Go Around

[catcul]

Here is a site started by Jurgen Henn called 11foot8.com. It is dedicated to a train trellis that is about 11 feet, 8 inches over Gregson St in Durham, NC. It shows videos of over height trucks, campers, and buses challenging this trellis.

So far, since Mr. Henn set up the two cameras, it's been Bridge 63, Trucks 0.

11 Foot 8
YouTube Channel

[Jetfire]

We don't have a camera on the site, but we do have a notorious bridge in my city that's similarly caught trucks. Usually a truck gets caught under the Waterloo Road bridge every couple of months or so. It's only got 3.5 meters of clearance.

There are no train tracks over it now, but the bridge remains as a pedestrian trail leading to a pedestrian bridge across the river (the old Rail Right of Way). Funny thing is, trucks don't have to go that way to get downtown, if they follow the truck route signs all around that intersection, they'd never go near that dip in the road; but someone inevitably does.

[Crossbow]

I love 11foot8.com! I love these idiots that don't pay attention.

I got to call in a "stuck under the bridge" accident a while back. Sei driver tried to go under and wedged himself as we were waiting for a light. Called the local police dispatcher and gave her the details. First thing out of her mouth was "Dammit! Not again." She apologized profusely as I was laughing...

[wolfie]

Roughly a year ago, a safety meeting showed a number of "don't do this" videos. I jotted down a few web sites mentioned in the videos, and this site was the only one that was still "live".

[Chromatix]

In Britain, any "bridge strike" has to be reported immediately to the railway - phone numbers are displayed on signs beside each bridge, along with an identification code. This allows trains to be stopped from crossing it until an inspection can be arranged. Low and narrow bridges are quite common, since most of then survive from when the railways were built in the 19th century - many arched bridges have a central section which is marked for tall vehicles, which must use the middle of the road, while ordinary cars can use the sides.

Tunnel strikes grew to be such a problem in Sydney that they have installed "water curtain" signs on tunnel entrances to supplement the overhead stop signs that they already had. A ten-foot-wide illuminated stop sign right in front of you is a lot harder to miss.

[wolfie]

In Britain, any "bridge strike" has to be reported immediately to the railway - phone numbers are displayed on signs beside each bridge, along with an identification code. This allows trains to be stopped from crossing it until an inspection can be arranged.

Tunnel strikes grew to be such a problem in Sydney that they have installed "water curtain" signs on tunnel entrances to supplement the overhead stop signs that they already had. A ten-foot-wide illuminated stop sign right in front of you is a lot harder to miss.

It's my understanding that the bridge mentioned in the OP has a "guard beam" installed as a separate structure, so that the vehicles hitting it don't damage the bridge itself (negating the need for an inspection after each strike). Also, the "guard beam" has been replaced at least once. Due to railway grade restrictions, it would not be feasible to raise the bridge, and there's municipal piping close to the surface, so they can't dig a "dip" to increase clearance.

Is the "water curtain" sign a sheet of falling water with the sign projected on it? If so, that would definitely be hard to miss - you'd hit it every time.

[catcul]

BuzzFeed has a gallery of gifs of trucks hitting that bridge.

Don't let this happen to you.

[Kit-Ginevra]

Imagine if some of these guys were let loose on the bridges we went under in Sri Lanka on holiday. When the guide said Duck down and stay down,you ducked down and stayed down. If you didn't you would have been decapitated.
There was about eight INCHES clearance...

Ah yes here we are...

[Ophbalance]

Hah... that's right up the road from me. That bridge has apparently skinned many a roof off various box trucks.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

We have a low bridge on Merritt Drive here in Greensboro (near Patterson Street) that has been the scene on occasion over the years for trucks getting stuck.

Last memorable one was around a decade ago involving a Budweiser delivery truck (the local distributor is just a short distance away on Fairfax Road which runs parallel with I-40.)

Apparently the driver (not my regular one, mind but he said it was one of their then newer guys) who got a box trailer stuck under the bridge! Took several hours to get it unstuck and traffic needless to say, was rerouted around the area.

Obviously some folks have trouble judging clearance.

[Chromatix]

When I still lived in England, I once came across a van pulling very carefully up to a bridge. It *used* to be a railway bridge, in fact, but the railway was closed many years ago, and it is now merely a path.

The driver was checking to see whether he could take the short way out of the small industrial estate that the road connected to. The van turned out to be a few inches too tall, so he bumped into the bridge, stopped, turned around, and went around the long way.

No harm, no foul.

[Bardmaiden]

I see your bridges and raise the stakes by a 12th century arch and this wasn't the first either...

You think they would have noticed them by now

[catcul]

I see your bridges and raise the stakes by a 12th century arch and this wasn't the first either...

You think they would have noticed them by now

When my parents took the trailer to Rocky Mountain National Park, they had to wait for traffic to clear in a tunnel. The trailer would only fit by going straight down the middle.

[catcul]

uShip's Video Compilation

WILL IT CLEAR? Best of Low-Clearance Truck Accidents

I like how they have the tag line for the video, "Ship Happens."

[Chromatix]

And here is the potential result of hitting a railway bridge sufficiently hard:



You can see the kink in the rails, and that's enough to close the line. Many diversions on the WCML today.