Despite NCDOT's new warning system, Durham's can-opener bridge triumphs once again! (Raleigh: how much, bill)

[Sherifftruman]

Originally Posted by route66

Some believe that stupid design can be masked via excuses. A stupid design with lots of excuses supporting it's existence makes it that much more stupid. "Sob sob the railroad's too expensive to change, yada yada".

Cry me a river. Bottom line is it's cheaper and easier to blame all the drivers for the stupidity, and in certain parts of the country the citizens are gullible enough to buy it. Figure it out and get back to me.

Oh, I get it now. You must one of the people that can't pay attention to the world around them enough to see the signs leading up to it! Sorry I'm sure it sucks, but situational awareness is always needed when driving any vehicle, much less one you aren't familiar with.

But yes, 100 years ago design standards were not what they are now. Even discounting the cost, changing the sewer line will,require lots of rework of other areas and street closures because sewer like slope and are connected to other lines and buildings. It could be a couple miles downstream being dug up to fix it. Railroads also have slope factors to account for and since there are multiple crossings downtown in Durham they would all have to be regraded for a good distance from there, closing roads, etc. then there are the bridges preceding this spot which would have to all be raised to meet the new track elevation.

Now, will agree that they should put a set of hanging chains down ahead of it as the trucks that need to turn just ahead of it could go through slowly but I'm sure some people would ignore that as well.

[lancers]

Originally Posted by Sherifftruman

Oh, I get it now. You must one of the people that can't pay attention to the world around them enough to see the signs leading up to it! Sorry I'm sure it sucks, but situational awareness is always needed when driving any vehicle, much less one you aren't familiar with.

But yes, 100 years ago design standards were not what they are now. Even discounting the cost, changing the sewer line will,require lots of rework of other areas and street closures because sewer like slope and are connected to other lines and buildings. It could be a couple miles downstream being dug up to fix it. Railroads also have slope factors to account for and since there are multiple crossings downtown in Durham they would all have to be regraded for a good distance from there, closing roads, etc. then there are the bridges preceding this spot which would have to all be raised to meet the new track elevation.

Now, will agree that they should put a set of hanging chains down ahead of it as the trucks that need to turn just ahead of it could go through slowly but I'm sure some people would ignore that as well.

+1. You drive a truck you better be watching where you are going.

[Poggly Woggly]

"Read the road ahead" This is basic Driver Ed stuff. Don't they teach that anymore?

[pitroad]

good driver - bad driver or what ..... there are way too many occurrences of trucks,RV's, etc getting torn up at that location. Perhaps a No Trucks Allowed ordinance should be enforced on that road if the DOT is choosing to only band-aid the issue. I'm sure there were many many bridges built across the country during that period that addressed the issue. What did they do ?

[Sherifftruman]

Well, there is one on Peace street in Raleigh that tears trucks up almost as much.

I guess this is why so many people want autonomous cars. Because they are menaces to society that don't want to pay attention or take responsibility for their actions.

And I'm fairly certain that road does have local trucks only signage. Oh and also a half dozen signs warning of the bridge height starting like a mile away.

[pjb3589]

Frankly, the bottom line is that as long as it's only causing property damage to vehicles, nothing will be done.

Now, you can bet that if someone ever damages the bridge in some way and costs the railroad money, they will do something about it.

[MikeJaquish]

Originally Posted by pjb3589

Frankly, the bottom line is that as long as it's only causing property damage to vehicles, nothing will be done.

Now, you can bet that if someone ever damages the bridge in some way and costs the railroad money, they will do something about it.

I always wonder how it would feel to have a houseful of irreplaceable personal family heirlooms riding in that Allied truck?

Honestly, they probably need a "NO TRUCKS" sign and routing, as many as have hit it.

[SFspiderman]

Originally Posted by pjb3589

Frankly, the bottom line is that as long as it's only causing property damage to vehicles, nothing will be done.

Now, you can bet that if someone ever damages the bridge in some way and costs the railroad money, they will do something about it.

The bridge has been damaged before. The solution was to put up the steel beam that's there now so the trucks hit that instead of the actual bridge.

[boardmember10000]

Originally Posted by route66

That "warning system" is akin to putting something on page 65 of a software manual that says "warning, do not press shift-ctrl-X five times rapidly in a row, this unconditionally deletes all of your data". The design flaw there is assuming people are going to read the manual.

In this day and age it is a foolish assumption to imagine a driver isn't on their phone while driving, much less assuming they are going to read all signs. Now take into consideration the fact that a lot of these trucks will be moving trucks driven by people from out of town/out of state, who are frantically trying to juggle many things at once.

The stupidity here is in the bridge design.

Sometimes you have to pay attention in life.

[pitroad]

I think when nearby office workers can sit and look out the window knowing that someone-someday soon will destroy thousands of dollars of equipment because of a antiquated road design is borderline criminal on the part of DOT.