[7 Wishes]

Originally Posted by Cambium

UNREAL!!!! Smooth through Greenwich then bang...Merrit north shut down at 8;30am. Need to get to new London.
So 95 north it is... Everyone was diverting..

Wow, lucky me, I was on that stretch of the Merritt north around 7:30-7:45! Would've sucked if I was on it later......

[kidyankee764]

Originally Posted by 7 Wishes

Wow, lucky me, I was on that stretch of the Merritt north around 7:30-7:45! Would've sucked if I was on it later......

Apparently an 18 wheeler snuck onto the Merritt and hit a bridge.

[7 Wishes]

Originally Posted by kidyankee764

Apparently an 18 wheeler snuck onto the Merritt and hit a bridge.

Ironically, on my way home around 3:30pm I saw the police have a truck pulled over on the Hutchinson Parkway.......when will these guys ever learn.....

[kidyankee764]

Originally Posted by 7 Wishes

Ironically, on my way home around 3:30pm I saw the police have a truck pulled over on the Hutchinson Parkway.......when will these guys ever learn.....

Someone at work said there should be bars at every on-ramp, so when they go to get on, they hit the bar instead of a bridge. I thought that was a pretty good idea.

Apparently the driver said his GPS routed him on there. That seems odd because my GPS always forced me away from the Merritt...even when I was on it, it kept telling me to exit and cut over to 95.

[Cambium]

Yeah I got lucky this morning.. another couple minutes sooner and I would have been ahead of where they were diverting us. I-95 was smooth all the way to the Rhode island border.

Those bars would be helpful but extremely tacky...how about a sign at every entrance that says NO TRUCKS!! It is a big issue...I wonder how long he was on for that nobody called it in.

And .. my gps always sends me on the merrit. Especially if I'm near there. Garmin..nuvi

[UconnHusky1]

It would be great if a fleet of semi-trucks just smashed through these bridges and knocked them down...kinda like Maximum Overdrive.

Let us build real bridges unlike these trap doors.

[7 Wishes]

Originally Posted by kidyankee764

Someone at work said there should be bars at every on-ramp, so when they go to get on, they hit the bar instead of a bridge. I thought that was a pretty good idea.

Apparently the driver said his GPS routed him on there. That seems odd because my GPS always forced me away from the Merritt...even when I was on it, it kept telling me to exit and cut over to 95.

Some GPS's (like my TomTom) ask if you want to avoid toll roads. If you say "yes" then it routes you onto the Hutch/Merritt (since 95 in NY has a toll). Probably what happened with him. The reason most GPS's steer you to 95 is unless your destination is right off the Merritt the miles are usually slightly shorter.

Originally Posted by UconnHusky1

It would be great if a fleet of semi-trucks just smashed through these bridges and knocked them down...kinda like Maximum Overdrive.

Let us build real bridges unlike these trap doors.

Most of these bridges are made of solid rock and built before 1950 (in the case of the NY side of the Parkway, even back to the 1920s). Very difficult costly and time consuming to knock down and rebuild. Also, because of their unique historical design, different on each one, I don't believe by law the overpass bridges on the Merritt can be replaced.

Unfortunately, this is all a bad "accident of fate" of these roads being built before anywhere else in the US (the world for that matter) had limited-access highways of any sort.

[Lintu]

I've had bad luck with GPS routing (took me to a road that was really more of an off-road than anything else, and I got stuck). But still. Blech.

[Stratford, Ct. Resident]

Originally Posted by Cambium

Those bars would be helpful but extremely tacky...how about a sign at every entrance that says NO TRUCKS!! It is a big issue..

Nobody reads the damn signs.

I regularly see vehicles that should not be on the parkway. Also, the state doesn't help matters when they have all of those signs in Norwalk telling you to get off if you're over 10' 6". Uh, if you're over 8', you're not allowed to be on the parkway to begin with. Why all of these 10' 6" signs??????????

And............ if i'm not mistaken, the fine for trailers on the parkway is relatively insignificant. Raise it big. REALLY BIG!!!!!!

[Lintu]

Originally Posted by Stratford, Ct. Resident

Nobody reads the damn signs.

I regularly see vehicles that should not be on the parkway. Also, the state doesn't help matters when they have all of those signs in Norwalk telling you to get off if you're over 10' 6". Uh, if you're over 8', you're not allowed to be on the parkway to begin with. Why all of these 10' 6" signs??????????

And............ if i'm not mistaken, the fine for trailers on the parkway is relatively insignificant. Raise it big. REALLY BIG!!!!!!

There are tons of commercial vehicles on there all the time, which is typically less of a risk for hitting an bridge, but is technically not allowed!