trucks. Morgan is a resident of B Street Northeast, a section of which was the subject of discussion that lasted a couple of years. 

Morgan, speaking with the help of an interpreter, said she was concerned about truck traffic along the street. Some residents and business owners on B Street Northeast objected when a section of it was narrowed during reconstruction in 2022. That reduced options for truck parking, according to some B Street Northeast residents.  

“Is B Street already taken off the truck route?” asked council member Dylan Kling. 

“It’s not a truck route now,” Engineer Ariel Belino said. “It is posted that it’s not a truck route.” 

Public Works Director Carl Worley said city officials would be working to address traffic concerns along B Street.  

The proposed truck route changes would remove a section of Central Avenue between F Street Southeast (State Route 28 when it’s not going through Quincy) and the city limits as a designated truck route. A section of Sixth Avenue Northeast would also be removed. Sections of D Street Northwest, D Street Northeast and Road 11 Northwest would be added as truck routes.   

Kling asked when the proposed changes would go into effect. Belino said that it depends on the location. 

“The two on D Street Northwest (and Northeast) can be in the immediate future,” Belino said. “(Road) 10.5 we have to annex the area first so we can have ownership of the road.” 

Other sections of the proposed truck routes would be added as they were annexed by the city, Belino said. 

City Administrator Pat Haley said that typically, the council allows two meetings for public comment before adopting changes to ordinances. Where the road is within the city limits, the revisions would go into effect five days after the ordinance is passed. 

Worley said in an earlier interview that Quincy has grown and changed, and Central Avenue between the stoplight at F Street and the city limits is no longer feasible as a truck route. Trucks making deliveries along Central Avenue or Sixth Avenue Northeast will still be allowed, he said.    

Residential development has expanded and is continuing to expand between Road 11 and Road 10.5. Belino said the new neighborhoods make Sixth Avenue Northeast undesirable as a truck route. 

A section of D Street Northwest was added as a truck route because it provides access to some of the data centers in Quincy, Worley said.