Those not familiar should check out 11foot8.com for the background. This week the bridge was raised to help reduce the carnage.
The video above shows some of the work including nice shots of MOW ballast spreaders.
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Some of the best videos around. I'm going to miss the fun.
The LIRR just did a similar project but raised a low bridge by almost 2 feet.
Don't worry, semis can be 13 ft. 6 in. and some rental trucks are 13 ft.
You'll notice the raised bridge still has a bright yellow crash beam shielding it. Won't take too long before the next can-opener-action.
---PCJ
Out here in California, it looks like any bridge lower than 16 feet has a low clearance sign. The greatest one I've seen said 15'9".
A local underpass was popular with poor judging truckers who at least twice rebodied their box trucks by skinning them off trying to drive through while blithely ignoring signs. They finally came in and dug deeper and wider without disturbing the railroad. I no longer duck when l drive through.
The road can't be lowered due to utilities and a sewer line.
Oh no,I love watching the low bridge mishaps video.I was looking forward to the sequel. A shame the fun is over. I drive a tractor-trailer for a living. I am glad,so far,I never ripped the roof off a trailer from driving under a low bridge. The bosses don't like that.
A moment of silence for a national monument to stupid truckers...
Mitch
M. Mitchell Marmel posted:A moment of silence for a national monument to stupid truckers...
Mitch
Actually,pretty much all the mayhem in the video is caused by non CDL drivers in rental trucks,short box trucks and RV owners. A real trucker has a CDL license. As far as I know there is no record of real truckers doing anything stupid.
here in town we have an 11'-2" bridge that carries the NEC over Main St. In addition our station is located right next to the street, so when high level platforms were added, precast concrete beams for the platforms span the street, partially obscuring the original PRR bridge behind it.
there are no less than 3 instances of signage leading to the bridge, plus flashing lights on the bridge girders. at least once weekly a truck either hits it or is forced to back down the street in avoidance.
obviously the 4 track mainline will not get raised, and lowering the street is also not an option, as it already floods during heavy rain, and the storm drainage is woefully inadequate.
we have a FB page about it: Metuchen's Truck Eating Bridge.
I think one semi trailer has hit the bridge.
Still, 12foot4 is still low.
And who paid to raise the railroad?
And it still will be hit.
The 14foot3 Houston Ave bridge over IH 10 in Houston still gets hit. And there are warnings about it for east bound trucks. The first one at Wirt Road SEVEN MILES OUT, PLUS A COUPLE INSIDE LOOP 610.
11foot8 and Houston Ave shows one cannot cure stupid.
http://11foot8.com/speeding-se...-the-11foot8-bridge/
Looks like a CDL driver misjudged the height.
Dan986 posted:Oh no,I love watching the low bridge mishaps video.I was looking forward to the sequel. A shame the fun is over. I drive a tractor-trailer for a living. I am glad,so far,I never ripped the roof off a trailer from driving under a low bridge. The bosses don't like that.
One could spend hours watching those 11 foot 8 videos and laughing!
I no longer have a CDL but I could easily see myself doing something dumb like that.
CSXJOE posted:http://11foot8.com/speeding-se...-the-11foot8-bridge/
Looks like a CDL driver misjudged the height.
12foot4 would have been fed!
I'm going to miss the new compilations of bridge crashes with the new height. Don't they know that you can't fix stupid, someone will hit it anyway. 
Lionel doesn't get it either...they put smoke stacks on steamers and double stacked rr cars that crash into their bridges. They even came out with that new expensive FasTrack bridge which some of their product could not run through. I remember in the video about it, the question was asked and the answer essentially dismissed the issue. I had to cut all four of the cross trusses lower X off, touch up, and reinstall them. MTH has generally higher clearance...but still not a safe 7 inches or so.
I was amazed at the "small scaffolding" the jacks were supported on for the lift.
gunrunnerjohn posted:I'm going to miss the new compilations of bridge crashes with the new height. Don't they know that you can't fix stupid, someone will hit it anyway.
Actually, it's not hard to do. When you're a non-professional driver driving a large rental truck and concentrating on everything (and they can be a handful), it's easy to forget about the height of your rig. You're use to driving much lower vehicles, of course, and not thinking about your vehicle height. I know I've had a of couple close calls with large rental trucks. My son riding shotgun saved my bacon once by calling out a low bridge just before we got to it. Kind of leaves you breathless.
They did that here, too. Raised the RR bridge and widened it too, to eliminate mishaps. This is what happened within an hour of them reopening the bridge to traffic. The other RR bridge, closer to my house, has 7 signs in the half mile between Rte 95 and the traffic circle, telling drivers going to Amazon warehouse to take Sprague St., and under them, on all 7 signposts, signs with arrows guiding them to Sprague Street. It's the first right off the traffic circle and has a large Amazon sign with an arrow pointing to the Sprague Street sign at the junction! We had 2 trucks hit the RR bridge in one day! Apparently the drivers can't read or follow arrows! Constant source of amusement for us and aggravation for the MBTA and CSX
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That's cool Dotty, you have a show in your back yard!
Here in Vermont our daily entertainment is Route 108, the “notch” road. It climbs up and over the Green Mountains through Smugglers Notch.
There are HUGE signs with flashing yellow lights warning trucks an buses to turn around... but the GPS says go!
At the top of the notch are hairpin turns surrounded by boulders the size of a house. Even a minivan is tight!
Jon 
Jon, I've driven that road several times. Tough enough in a Jeep. Hilarious in a truck.
I've driven non-CDL (under26,000 lbs) trucks for decades. Most were 12'-6" tall It's not too difficult to remember if you hit something, you pay for it.
