Our old pal, the famous 11-foot-8 (really now with an extra eight inches) bridge has really been bringing it lately, pushing the limits of its own peculiar art form, peeling the roofs off trucks that are too tall to safely drive under it. Just recently the bridge got a bit of pushback from one of its victims. Unsurprisingly, the bridge won in the end, because it always does, and likely always will. Still, this time it took some licks.
The instigator was a crane truck, seemingly owned by the pleasantly generically-named company National Crane. The cranial nationalist driving the truck somehow didn’t hear or heed the sounds of the crane whacking into the warning bar, and this was the result:
To be fair to the driver, that OVERHEIGHT WARNING sign didn’t illuminate, but you’d think they’d have heard/felt the warning bar impact.
Most of the crane fits under there, but a couple crossbeams make significant contact, actually causing the railroad bridge above to warp and deform, and then once the bulky hinge assembly was jammed under, it was done.
There was a first with this one, also:
In an attempt to get unstuck, the driver tries reversing out, but only manages to become the first truck to whack into the warning bar from both sides, something that will look great on a CV.
As far as the beating the bridge took, the 11-foot-8 unseen, silent and omniscient channel owner explained what happened:
On March 31, at crane truck hit the Gregson St canopener and knocked it around pretty good. The hinge of the crane got stuck between the crash beam and the bridge, and they had to completely flatten the tires of the truck to get it out. The bridge also had to be inspected, so the next train could cross it. It took over an hour to get the truck out, but at least one lane was still open, and traffic is not yet back up to pre-pandemic levels.
Wow! Old 11-footy-8 had to be actually inspected to be sure it was okay! I guess that’s the difference between cheap aluminum truck trailer roofs and several tons of solid steel.
Anyway, congratulations, National Crane. I’m sure a lot of roofless truck drivers were happy to see the bridge get worked over, at least a little bit.
(via tippers and BoingBoing!)