Undefeated - The Toughest Bridge in the World

[DCal430]

If it was one truck who didn't read a sign that everyone else caught, then yeah, you might have a point.

But it's multiple different people, repeatedly doing the same thing. That is the sign of a design flaw. You can't change something standard, put a sticker on it, and expect people to adapt.

Imagine someone built a car where the brake was in the middle of the steering wheel where the horn usually is, and the horn was on the floor where the brake normally is. You warn the driver, put a sign on it, and then send someone out to go drive across the country.

Do you really think nothing bad will come of this?

Their is a fucking giant sign with flashing lights telling them to fucking STOP that they are going to crash into the beam. The fact that people ignore this shows me they are either really stupid or not paying any attention when driving, either way time for their license to be revoked.

 

[rh71]

engineering fail in my opinion... 100 years or not... change the damned bridge.

The flashing signs are too common to care about. You need big white painted letters on the ground leading up to it:

BRIDGE AHEAD?!
UNDER THE
WILL FIT
SURE YOU
ABSOFUCKINGLUTELY
ARE YOU

Around here there is the northern state parkway and southern state parkway which have low bridges throughout and the only prevention they have is a white sign at the entrances saying no commercial trucks / low bridges. They are only allowed on the LIE. Not enough. A month ago I saw a huge tractor trailer just stopped on the side in front of a bridge, waiting. Meanwhile there's bumper to bumper traffic on the parkway just because. Now how the hell is that truck supposed to back out of there now? It barely has enough room to turn around even without ANY traffic.

 

[DCal430]

Look at all the other train overpass bridges. They get hit... once every 100 years? This thing gets hit 1200 times more than that.

These drivers are intentionally ignoring warning signs, the FACT is that is against the law it self and these drivers should have their license revoked.

 

[DCal430]

LMFAO maybe they should change the flashing to red and add a loud horn to warn drivers who clearly are incompetent.

 

[DCal430]

engineering fail in my opinion... 100 years or not... change the damned bridge.

The flashing signs are too common to care about. You need big white painted letters on the ground saying ARE YOU SURE YOU WILL FIT?!

Around here there is the northern state parkway and southern state parkway which have low bridges throughout and the only prevention they have is a sign at the entrances saying no commercial trucks. They are only allowed on the LIE. Not enough. A month ago I saw a huge tractor trailer just stopped on the side in front of a bridge, waiting. Meanwhile there's bumper to bumper traffic on the parkway just because. Now how the hell is that truck supposed to back out of there now?

The sign says if flashing STOP. These people are breaking the law by not stopping.

 

[randomrogue]

You guys are so fixated on the signs that you're not thinking straight. Imagine if the only thing at rail road crossings was a sign saying "Trains" or two blinking white lights when a train was on the way. I use this as an example since where I live there is a fucking train track that curves over a normal road and the only thing they have there is two blinking white lights on the right hand side of the road. Needless to say I nearly got hit by a fucking train there but now I drive like a little girl when I'm in the area (since I can never remember exactly which side street this stupid train comes out of.

Sometimes people just engineer things wrong or things get outdated.

 

[MaxPayne63]

You guys are so fixated on the signs that you're not thinking straight. Imagine if the only thing at rail road crossings was a sign saying "Trains" or two blinking white lights when a train was on the way.

I'm imagining Charles Darwin grinning ear to ear as he hands out a record number of awards.

 

[LTC8K6]

You guys are so fixated on the signs that you're not thinking straight. Imagine if the only thing at rail road crossings was a sign saying "Trains" or two blinking white lights when a train was on the way. I use this as an example since where I live there is a fucking train track that curves over a normal road and the only thing they have there is two blinking white lights on the right hand side of the road. Needless to say I nearly got hit by a fucking train there but now I drive like a little girl when I'm in the area (since I can never remember exactly which side street this stupid train comes out of.

Sometimes people just engineer things wrong or things get outdated.