RSJB18 posted:Some of the best videos around. I'm going to miss the fun.
Yup! Good stuff.
KOOLjock1 posted:Here in Vermont our daily entertainment is Route 108, the “notch” road. It climbs up and over the Green Mountains through Smugglers Notch.
There are HUGE signs with flashing yellow lights warning trucks an buses to turn around... but the GPS says go!
At the top of the notch are hairpin turns surrounded by boulders the size of a house. Even a minivan is tight!
Jon
Been on it too. My wife was leaning over toward me on some of the curves. 
I like the signs posted that they close the road for the winter too. Not even worth trying to clear snow.
Something we are all missing here, besides driver error. There are commercially available GPS systems for truckers that call out routes with low clearances. Most just use Google or Waze cause its free.
RSJB18 posted:Something we are all missing here, besides driver error. There are commercially available GPS systems for truckers that call out routes with low clearances. Most just use Google or Waze cause its free.
I use Google and Waze as well, but if there's a problem with the route I'm driving, I have the sense to adjust and not blindly follow the screen instructions. Just because you have a navigation aid, that doesn't relieve you of the duty to drive the vehicle and observe road conditions. Most of these low clearance accidents happen in places where the issue is clearly marked in multiple ways.
You can't fix stupid!
Dan986 posted:A real trucker has a CDL license. As far as I know there is no record of real truckers doing anything stupid.
You are joking, right?
gunrunnerjohn posted:RSJB18 posted:Something we are all missing here, besides driver error. There are commercially available GPS systems for truckers that call out routes with low clearances. Most just use Google or Waze cause its free.I use Google and Waze as well, but if there's a problem with the route I'm driving, I have the sense to adjust and not blindly follow the screen instructions. Just because you have a navigation aid, that doesn't relieve you of the duty to drive the vehicle and observe road conditions. Most of these low clearance accidents happen in places where the issue is clearly marked in multiple ways.
You can't fix stupid!
So true John. We have a LIRR bridge in town that is 10' 4". Over the years they've added signs, flashing lights, more signs with flashing lights, you name it. Still gets hit 2-3 times a month. The railroad announced last week that they are going to raise it next year to 12' 6". Now, I'm all for upgrading infrastructure but spending my tax/ fare dollars because a bunch of truckers (full and part time) can't read signs?????? 
I think the money is better spent beefing up the structure prior to the bridge. It has to be a ton cheaper to just erect a giant barrier that's the clearance of the bridge and will stop the biggest truck! Let the trucking company take the hit for stupidity, not the taxpayers or commuting public!
PRR Man posted:Jon, I've driven that road several times. Tough enough in a Jeep. Hilarious in a truck.
I've driven non-CDL (under26,000 lbs) trucks for decades. Most were 12'-6" tall It's not too difficult to remember if you hit something, you pay for it.
A 12"6' truck will feed 12foot4 bridge.
NBC News needs to do a follow-up on 11foot8 becoming 12foot4!
Just remember boys & girls, those drivers not paying attention to the bridge signs will be next to YOU during your next outing.
Most of those box trucks are not large enough to require that the driver have a CDL (Commercial Driver License). During the road test for a CDL, the examiner typically asks the driver to state the posted height of a bridge that has just been passed under, to see if the driver is reading the signs. Thus there were very few large trucks with CDL-Licensed drivers hitting the bridge.
I'd bet if the approach to that bridge was a stop sign at that intersection, instead of a traffic light where your main focus is when approaching that bridge, there would be more time for the warnings to catch your attention. I blame it all on the light being a distraction which is also lined up with the flashing warning sign when your sitting high up in a truck. After so many accidents there are repeated over and over, there's got to be someone in charge that has enough brains to reason that all those truckers who hit may have been totally distracted by watching the light. Stopping distance takes longer in a truck so greater attention goes into a traffic light. Then you got the guys who stump on the gas when the light turns yellow, too. Yes, I know there's probably signs long before the bridge, but you have to remember them. Retaining that memory leaves as the concentration on the light takes over.
A telltail before the bridge. With IF YOU HIT THIS YOU WILL HIT BRIDGE sogn?
You may be on to something Dave, but I still say a huge reinforced arch that is about 2" lower than the bridge would save the taxpayers a lot of money and put the expense where it belongs, the careless drivers and trucking companies that hire them! It would be a ton cheaper than raising the bridge! We seem to have a tendency in this country to play to the lowest common denominator, but those on that scale probably shouldn't be driving trucks. If they'll hit a clearly marked overpass, they're probably a lot more likely to squash some poor soul in a compact car!
perhaps as a truck driver, I'm hypersensitive to what others do. I've seen far more than my share of stupid, careless and reckless truck drivers.
It always amazes me they got their CDL in the first place.
Perhaps if they hit my sacrificial bridge a time or two, they'd be out of a job and the trucking company would look more carefully for the next hire. 
I guess all of you are missing that there's a flashing sign saying "Overheight, must turn." with flashing yellow lights on either side. It's triggered long before the trucks get to the intersection by a sensor a way up the approach road. Additionally, I've read a little about this bridge, enough to know that the traffic signals are programmed to turn red for a short period when the overheight warning is triggered. This is to get the offending vehicle to stop prior to the intersection and have enough time to register the sign. The one failing in this system is when oversize vehicles turn either right or left from the side roads toward the bridge.
I'm guessing those who actually make contact fall into either the "they can't possibly mean me" group or the oblivious group.
They also aren't actually making contact with the bridge its self but with an I-beam on pillars that has been erected before the bridge to prevent contact with the actual bridge, much like what GJ is suggesting. If you watch the dismantling video you can see a pretty good shot of this beam and the curvature that has been imparted upon it after repeated impacts.
