The South Carolina Dept. of Public Safety officially opened a state-of-the art weigh station in St. George last week. The facility, said to be the first of its kind in the Southeast, features weigh-in-motion technology, as well as an inspection shed with a pit that allows inspectors to more easily check under trucks for brake and other operating system defects.
Located on northbound I-95 near mile marker 74 in Dorchester County, the facility also has a reader that will capture license plate information and run that against several state and federal databases to check a truck’s compliance with federal safety standards. Cameras also capture an image of each commercial motor vehicle passing through the weigh-in-motion facility and store that information for law enforcement.
The new facility will be maintained by the South Carolina State Transport Police. More than 26,000 trucks a week pass through the Dorchester area, according to a report in The Times and Democrat.
The STP operates two other weigh-in-motion sites in South Carolina, however trucks are required to leave the highway to be weighed and then re-enter interstate traffic at those facilities, located on Interstate 85 in Anderson County and on Interstate 26 in Dorchester County.