We have unmarked train tracks here. The train engineer has to stop the train, and then walk out and stop the cars.

Somehow, only a tiny little percentage of drivers manage to miss the fact that railroad tracks are there, and that's without any lights at all.

And I don't think anyone has ever driven into the train because there weren't any lights to tell him not to...

The signs at this Durham trestle start several blocks back, and there is an escape route right there...There isn't just one set of flashing lights at the last minute...the area is well marked for a long way.

Only morons will hit the beam. It just so happens that about one moron a month comes along...

 

[LTC8K6]

Apparently the only thing that works close to all the time is a bar across the road suspended on chains at the bridge height. This swinging bar hits the vehicles that are too high.

Hitting something is apparently the only way some drivers get any feedback while driving.

 

[Possessed Freak]

I recommend they deploy caltrops to stop people from damaging the I-beam.

 

[DCal430]

You guys are so fixated on the signs that you're not thinking straight. Imagine if the only thing at rail road crossings was a sign saying "Trains" or two blinking white lights when a train was on the way. I use this as an example since where I live there is a fucking train track that curves over a normal road and the only thing they have there is two blinking white lights on the right hand side of the road. Needless to say I nearly got hit by a fucking train there but now I drive like a little girl when I'm in the area (since I can never remember exactly which side street this stupid train comes out of.

Sometimes people just engineer things wrong or things get outdated.

Actually, a more accurate analogy would be if their was multiple giant flashing yellow lights and a multiple giants warning signs telling drivers to STOP they are going to crash into the bridge.

There is even a dangling sign many feet in front of the bridge that tells drivers if they hit this sign they will crash into the bridge, all of these drivers hit the sign and continued on. These are really stupid people.

 

[DCal430]

This is no different than people who decided to go around train crossing arms and wonder why the train crashed into them.

 

[DCal430]

engineering fail in my opinion... 100 years or not... change the damned bridge.

The flashing signs are too common to care about. You need big white painted letters on the ground leading up to it:

BRIDGE AHEAD?!
UNDER THE
WILL FIT
SURE YOU
ABSOFUCKINGLUTELY
ARE YOU

Around here there is the northern state parkway and southern state parkway which have low bridges throughout and the only prevention they have is a white sign at the entrances saying no commercial trucks / low bridges. They are only allowed on the LIE. Not enough. A month ago I saw a huge tractor trailer just stopped on the side in front of a bridge, waiting. Meanwhile there's bumper to bumper traffic on the parkway just because. Now how the hell is that truck supposed to back out of there now? It barely has enough room to turn around even without ANY traffic.

Their are MULTIPLE signs with flashing lights before the bridging telling drivers to STOP the are too tall and will crash into the bridge.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

Hitting something is apparently the only way some drivers get any feedback while driving.

that is the MF truth. if people walked like they drive, humans would be extinct. i'll leave that to my dear readers to decide if that would be better

also, i have no sympathy for those truck drivers. i've plucked plenty of cables out of plenty of 18 wheelers, moving trucks, garbage trucks, dump trucks... whatever.

i saw a new sign along the perpetual highway construction recently - lower bed before something or other.... if they still don't know the bed is up, what good is a sign going to do?

 

[DaWhim]

notice a lot of truck r rental? when I rent a truck for a day, i wouldn't notice the truck is taller than 11'8"

 

[Olikan]

oh well, the bridge is 100 years old, it might have created a big "arrow" (don't know the real term in inglish)...so the guy that goes to check the height might not checking the right spot...

picture tells more than words:

 

[JoeBleed]

i saw a new sign along the perpetual highway construction recently - lower bed before something or other.... if they still don't know the bed is up, what good is a sign going to do?

Because like here in town, that's happened. last was a state employee hauling a backhoe on a trailer with the damn boom up and did some serious damage to a bridge over the bypass.

