[Archived]

Eric that does not look good ,it could hurt, that is a good warning for people to know the height of there bus and where they are driving too .

[Will]

I had one incident in Charlottesville, VA several years ago where we had to back up a hill in traffic to avoid a similar condition. It was a similar RR bridge that was not marked as such until you you came up to it.

[AL]

What a bunch of morons… 11’8″ is clearly marked, those drivers are clueless. Like Roger says, you can’t fix stupid.

[Tim]

Yep, we came up to one of those in Pennsylvania in 2011 (previous coach). I caught it in time as this was the only warning. We were 12’8″ tall.

Thank goodness there was a place to pull over. We didn’t know how to get around it so we called the local police. They couldn’t have been nicer. The officer told us exactly how to get around the bridge about a mile or two down the road. He said that it was better that we were on this side of the bridge because there was not a place to pull over on the other side.

He said that he couldn’t count how many time chickens were flying over the road with peeled back trailers! LOL!

I had to disconnect the Honda to get turned around…. and, of course, it’s starts raining.

Mark

[Corey]

I see there is some focus on the bridge belonging to a railroad as if the clearance of 11″ 8″ was the fault of the railroad. Well boys and girls let’s ask the questions who was there first and by what means over the years have commercial vehicles been allowed to grow longer, wider and higher?

The who was there first is an easy answer, the railroad. In fact this railroad is owned by the State of North Carolina (NCRR) and only leased for operations to the Norfolk Southern. That would be the merged Norfolk and Western with the Southern. I have to say that since to the south of Durham, running east west was the first Norfolk Southern. In fact, on some of that railroads old steel bridge beams their name is still seen.

The means that allowed commercial vehicles to grow longer, wider and higher? Well that would at least be the NC State Legislature and most likely the US Congress should be given some degree of credit as well. We all know how effective passive signs are, right? Take speed limits. I’ve been told by the public that common knowledge says the numbers posted are merely suggestions. Right?
Especially with the court tossing tickets left and right unless the ticket is for 10+ over the posted.

The NCDOT has put in place every known warning device, both active and passive, that is known to man. One thing that is missing, and that fleet operators, commercial truck rental agencies, and Durham could do would be to require all box and larger rentals be clearly marked, in large letters, the actual height of the commercial/rental box being driven.

One possible other warning device would be to go north to the advance intersection and place a “Tell Tail” structure on a truss covering the entire width of roadway. For those not familiar with the term, it is a steel box truss with steel chains hanging down from the horizontal truss member. Of course you would still have those operators who would not recognize the strange noise as a warning of low clearance and continue south into the bridge. By the way, the structure the trucks are striking is a sacrificial steel beam placed in front of the actual bridge structure which supports the trains.

One other detail overlooked by the media and the NCDOT representative that was interviewed, is that raising the grade on the railroad is NOT a viable option. Why? Well at this bridge the railroad goes over the roadway. One block to the east the roadway goes over the railroad. So if you change the grade you might just be shifting the problem one block east. Lowering the roadway so the clearance equals the maximum legal verticle height of 13′ 6″, only 2″ shy of 2 feet, would likely undermine the bridge end bents thus creating other problems.

This location is a problem without a simple solution. If you want to see more videos Google 11′ 8″. It should bring up the website of the individual interviewed by the main stream media.

OK, I’m stepping down from my soap box.

[Dorel]

One thing that was evident to me was the lack of trucks typically driven by professionals. Look at the number of rental trucks. Look at the trucks that probably did not require a CDL. Look at the camping trailer. I don’t know about other PC members, but I’ll literally stop before I even go under a bridge marked 13’6″.even though I know I am 12’10”. All it takes is a repaving without changing the signage to create a problem.

Technology has probably got a way of dealing with this issue but I will defer to Will as to its viability.

The height of traffic coming at the bridge can be measured prior to the bridge and any vehicle over a certain height can get red lights, strobes or even a gate blocking their path. If I was emperor of NC however I would not do that because this seems a relatively safe way of weeding out incompetent drivers.

BTW, a good friend of mine handled the responsibilities Will did in NC for the city of Jamestown, NY. He marked all bridges as being 12″ less clearance than actual. The reason he did that was while the city did a decent job of snow plowing, with over 200″ a year of snowfall on average he was compensating for unplanned snow buildup. Even with that precaution I watched a flat bed truck carrying a very large construction site fork truck hit the RR bridge near our factory, knocking the mast from the fork truck, knocking the fork truck from the truck bed, and damaging the roll back bed of the truck.

[Archived]

I once had a citizen from Randolph County call me requesting a traffic signal be installed at an intersection nearby their home. At the end of the conversation I was actually left speechless, first and onlt time, when the citizen defined my primary job responsibility to me. They said, “It is your responsibility to anticipate our stupidity and take action before we hurt ourselves.” I’ve also heard it said that, “They live amongst us.”