“A large number of truckers failed to heed a posted detour sign warning of a low bridge and struck the bridge after it reopened Sunday evening, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation.” The overpass has temporary clearance only 12’6"(clearly marked) which is less than the standard 13’6" because the rail line cannot be elevated another foot. Eventually the road surface will be lowered another foot.
Since 13’6" is the ‘normal’ truck clearance, I would put this squarely on IDOT for not doing what was necessary to create 13’6" even for a temporary situation, especially if this is a pre-existing truck utilized route. Signs don’t overcome old habits.
There is a low clearance location just north of Syracuse. Raising the railroad would be possible but pricey, especially given the relatively low traffic (four to six trains a day?), and lowering the road is virtually impossible due to ground water levels there.
The bridge has numerous signs, flashing lights, you-name-it. Nonetheless, the driver of an oversized (double decker) bus was so tied up with his GPS (he’d missed a turn) that he didn’t see any of them. It wasn’t pretty.
And there’s this little gem in Battle Creek, MI that snags the unwary. Bidge hasn’t moved yet. [8D] Picture didn’t show in the post. It’s upton Ave. Clearance is 10’6".
I mentioned this spot in my report in the “Chatterbox” just a few days ago. At that time (Saturday?) the road was completely closed, due to open Monday with this problematic detour route. The bridge is a brand new one, but the location is problematic for everything involved.
And they still have to shoehorn a new highway through here for western access to O’Hare! I wish them luck.
Former Illinois Governor George Ryan will serve the rest of his sentence for corruption at home and was said to be surrounded by his grandchildren Wednesday afternoon.
For 78-year-old Ryan, this is a story that began nearly 20-years ago.
When George Ryan was Illinois Secretary of State in 1994, a truck driver who illegally obtained his commercial license, killed six children in a blazing crash…
Glad you enjoyed that one, Johnny - I just had to share it ! [swg]
Perhaps IDOT should install a truck version of the old railroad “tell-tale” - a series of vertical ropes or light chains hanging from a crossbar above the track that would ‘tickle’ a brakeman on the car tops to warn him of an impending low clearance bridge or tunnel, etc. See:
In this instance, it would be a ‘sacrificial’ lightweight steel or wooden bar - kind of like a ‘smashboard’ at level railroad grade crossings - at the same height (or a wee bit lower) that would catch on the truck before the bridge, maybe break loose, and make all kinds of noise. I’ve seen some in advance of old wooden covered bridges around here to prevent them from being damaged by too-tall trucks. See:
I see your bridge and raise, er lower mine at Tilton Ave (8’6") on the Caltrain ROW in San Mateo, CA. There are several of these obsolete structures nearby and, unfortunately, local governments have been napping for decades WRT replacing them. Now that Caltrain ridership is booming it is costing us a fortune to build grade separations and other mitigations. [banghead]
Or just install a very long chain saw bar at the right height to cut the top off of anything too tall before it reaches the bridge. Imagine its your first time on this road with lots of traffic, lots of signs, and your view of signs is blocked by “other” box trucks and tall vehicles around you and I can see a person missing those crucial signs. Also remember some jurisdictions “like” to write tickets and the fix to the road or bridge would cut into their bottom line.
Then there was the tragedy in Texas yesterday where an apparently oversize load struck one of the concrete beams of a bridge under construction over I-35, knocked it down, and killed a passing driver.
Oakland Gardens, Queens, NY. Long Island Expressway Eastbound to Cross Island Parkway Southbound. For decades there was no direct connection, and traffic going that way had to exit the LIE at 30 onto the service road (Horace Harding), futz around at the traffic lights at the intersection of Horace Harding and E. Hampton Blvd/Alley Rd (usually for multiple light cycles - I got sick and tired of seeing the brown hip roofs of the housing development at that intersection, and I’m sure the residents got tired of seeing this traffic), then head down a steep access ramp to the Cross Island.
Finally, after decades of this nonsense, around the turn of the century as part of a HOV and interchange improvement project the missing ramp was installed (why it wasn’t done in the 1960s is unfathomable and unforgivable - no private land was taken for the ROW, and the construction materials were bog-standard rebar concrete and asphalt, not carbon fibre and aerogels. Considering the poorly laid out profile at the end of the ramp which goes down and then up for no good reason, I’m not convinced they even used lasers on this job).
Be that as it may, the ramp does now allow traffic a direct access route from the LIE east to the CIP south - and therein lies a problem, as it allows commercial trucks as well as cars/SUVs access to the parkway, and trucks are prohibited from using the parkway due to low bridge clearances (among other things). So NYSDOT installed large yellow “Low Clearance signs” on the ramps, with sensor activated flashing yellow lights.
After awhile, the lights began flashing all the time, not just when an oversized truck went down the ramp. Was it an electrical problem
Back before I-15/I-80 conglomeration in the Salt Lake City area was rebuilt just before the WInter Olympics, the was a sign on NB I-15 south of the 3300 South exit, warning drivers whose load was too high to go under the 2700 South (access to Roper Yard) overpass to exit at 3300 South. I did not hear of anyone’s ignoring the warning.
Now that the Spaghetti Bowl (look at a map of the area, which includes Utah 201 to/from the west and a collector just east of I-15/I-80) has been built, the clearance is much better.
There was an incident on I-15, going south, north of the city a few years back when a high load was caught by a structure.