On June 21, a moving truck comes cruising down Gregson St. and trips the overheight sensor, runs the red light and strikes the bottom of the canopener bridge...
Part of the problem is that we’ve got a hodgepodge of roads, built at different times, to different standards. Rail crossings are also complicated, because the train companies own the rails and the land under them, so cities are largely unable to force them to make changes to their property.
In this particular instance, the tracks would need to be redone for a few miles on either side of the bridge to raise it, and the North Carolina Train Company just isn’t willing to front the cost and eat the downtime. There’s only so far you can dig down before you hit groundwater problems, so the city can’t do much to lower the road under the bridge.
I would solve this problem in the opposite way. Install some much lower barriers(eg 2.5m) which make it painfully apparent that you aren’t going to get anything other than a car under it.
A truck driver isn’t going to keep driving if the barrier is clearly at face height.
I had heard they raised it, and I had not heard anything for a long time, so I assumed this was fixed.
So, how high should a standard bridge in the US actually be?
I know that here in Europe the clearence is supposed to be 4.5m (14’8’‘) minimum and 4.7m (15’4’') with new designs.
Part of the problem is that we’ve got a hodgepodge of roads, built at different times, to different standards. Rail crossings are also complicated, because the train companies own the rails and the land under them, so cities are largely unable to force them to make changes to their property.
In this particular instance, the tracks would need to be redone for a few miles on either side of the bridge to raise it, and the North Carolina Train Company just isn’t willing to front the cost and eat the downtime. There’s only so far you can dig down before you hit groundwater problems, so the city can’t do much to lower the road under the bridge.
I would solve this problem in the opposite way. Install some much lower barriers(eg 2.5m) which make it painfully apparent that you aren’t going to get anything other than a car under it.
A truck driver isn’t going to keep driving if the barrier is clearly at face height.