Gregson St. at Peabody St., in Durham, NC. This bridge, known as the truck destroyer, has signs that indicate a safe height for truck passage at 11' 8". True height 11' 10.8". The train trestle was built over 100 years ago, before height requirements were established. Can't they raise the trestle or lower the road? Yes, but both are too expensive for Durham. There is a sewer running just under the road, and raising the whole thing is not a cheap endeavor either.

The signage is good, and the vast majority of truck drivers notice the problem and avoid the bridge. Large signs alert driver to the low clearance several blocks before the bridge. Half a block before the trestle, a sensor detects over-height vehicles and triggers an LED warning sign that was installed in May 2016. That same sensor also triggers a red-light phase at the traffic light directly in front of the trestle (installed in March 2016), so the driver has 50 seconds to read the warning sign next to the red traffic light and consider their next move. Cameras have been in place to witness the carnage for years. I don't think anyone has actually been hurt here, so enjoy this fine video compilation of vehicular mayhem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USu8vT_tfdw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USu8vT_tfdw

Face it, US infrastructure is a disaster, especially the rail system. Less Guns, more Butter is the only solution.

Grizz

I would say less waste and more butter.

I would say. Know the height of your load and read the signs.

quote:

Originally posted by xgrunt:
I would say. Know the height of your load and read the signs.

You expect too much from the "not my fault" dregs ofnsociety.

Last year my son bought a yaught in Galveston + brought it back here to central Texas after building the trailer. It's height demasted was 14' 6". Most of our overpasses are not over 13'6". He had one helluva time finding a route to get it up here but he did.

Part of my job was enforcing over size and over weigh permits in my area.

When ever I would see a permitted load I would stop them and check their routing.

I found many off their permitted route.

They didn't like the fact that I would invalidate their permit and write them a citation.

But the truth is I most likely saved them from 10000s of thousands of dollars in damage had they hit something.

There are very good reasons permit section would give them a permitted route.

Low bridges, power lines, weak bridges, narrow roads were all reasons to route them a certain way.

quote:

Originally posted by p dog shooter:
Part of my job was enforcing over size and over weigh permits in my area.

When ever I would see a permitted load I would stop them and check their routing.

I found many off their permitted route.

They didn't like the fact that I would invalidate their permit and write them a citation.

But the truth is I most likely saved them from 10000s of thousands of dollars in damage had they hit something.

There are very good reasons permit section would give them a permitted route.

Low bridges, power lines, weak bridges, narrow roads were all reasons to route them a certain way.

We've got a bridge going into a local town, thing is 50 years old and thoroughfare on a major highway. Lot of oilfield traffic over it and nearly every major load exceeds its rated capacity, but there is no will or the funds to replace it. Over height ? We converted to metric quite a few years ago, but some of us still have problems with the conversions. Guess what occasionally happens ?

Grizz

quote:

Guess what occasionally happens ?

Thud.

Here in NY , the bridge collapse in MN was a wake up call so all bridges are being inspected and repaired as needed.
There was a bridge engineer in NYC who had warned about pigeon poop but was laughed at . When the MN bridge went down you could easily see the poop damage . It's easy to ignore maintanence but it will catch up to you at great cost.
Here we have a town that has two numbers , one with 'official' height and one real height !!