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The 11 foot 8 bridge [Update: Now 12'4" and open again]
- Thread starter DrFunk
- Start date
I wonder if truck rental companies in the area charge a steep premium insurance fee to cover for all the trucks they had destroyed by this bridge?
You have to wonder if the truck rental employees are trained to absolutely make sure to mention the existence of this bridge whenever someone rents a truck?
You have to wonder if the truck rental employees are trained to absolutely make sure to mention the existence of this bridge whenever someone rents a truck?
Maybe it's phrased too passively and people think it's just a general sign that's always on, rather than a warning aimed at them?
I'm surprised that they don't give you a truck based GPS for work. Speaking of which, can't you download a truck specific app like ALK co pilot or something?
I feel like they need to stop treating people as intelligent and just put a big sign up that says "If you're in a truck, this bridge will destroy it."
We have a Melbourne one too http://howmanydayssincemontaguestreetbridgehasbeenhit.com
Amazingly, people seem to be actually figuring it out. There was a coach that crashed in to it a while ago and quite a few people were injured the court case has been featured on the news a few times, that could be why.
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I count at least ten signs per side and at night it looks like Shibuya station crosswalk.
The guys you can hear cheering in the background in some of those shots are peel enthusiasts. The slomo repeat has a perfect sardine can peel.
If a road feature becomes an accident blackspot, it's up to the road management people to fix the problem. It's not always possible to close the road permanently, but if there are feasible alternative routes this should be considered.
I'd love it if all drivers were alert and rational at all times. If they were, we wouldn't need lights and barriers on level crossings and crash barriers on motorways would be unnecessary. This kind of road nuisance is a good example of where a road safety problem blends into responsible road management.
I'd love it if all drivers were alert and rational at all times. If they were, we wouldn't need lights and barriers on level crossings and crash barriers on motorways would be unnecessary. This kind of road nuisance is a good example of where a road safety problem blends into responsible road management.
The cost of digging up the sewage lines and replacing them far outweighs the signs.
It's not just a matter of digging out some pavement either because those lines were designed for a very specific level of ground cover and removing that ground cover risks those pipes collapsing. I don't know exactly what they're using, but if it's reinforced concrete box or pipe then digging out that run would require a whole new survey, re-engineering the steel areas in the box/pipe for that level of cover, likely stamped and sealed drawings for the city, manufacturing the pipe itself, closing off service for that area of pipe somewhere upstream of that location, and then the actual installation itself, which shuts down the intersection. Again, this is just me making the assumption they're using RCBs but it's just way, way cheaper to put up signage. After that it's on the driver's to pay attention as they should be in any other situation.
To clarify, I'm not a civil engineer. But I work in the industry as a drafter and am always paired up with other engineers in our department to solve issues like this and it's far from simple often times. I literally last week just completed a job where our run of box was conflicting with existing SAS and we had to design a unique solution for those conflicts because that line could not be moved lower due to the ground cover.
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Oh shit, Blame Space is a name I haven't heard in a long time. Whatever happened to this dude?
As for the video, a lot of those drivers aren't professional drivers. They are just rented trucks for moving and stuff, so the drivers aren't really trained to worry about clearance. I feel bad for some of them.
They can't, as has been explained in this thread and on the website in the OP. The city can't lower the road because there's a sewer main underneath, and lifting the train track on the bridge a few feet higher would involve rebuilding several miles of track on either side to avoid an excessively steep grade.
Thanks for your informed comment on the practicalities of handling that kind of traffic nuisance. I don't doubt that civil engineers employed by traffic planning departments go to great pains to make the roads as safe as can reasonably be expected in the circumstances. My comment is mainly aimed at the facile assumption that if only we were all constantly alert while driving there would be no problem.
In practice, black spots in the traffic network inevitably show up. This is especially problematic in urban areas with multiple legacy utility pipelines and cables, railway systems whose limitations mandate a very low maximum gradient, and crowded neighbourhoods where substantial modification would be impracticable because of risks to the structural integrity of many buildings.
My point is that, in the end, we don't get to just stand by and mock drivers for falling into the traps laid by planning decisions made on our behalf.
I suppose that time will probably reduce this problem, as fleet owners and insurers of commercial vehicles insist on the installation of intelligent clearance agents that force the driver to stop and take appropriate action on encountering an impassable obstacle.
That's the stance of the city. They can't change the bridge and have put up plenty of fucking signs that idiots keep ignoring.
Looking at the bridge in google maps, there appears to be a perfectly viable detour across the same tracks one block to the east. Takes maybe 2 minutes.
But I don't think commercial fleet managers and insurers have a lot to worry about. I see a lot of moving vans, rentals, and campers bearing the overwhelming majority of the damage, so if I'm a rental company, moving company or small business expecting delivery in the area I'm telling those companies to take their damn time and not go anywhere near that bridge.
Yeah it sounds so much more violent than it (sometimes) looks. Plus you get to hear people yelling :lol
I think the way the sign is worded could be improved. At least something along the lines of "DANGER Low Bridge" would get more drivers to take notice within the short amount of time they have to process the information.
But then it would just be a standard low clearance sign. The way it is now, the sign is only triggered on if your vehicle is overheight, and it's telling you to take action instead of acting as just a warning.
A lot of these incidents are just normal people that rented a moving truck.
It could still be vehicle dependant. Even just the addition of a big red "DANGER" to the start of the current message will help attract more attention.
Whew, this one is even worse. Taking out cars too. It gives no fucks.
Bet they only mention the bridge if you buy the insurance. They probably don't say shit to those that don't. lol
I never bothered going to the site until today and finally saw that the guy who set up the cameras to film the crashes also has a Patreon and sells pieces of the wreckage.
While this one is in Durham, we have another one in downtown Raleigh that is 12'3" which and causes just as many of these a year.
I've said it before but there are tons of these really low clearance bridges through out NJ thanks to the multitude of train tracks passing over roads as well as the numerous canal's that run along the Delaware River that do the same. There are bridges even lower than this one including one that is 10'6" that has imprints of the tops of numerous trucks that have driven straight into it without paying attention.
The wildest part is watching the trucks backup and drive off with a still-falling-apart trailer, pieces falling to and fro all the while.
The 11 foot 8 bridge's hunger must he satisfied.
All hail the 11 foor 8 bridge.
The bridge senses when there is overweight vehicles, the sign tells them to turn and automatically goes to red to stop people.
Lol at dudes aiming for the middle too and still going full smash