In a long-awaited preliminary study, Caltrans found that lifting a decades-old truck ban on Interstate 580 would add about 3,800 large vehicles to the highway daily — and reduce truck traffic along parallel Interstate 880.
The findings come as the state’s transportation department examines the potential traffic, health and equity impacts of removing a more than 70-year-old ban on trucks heavier than 9,000 pounds, with the exception of some buses and paratransit vehicles, from the highway running along the base of the East Bay Hills in Oakland and San Leandro.
Oakland residents have raised concerns for years about the health impacts of the ban, which diverts most truck traffic coming through the East Bay to I-880.
As the trucks bring goods to the East Oakland port, they also deliver noise, air pollution and a heightened risk of asthma and cancer…