What a bridge....Look at all the trucks & campers that shear their tops off...Amazing

[czechsonofagun]

Re: What a bridge....Look at all the trucks & campers that shear their tops off...Ama

One of our tanks knocked off 12.7 aircraft machine gun of his T55 under a bridge. When we went to pick it up, we found it was run over by several dozen tanks; was not much of a machine gun anymore

 

[bcp]

Re: What a bridge....Look at all the trucks & campers that shear their tops off...Ama

They should hang some clearance chains:

 

[jerrybob]

Re: What a bridge....Look at all the trucks & campers that shear their tops off...Ama

Wow.....interesting video and a very strong bridge. Never witnessed a truck hitting a bridge but did see a large motorhome rip off both side mirrors at a toll booth on the Golden Gate Bridge a few years back. When we went by.....I could see the guy driving just getting an ear full from his passenger wife. The dog in her lap was sitting very quietly looking straight ahead. Wouldn't want to have camped next to them that night......the motorhome was a rental.

 

[k0ua]

Re: What a bridge....Look at all the trucks & campers that shear their tops off...Ama

Ok, I understand the warning signs, and flashing warning lights etc.. AND I understand most of the drivers have CDL's and should know better. But what I don't understand if why the highway agency with jurisdiction do something about it? Yes it would cost some money to dig out the roadway and rebuilt it about a foot lower in grade, but think of the millions of dollars of property damage it would save, and also the possibility of killing some innocent person in a car following too close in a car and getting things dumped on them. What if the trailing car was a convertible or a motorcyclists? As you know I am not a big government guy, but there is a role for government to play, and making our roadways safer is one of them. When I was a child, a new highway 60 was built near our local town. This new highway had a new intersection that divided for about a mile or so. This was new to the local drivers, and of course someone died their within a week of the highway being opened. More deaths followed, and the local newspaper started calling the intersection "the booby trap".. Well a "booby trap" is a trap that "booby's" fall into. Yes the people that died were "stupid" "ignorant" and "bad drivers" but the deaths just continued to pile up. Dozens and dozens of them. Finally after many years the State Highway department just closed off the divided portion and funneled everyone back to two lanes and put in a light.. Of course the death rate plummeted and the "booby trap" was no more. So the point of my rant is, why not fix the problem?

James K0UA

 

[aczlan]

Re: What a bridge....Look at all the trucks & campers that shear their tops off...Ama

Might not be possible to lower the road due to the water table and drainage issues...
Was one like that near me, but it had a infrequently used (2-3x/month) train track on it. They filled it in and now there is a grade level crossing there. Much easier to work with.

Aaron Z

 

[dave1949]

Re: What a bridge....Look at all the trucks & campers that shear their tops off...Ama

Dips under bridges flood easily and shorten your view ahead considerably, which means going down into one you are assuming nothing is stopped shortly on the other side as you come up out the dip. Even dips in highways have that effect.

The RR is happy with their bridge, so they aren't going to spend money unless forced to. RR bridges seem to last forever, maybe it's the lack of salt, construction materials. In any case, the RR would have alter their track grade on each end too if they raised the bridge to have 14' clearance. And, it may be hard for the RR to shut down that route long enough to rebuild.

The bridge may be on a route where they want to discourage truck traffic, which seems to be a failure. :laughing:

All in all, it's one of thousands of infrastructure projects that may need to be worked on and few are willing to pay the taxes to do those projects.

 

[cqaigy2]

Re: What a bridge....Look at all the trucks & campers that shear their tops off...Ama

They should hang some clearance chains:

View attachment 289066

Now there's an idea.

 

[k0ua]

Re: What a bridge....Look at all the trucks & campers that shear their tops off...Ama

One of our tanks knocked off 12.7 aircraft machine gun of his T55 under a bridge. When we went to pick it up, we found it was run over by several dozen tanks; was not much of a machine gun anymore

Prokop, I was thinking a T55 is a fairly low profile tank, compared to say our old M60 that was current at the time which is quite high profile. I am surprised it got it's AA gun hung on a bridge. Maybe had the 12.7mm pointing straight up?

James K0UA

 

[dmccarty]

Re: What a bridge....Look at all the trucks & campers that shear their tops off...Ama

Ok, I understand the warning signs, and flashing warning lights etc.. AND I understand most of the drivers have CDL's and should know better. But what I don't understand if why the highway agency with jurisdiction do something about it? Yes it would cost some money to dig out the roadway and rebuilt it about a foot lower in grade, but think of the millions of dollars of property damage it would save, and also the possibility of killing some innocent person in a car following too close in a car and getting things dumped on them. What if the trailing car was a convertible or a motorcyclists? As you know I am not a big government guy, but there is a role for government to play, and making our roadways safer is one of them. When I was a child, a new highway 60 was built near our local town. This new highway had a new intersection that divided for about a mile or so. This was new to the local drivers, and of course someone died their within a week of the highway being opened. More deaths followed, and the local newspaper started calling the intersection "the booby trap".. Well a "booby trap" is a trap that "booby's" fall into. Yes the people that died were "stupid" "ignorant" and "bad drivers" but the deaths just continued to pile up. Dozens and dozens of them. Finally after many years the State Highway department just closed off the divided portion and funneled everyone back to two lanes and put in a light.. Of course the death rate plummeted and the "booby trap" was no more. So the point of my rant is, why not fix the problem?

James K0UA

The link I posted had a FAQ and he covered the issues. The bridge the guy is filming was made 100 years ago and is owned by the railroad. The RR does not give a flip if people driver their vehicles into the crash bars they have installed so they are not going to raise, not only the multiple bridges, but miles of RR bed. The city would have to spend millions to lower the road under the bridges. The bridge this guy films, has water or sewer service under the road and to redo the lines would be very expensive.

The city has put up flashing lights and signs to try to stop the accidents. But since the property damage is on the driver and not the city, the city ain't gonna spend the tax payers dollar to fix the driver. The crossing's in the city in question are not hard to avoid. A driver would only have to drive a block or two to get around these bridges.

Later,
Dan

 

[k0ua]

Re: What a bridge....Look at all the trucks & campers that shear their tops off...Ama

The link I posted had a FAQ and he covered the issues. The bridge the guy is filming was made 100 years ago and is owned by the railroad. The RR does not give a flip if people driver their vehicles into the crash bars they have installed so they are not going to raise, not only the multiple bridges, but miles of RR bed. The city would have to spend millions to lower the road under the bridges. The bridge this guy films, has water or sewer service under the road and to redo the lines would be very expensive.

The city has put up flashing lights and signs to try to stop the accidents. But since the property damage is on the driver and not the city, the city ain't gonna spend the tax payers dollar to fix the driver. The crossing's in the city in question are not hard to avoid. A driver would only have to drive a block or two to get around these bridges.

Later,
Dan

OK, I understand it might not be so easy to fix now,.. I guess look on the bright side, it provides work for a lot of towing companies and repair facilitys to repair van type trucks. I guess they can call the bridge the "can opener".. or the "peeler" It sure makes a mess of those who ignore it.

James K0UA