Bridge clearance

[K9Kampers]

A cautionary tale, but wicked funny to watch...11foot8

[mrron_tx]

WOW !!! Thanks for the flashback Back in the midto late 70's I drove big rigs cross country.... I picked up a large working/crew/tow boat from Neville island @ Pittsburgh going to Florida.... It was way tall and I had to follow a strict route. Long story shortened..... I missed one exit, locked up every brake I had...stopped about three inches from making the boat a convertable ,got a huge fine,got on the local news. I paid a lot more attention all the way to Fla.

[kmclemore]

Unfortunately I have no photos of it, but that very thing happened nearby here, except it was infinitely more expensive. A double-decker transporter carrying a load of classic Ferrari cars was navigating under a low bridge here in Phila and managed to shear the tops off of all the very expensive cars on the top deck!

[Russ]

Unfortunately I have no photos of it, but that very thing happened nearby here, except it was infinitely more expensive. A double-decker transporter carrying a load of classic Ferrari cars was navigating under a low bridge here in Phila and managed to shear the tops off of all the very expensive cars on the top deck!

Oooooweee! I can just imagine the phone call from the driver.

I've seen that video above before. With that many accidents, you'd think the insurance companies would band together and pay to have the road lowered or some such thing. Wow, that's a lot of accidents.

[K9Kampers]

Go to 11foot8.com, the FAQ tells why the bridge can't be raised and the road can't be lowered.

[mrron_tx]

Unfortunately I have no photos of it, but that very thing happened nearby here, except it was infinitely more expensive. A double-decker transporter carrying a load of classic Ferrari cars was navigating under a low bridge here in Phila and managed to shear the tops off of all the very expensive cars on the top deck!

Yep... I think Ferrai roofs beat out the old work boat I'm soooo glad I wasn't that Driver

[Russ]

Unfortunately I have no photos of it, but that very thing happened nearby here, except it was infinitely more expensive. A double-decker transporter carrying a load of classic Ferrari cars was navigating under a low bridge here in Phila and managed to shear the tops off of all the very expensive cars on the top deck!

Yep... I think Ferrai roofs beat out the old work boat I'm soooo glad I wasn't that Driver

Very interesting. My understanding of RR law dates way back when the RR was king. So moving the bridge higher isn't going to happen.

But lowering the road:

Can’t the road be lowered?

That would be prohibitively expensive because a sewer main runs just a few feet below the road bed. That sewer main also dates back about a hundred years and, again, at the time there were no real standards for minimum clearance for railroad underpasses.

Okay, I get this. It would be expensive. But if that sewer line is so old, it's going to blow someday anyway. In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, I saw parts the barrier islands of NJ get totally washed away. All utilities were destroyed. It was interesting how they rebuilt it by re-routing utilities over the ground until they could permanently fix the problem.
This bridge issue seems to be a matter of money and will. It would be expensive and nobody wants to pay for drivers that don't heed the warning. I still think all the insurance carriers would love to subsidize a project to lower the road and replace the sewer line.

[kmclemore]

Russ, here's another view of that same location in Harvey Cedars, NJ... pretty nasty...

[Russ]

Russ, here's another view of that same location in Harvey Cedars, NJ... pretty nasty...

The ocean created a new inlet there. It would have been a great place for one as the nearest inlet is a hours north and south of here.
We drove over that barrier island in June of this year and it was astonishing. Houses missing or turned sideways in holes. They had to rebuild the road and all the utilities to the island. Not to mention fill that great gap of an inlet. At the time, all of the utilities were above ground. Intersections had steel plates that cars drove over the utilities. Pretty amazing to see how quickly they restored gas, water and sewer. It was ALL washed away.

I heard they were using sonar to find objects submerged in the bay. Cars were washed out into the bay thousands of feet. Lots of my boating friends (who still had boats) were afraid to go out for fear of hitting things.

[Catigale]

That house in the middle could be listed with in ground swimming pool.....

(With respectful pause for those who lost their lives during Sandy)

[Boblee]

What a ripper, been a bit close a couple of times but never managed to hook up until this year during harvest when I got a grain auger tangled in a 11,000v powerline, was driving along beside it and had to turn, so took a much wider turn than normal so it wouldn't catch but not wide enough, wish I had a video of it as the flames and noise were quite spectacular.

[capncourageous]

Where is that bridge in Harvey Cedars.....I don't recall any one there?

[cptron]

That is hilarious.
Maybe mastreb can start a video on sign clearage.

[mastreb]

Hey now! Those signs are really big up close.