 

[WelshBloke]

...There is even a dangling sign many feet in front of the bridge that tells drivers if they hit this sign they will crash into the bridge, all of these drivers hit the sign and continued on. These are really stupid people.

That kind of seals it. If there are crashing through a sign before getting to the bridge I think they have had fair warning.

Maybe they should post a few guys with RPGs on the bridge!

 

[JulesMaximus]

You guys are so fixated on the signs that you're not thinking straight. Imagine if the only thing at rail road crossings was a sign saying "Trains" or two blinking white lights when a train was on the way. I use this as an example since where I live there is a fucking train track that curves over a normal road and the only thing they have there is two blinking white lights on the right hand side of the road. Needless to say I nearly got hit by a fucking train there but now I drive like a little girl when I'm in the area (since I can never remember exactly which side street this stupid train comes out of.

Sometimes people just engineer things wrong or things get outdated.

Go down to Mexico, there aren't even lights and certainly no gates at most railroad crossings.

 

[Gibsons]

They could hang something non destructive but loud in front of it - if you hit this, you can't fit under the bridge. I've seen something like that before, but can't remember where.

 

[RPD]

That bridge has been there for 100 years. Are you saying that the design and size of vehicles hasn't changed in almost a century? Something tells me that they didn't account for the large commercial vehicles of today when they built it. The municipality has definitely done enough to prevent accidents in my opinion. If you ignore things like large, flashing yellow lights and multiple yellow caution signs, you only have your own retarded self to blame. Also, if you're so oblivious that you don't see any of these things, you shouldn't be driving.

This. Everyone saying they should change the bridge after adding all these warnings, you should thank yourselves for continuing to lower the bar of our society.

 

[silverpig]

Their are MULTIPLE signs with flashing lights before the bridging telling drivers to STOP the are too tall and will crash into the bridge.

Einstein had a quote: "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result."

If one sign doesn't work, put up another. And then another. And then put some flashing lights on the sign. Then add another sign with more lights.

People are still hitting the bridge. The solution isn't to add more signs and expect a different result. You can put up another sign and call the next batch of people stupid, but you're still going to get the same result.

Designers have to design for all cases and users. It's an element of good design to handle exceptions.

 

[BladeVenom]

There are Roman Bridges that are still around today that have survived 2000 years worth of flooding and hits by boats.

 

[Evadman]

Designers have to design for all cases and users. It's an element of good design to handle exceptions.

Agreed, but the exception here is a VERY tiny portion, and only when a series of failures occur. But let's asusme we want to fix the bridge. Now, it is a cost/benefit analysis. The estimate to lower the road is about 2 million dollars. At $10k in damage to a truck per accident, that means the payback is about 200 accidents, or a little over 16 years. That isn't including the cost to local businesses and such. It is impossible to fund.

The root cause is bad drivers, so they put in lots of warnings. Another solution is to better train drivers to pay the fuck attention to the big ass signs and other warning devices.

What I know is that I, as a taxpayer, do not want to fund lowering a road because horrible drivers who don't know how to drive trucks, hit the bridge. If you want to pay for it, go right ahead.

 

[silverpig]

Agreed, but the exception here is a VERY tiny portion, and only when a series of failures occur. But let's asusme we want to fix the bridge. Now, it is a cost/benefit analysis. The estimate to lower the road is about 2 million dollars. At $10k in damage to a truck per accident, that means the payback is about 200 accidents, or a little over 16 years. That isn't including the cost to local businesses and such. It is impossible to fund.

The root cause is bad drivers, so they put in lots of warnings. Another solution is to better train drivers to pay the fuck attention to the big ass signs and other warning devices.

What I know is that I, as a taxpayer, do not want to fund lowering a road because horrible drivers who don't know how to drive trucks, hit the bridge. If you want to pay for it, go right ahead.

Payback period of 16 years isn't worth it? Isn't the bridge already 100 years old?

You're also not counting the value of just not having a crazy amount of accidents there.