Officials in Oak Park Heights are working to ban “Jake brakes” — and the distinct noise they make when truck drivers use them to slow their engines — within city limits.

But in order to stop the use of compression-release engine braking systems, also known as dynamic braking or air braking, city officials say they need to get the Minnesota Legislature and the Minnesota Department of Transportation on board.

MnDOT officials have told city officials that legislative action is required before “Vehicle Noise Laws Enforced” signs can be installed on state freeways like Minnesota 36, City Administrator Jake Rife said.

The Oak Park Heights City Council plans to ask state Sen. Karin Housley and state Rep. Josiah Hill to introduce legislation to that effect, Rife said, adding that officials in Stillwater also have reached out to the legislators regarding the issue. “It’s an issue of common concern,” he said.

MnDOT officials say no signs are needed for law enforcement officers to enforce the state’s muffler and motor vehicle noise limits laws.

But Housley said she supports a plan to have the signs installed and will introduce the necessary legislation next year.

“Quality of life in our neighborhoods matters, and residents along Highway 36 deserve peace and quiet in their homes,” she said. “Right now, state regulations prevent MnDOT from installing ‘Vehicle Noise Laws Enforced’ signage without explicit legislative action. That needs to change.”

Posting noise-enforcement signs along highways in residential areas will give “our local communities the tools they need to curb unnecessary noise and let drivers know that communities will enforce the current law.”

Worse this summer

Named after the original manufacturer, Jacobs Vehicle Systems, Jake brakes are found on large diesel trucks, such as dump trucks and semitrailers.

The system essentially downshifts the engine into a lower gear, helping to stop the truck. It turns engines into air compressors to slow down without using wheel brakes, reducing wear.

That distinct blasting noise — which has been measured at 90 decibels — is like fingernails on a chalk board for Oak Park Heights resident Joe Souter.

Souter and his wife, Doris, have lived in a townhouse just south of Minnesota 36 since 2010. The couple keeps their windows closed, even on nice days and evenings, because of the noise, Joe Souter said.

“Well, we’ve learned to live with it, because what else do you do?” said Souter, a retired shift supervisor at Andersen Corp. in Bayport. “But it should be at least contained as far as Jake braking. I know there’s going to be highway noise, there’s going to be road noise. Things are going to happen, but the jake braking is optional, and it should be eliminated.”

Souter said the noise has gotten worse this summer as more truck drivers coming from Wisconsin into Minnesota are using the St. Croix River bridge in Oak Park Heights to avoid construction on Interstate 94, Souter said. An increase in the speed limit on the bridge a few years ago also didn’t help, he said.

The trucks, especially those coming from Wisconsin into Minnesota, “just run nonstop,” he said. “They run through the night. They aren’t running just during the day.”

The average daily traffic count on the St. Croix River bridge is 29,853 vehicles per day, according to MnDOT. About 1,200 vehicles per day are heavy commercial vehicles, officials said.

Souter said his greatest beef is with the westbound truck drivers who use engine braking at the Osgood Avenue intersection in Oak Park Heights.

“They start Jake braking to slow them down so they don’t use their brakes,” he said. “Even though they’re climbing a grade where they’d be slow, they’re coming at 60 mph, and then they see traffic ahead that’s stopped at the stoplight, so they start slowing down using their Jake brake. … They’re hauling so much weight that they have to slow down way before vehicles do.”

‘Courteous driving behavior’

Oak Park Heights City Council member Mark Swenson, who is running in the November election, said he has heard numerous complaints about Jake braking on Minnesota 36 while he’s been out door knocking this summer.

“Before the bridge was built, we asked MnDOT, ‘Is there something you guys can do about Jake braking?’ ‘Yep, we’ll enforce it, we’ll enforce it,’ ” he said. “And now it’s nothing, it is not on their priority list. There’s not a sign or anything.”

A spokesman with the Minnesota State Patrol did not immediately return a query seeking comment.

“I guess if we can’t get help from our partners, which I hope the state would pick up the pace a little bit, maybe we will have to do something ourselves on it,” Swenson said. “This is ridiculous, and it only gets worse and worse the more trucks that are on that road. Now with the work being done on 94, a lot of the guys are using 36 and using that bypass.”

When the speed limit on the bridge was 55 mph, the noise was not so loud, said Swenson, who lives about two blocks from the highway.

“You didn’t hear it as much before,” he said. “Well, now that the speed limit’s 65, now they’re slowing down from 70, because they’re coming down the hill.”

Oak Park Heights Police Chief Steve Hansen said he hopes semi drivers will “exercise courteous driving behavior and not use their engine braking through town.”

But posting signs along the highway stating that no “Jake braking” is allowed would help, he said.

“If there is an ordinance passed, we can use that as a tool to assist with enforcement and educating, but it has to be posted properly as well to be fair to the drivers,” he said.