the worst underpass for trucks in CO. 11’4 under the BNSF brush Sub Denver,CO. and yes those black marks are from trucks trying to make it underneath. one day i know it will happen a train drailing cause a truck messing up that bridge cant image if its a loaded oil train involved.
The underpass is given black marks for not letting trucks go under it?[:)]
Click “through” the bridge and then turn around and look at the other end!!! NO “Black Marks” at all! It all comes off with the concrete! [B)]
A modern precast ‘lightweight’ I-beam bridge, or even those with separate reinforced concrete box beams, - possibly. That’s what was involved in the Texas mishap the other day, and we’ve lost parts or all of a few here in Pennsylvania from time to time when they’ve been hit, usually a ‘point’ impact by heavy construction equipment on a lowbed trailer, such as the boom of a big tracked hydraulic excavator (“hoe”).
But not that bridge. It reminds me of a mini-version of Joh Koh’s Clinton St. Viaduct - “still undefeated”. The exposed face is part of a thick solid concrete deck that runs about 30 ft. to the other side, and has a fairly short span, so it’s almost like a giant cement block. And it was built ‘back in the day’, when no one shorted on the amount of cement in the concrete (which slowly gains strength over time). The curves limit the approach speed, so the trucks may chip at it, and even take out some bigger pieces, but they ain’t never gonna knock it down.
- Paul North.
[}:)]
Seems to have missed the other “mouseholes” on the same ex-CB&Q line at the Denver Western Stockyards (S-SW) and at Sand Creek Junction (60th Ave) (N-NE). Local jurisdiction that Outlaw is showing is a political mess. Plan & profile bad geometry plus a high water table makes for an expensive fix. At least the cemetery is close by [}:)], but old Riverside is full and good luck moving the graves.
(There is a section corner that falls in Riverside at the base of a headstone. The sight of surveyors running around in there, shovel in hand, looking for the aliquot corner - causes some raised eyebrows until they realize what surveyors are looking for.)
CB&Q built a lot of these in the 1920’s and 1930’s.
This bridge is monitored by a web cam 24/7. At 11 foot 8 it is taller than yours, but lots of interesting action shots. There is a guard beam ahead of the bridge installed by the railroad to prevent strikes on their infrastructure. There are detectors ahead of the bridge, and trucks must turn either right or left, or face the “can Opener”.
Some choose the can opener.
ROAR
Same bridge I posted the video of earlier in the thread.
Here’s one that blew my mind years ago. I drove a straight truck northbound on McDade Blvd. thru the Philly suburbs on my way to a new customer. As I approached the intersection where I was to turn right, I saw a railroad overpass that came across at an odd angle. I wouldn’t have to pass under it when I turned, but coming back out later I would have to pass under it as I made the left back onto McDade. But not to worry; the clearance sign read 12’ 6" and I only need 12’ even. Now when I returned, the sign for southbound traffic read 11’ 6". SAY WHAT!!! How did I get that mixed up. I actually parked the truck and walked down the street just to make sure I really had seen two different clearances. Sure enough, there was a girder sticking down on the far end of the overpass that reduced the clearance by about a foot. The only thing I knew to do was to turn aound in the street and cut thru a residential street with “No Trucks” signs.
A bridge strike in Ireland about 30 years ago caused the bridge to shift. A passenger train was derailed resulting in 5 deaths. That 11 foot 8 bridge in the video is certainly well secured, but if there was a derailment, you would prefer not to be too close to the aftermath, judging by the speed of the freight train passing over it.
Michael J Walsh, Dublin, Ireland.
The 11 ft 8 bridge in Durham NC has a very heavy steel I- beam mounted about 8 ft ahead of the bridge. That is what the trucks are hitting, not the actual bridge. About 10 years ago I was returning to Charlotte on #79 when the bridge was hit. We were delayed 4+hours waiting on a NS bridge inspector to come check it. The I-beam was installed about 6 months later, paid for by NCDOT.
As for warning signs there are about a dozen of them, on both sides of the street, on all the streets approaching the bridge, in addition to the flashing lights at the bridge. There is no excuse for the morons to hit it.
Finally, if you go to YouTube and search there a number of mash-up videos of the bridge better then the one above. Some are pretty funny in their own way.
In the videos I’ve seen of trucks hitting this bridge, most of them are rentals (Ryder, U-Haul, Penske, etc.) The one time I rented a truck, there was no indication anywhere within the cab, and the rental agency never mentioned the height of the box body.
I have not rented all that many trucks, but those that I have had the box height clearly visible in the rear view mirrors… It was printed backward on the front corner of the box at a height such that it would be visible (and readable) in the mirrors. And I still managed to whack a “guard shack” roof overhang because the shack itself was mislabeled as to its height by 3 inches.
Any class D driver is legally permitted to drive a straight truck as long as its GVWR is no more than 26,000 lbs. That means someone’s grandmother could be driving a rental truck out there.
If the height is marked on the truck body, how do you know it is accurate? With no load, the rear of the body probably will be slightly higher than the front. I once knocked a overhead garage door off its track while a co-worker watched the front to check the clearance.
And how do you know the road wasn’t repaved since they put up the clearance sign? They are definitely not accurate.
A good many companies with their own fleets rent vehicles to make up for equipment shortages. It’s not all rank amateurs who don’t know a box truck from a box of crackers.
Have you been to Durham? The signs are accurate and the roads not been repaved.
I remember the Cherry Valley bridge in Garden City. When I was a kid I went to the school right next to the bridge and watched a too high truck try to get under it. About half the roof got peeled off the truck before it stuck. Lot of laffs over that.