Sunday, October 28, 2012

'The toughest bridge in the world'?


That's the title of this video clip.  A tip o' the hat to reader S. M. for sending me the link.





I note that despite all those crashes, the bridge is still there.  It's tough all right!

Peter

8 comments:

Sevesteen said...

The original footage is from 11foot8.com. The author has an office near the bridge. About once a month a vehicle over 11 foot 8 inches tries to make it under the bridge--despite flashing lights that are triggered by tall vehicles. He put a webcam in his office, and another in a window across the street. He's up to 53 crashes since 2008.

Chas S. Clifton said...

Still on my first cup of coffee, I read the headline as "The Toughest Bride in the World."

Now I am disappointed.

Merlin said...

They installed additional steel in front of the bridge to protect it. Their biggest mistake is to have yellow lights warning the approaching vehicle that they are too high. The lights really should be RED.

Anonymous said...

Check out

http://11foot8.com/faq.html

yankeerenaissanceman said...

so it's a train bridge so they can't raise it up, why can't they dig the road down a foot?

Peter said...

Lowering the road would be difficult and expensive because there is a large sewer main right under the road surface. Installing overheight-vehicle sensors ahead of the bridge would be impractical because many trucks use the cross street right in front of the bridge.

FrankC said...

They could raise the rail bridge, but they'd have to go back aways each side to make only a gradual gradient.

Shrimp said...

Maybe, instead of flashing yellow lights that indicate a vehicle that's too tall, they ought to put up those red-light camera flash bulbs. Those seem to get people's attention. Or they could employ roadspikes and flamethrowers. That'd work.