Not to be outdone by last week’s midday plug-up of the Alfred Hernandez Tunnel beneath the railroad tracks and the Burnett TC Red Line stop, another semi making its way through the passage got lodged in the tunnel late this morning — getting torn open end-to-end in the process. But that’s not even the first truck stuckage incident at the underpass in the last 24 hours, according to a reader who’s had both a camera and a Twitter account trained on the recently retooled intersection for at least the last few months.
The reader tells Swamplot that another truck got stuck briefly last night, and that it happens about 6 times a week: “Our camera system auto-wakes when it hears something beyond a certain threshold; most drive away, presumably nervous[ly] on their way to have a talk with the boss.” Some work on the tunnel has been on the city’s docket this spring, and was approved at a mid-April meeting; that’s likely to start around the end of the month.Â
Here’s the scene from above as of early this afternoon:
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- Previously on Swamplot: N. Main’s Train Avoidance Tunnel Briefly Plugged by Semi
Photos: TransitCtrActivity
Is there not a chapter in truck driver training on bridge heights? I would think that would kind of be a big deal.
I guess on the other side, where they enter the tunnel, there’s more clearance so it gives them a false sense of confidence that they can clear the tunnel completely? Otherwise they wouldn’t have made it this far.
Of course the drivers deserve the full blame here (Thought these guys relied on GPS’s that can track bridge clearance heights as well?), but what are the restrictions that cause brand new low clearance bridges to still be built in heavily commercialized parts of town anyway?
You know . . . if these incidents are happening _that_ often, perhaps this bridge deserves a re-measuring just to makes sure those signs are telling the real clearance. What if that number turns out to be a prank or just someone’s typo from long ago?
The Twitter account seems to indicate the height was reduced by previous damage, so the sign is a sweet siren song of tallness luring trucks to their doom.
Reminds me of this Bridge in Oklahoma. https://www.facebook.com/TheEastMaineBridge/
Ooh that’s a festive bit of damage!
It’s one of my favorite movies but these truckers need to stop trying to recreate the scene in Terminator 2 where the T1000 drives through LA’s flood control channels and drops the top on a Freightliner… leave it to the pros.
Is this the new Hazard Street overpass? Sounds like the taxpayers will need to spend several million dollars so that these trucks can get through, right? …we’re so generous.
If you can’t get enough of this sort of thing… http://11foot8.com/
@memebag The standard height of an 18 wheeler is 13’6”. The sign says 12′ 9”.
Ha! I saw the remnants of the trailer being towed yesterday – I was wondering if it got can opener-ed somewhere.
The thing I don’t get about this particular bridge is there is a truck bypass that crosses the railroad at ground level. I use it when the tunnel floods during heavy rain. I’ve seen trucks turn onto Main St where the signs say they aren’t supposed to and drive through the tunnel because they’re too impatient to wait for a train to pass. I hope the city holds these truckers responsible for cost of repairs.
I’d bet that the signage, 12′-9″, is probably literally correct, in that the distance from the road deck to the bottom of the bridge measures 12′-9″. However, that doesn’t mean that a truck that’s 12′-8″ high can pass through. More to the point: that doesn’t mean a truck that’s 12′-8″ high can exit the other end.
Problem is that, since there’s an up-slope on the exit of the underpass, the longer the truck, the higher the effective height as it climbs up the slope.
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W/r/t the alternate route, the northbound signage is terrible. It seems to indicate that the driver should turn left into a chain link fence. Where they actually SHOULD go looks like its one-way the other way. If this happens once, I understand blaming the driver. If it happens frequently, it’s probably the result of poor design and poor signage.