The in basket: Shortly after answering a reader’s question about why long-haul trucks are often seen bypassing weigh stations on I-90, I came to wonder about the wide spot next to Highway 16 just south of the Burley-Olalla interchange, that is marked as a weigh station.  I couldn’t recall seeing anything being weighed there, I first asked if it was no longer in use. Then after seeing four big trucks, a small panel truck and a passenger car there one weekday morning, with no law enforcement in sight, I suggested it seemed to be more rest area than anything else.

The out basket: State Trooper Russ Winger replied that WSPs Commercial Vehicle Division “still utilizes the area for periodic spot inspections on commercial vehicles, which includes weight checks at times.”

He added that “trucks and occasional vehicles do pull into the area when there are no officers conducting inspections. The area is wide and normally there is room for vehicles to stop, adjust a load, make a cell call, etc., well beyond the area where inspections are done.

“You can drive right through past the inspection area on the right. It is not a chronic problem and troopers will also pull into the area and check vehicles stopped there.

“It is not a place to leave a disabled vehicle, however, as it is within the Tow Zone,” meaning the prohibition imposed in 2015 of all parking on the shoulder of Highway 16.

“The same situation exists on westbound SR16 just west of the Narrows Bridge,: he said, “although that old scale area is seldom, if at all, used anymore for inspecting trucks.”