Undefeated - The Toughest Bridge in the World

[Exterous]

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

Especially the ones decades in the future involving situations they would never have thought of! Fuckers also screwed up the Panama Canal. Way to small. Should have been prepared for the super massive cargo ships doing trade with China (even though China didn't have anywhere close to the economy for that. Gotta cover all situations right?) NYC too. Should have done way more high way construction in the 1890s before it became too expensive

Edit: Why the hell didn't everyone in the 1910s build buildings to today's electrical, ADA and fire codes? Lazy cheap bastards

 

[Oceanas]

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

I just took a trip down the road in street view. The sign actually says Overheight When Flashing, although that should obviously convey the message to stop to anyone with a brain.

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.

The streetview here could be a bit old I guess, but there was no such sign on the route when I just checked. The only dangling sign is the Overheight sign right in front of the bridge that is much higher than the I-beam.

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

In streetview, there is only the one set of flashing lights. The signs at the other intersections are the 11'8" (the same type of sign as the first shown in the video) low clearance signs which give the distance to the bridge.

I'm totally in the camp that it's the idiot drivers not paying any attention that is the problem, but I also think we shouldn't overstate the actual warnings being provided.

If you want to see for yourself, just do a streetview of Brightleaf Square, turn around and you are at the bridge.

 

[DrPizza]

I'd think that if the lights are blinking for vehicles that are too high, that RED might be a better option than Yellow. Yellow means: be cautious. Red means: stop! The driver doesn't need to be cautious - the driver needs to stop!

 

[BladeVenom]

I'd think that if the lights are blinking for vehicles that are too high, that RED might be a better option than Yellow. Yellow means: be cautious. Red means: stop! The driver doesn't need to be cautious - the driver needs to stop!

But most people don't need to stop.

 

[yh125d]

If they didn't cheap out on their wide flange, they wouldn't have to replace it. Looks like W10x49 to me.

 

[Brainonska511]

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.

It would probably cost millions of dollars to replace the bridge and make it higher. The RR would have to regrade the tracks around the bridge, closing it to rail traffic for a while, something they aren't willing to do.

The town can't lower the road because there is a sewer line just under the roadbed, again, another expensive thing to move.

 

[Rubycon]

It not only happens on roads either!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hdok8Aa-eH8

 

[Doppel]

lol

 

[WelshBloke]

It not only happens on roads either!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hdok8Aa-eH8

Was that down to the bridge operator, the bridge was moving down as the ship approached and I cant imagine its that quick to stop a ship like that.

 

[the DRIZZLE]

If possible, it might make the most sense to just close that section of the road to truck traffic. Of course that would be punishing non-stupid people to protect the stupid, but we do that all the time.

 

[WelshBloke]

If possible, it might make the most sense to just close that section of the road to truck traffic. Of course that would be punishing non-stupid people to protect the stupid, but we do that all the time.

Maybe they could put up a barrier the would let cars pass underneath but would be too low for trucks? :hmm:

 

[sdifox]

It not only happens on roads either!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hdok8Aa-eH8

I wonder who's fault is that, the bridge raising people or the ship? :biggrin:

 

[sdifox]

Maybe they could put up a barrier the would let cars pass underneath but would be too low for trucks? :hmm:

<Wile E Coyote> Pressure plate in front of underpass, if weight exceeds 2 megagrams, trigger spring and flip the whole plate back </Wile E Coyote> :biggrin:

 

[KillerCharlie]

My dad's cousin's farmhand forgot to lower the dumptruck bed after dropping off grain at a silo. He nailed a county bridge on the trip back. I think it cost around a million dollars for the county to fix - good thing he had insurance.

 

[Squisher]

They should hang a yellow and black stripped metal tube from some cables the same height as the bridge a couple hundred feet from the bridge. Could even integrate some sort of alarm/barrier to turn on or swing down. If you clear that, you'll make the bridge.

 

[Brainonska511]

They should hang a yellow and black stripped metal tube from some cables the same height as the bridge a couple hundred feet from the bridge. Could even integrate some sort of alarm/barrier to turn on or swing down. If you clear that, you'll make the bridge.

I believe it was already mentioned several times, but from what I remember of what was said, there already is a hanging sign at the appropriate height that states something to the effect of "if you hit this sign, you will not clear the bridge".

 

[Ferzerp]

Could even integrate some sort of alarm/barrier to turn on or swing down.

You can't have something swing down on to an active road.

You would have to set up a system of stop lights that would allow you to stop *every* single vehicle that came through to make sure everything is scanned for height and stopped at least once, and then would let it place a barrier in the path while all traffic was stopped and after the (i'm sure required by law) alarm time just like train tracks have.

*Then* you would have to have a way to identify, and notify the offending vehicle, as well as insuring that your method doesn't create a traffic jam that would make the vehicle unable to turn away anyway.

It's not really an easy problem.

Honestly, the best thing to do, if plenty of other routes exist, is just to close that section of the street and make *everyone* go around it.

edit: Since it is a known safety issue (as they've attempted to remediate it), but they have failed to resolve the issue, the city should hope that no one is ever seriously injured there, because you know someone is going to sue the driver, the city, and the railroad.

 

[Ferzerp]

I believe it was already mentioned several times, but from what I remember of what was said, there already is a hanging sign at the appropriate height that states something to the effect of "if you hit this sign, you will not clear the bridge".

It was "mentioned" several times, but evidence (streetview) seems to suggest that the mentioners are just making assumptions (or repeating someone else's assumption).

 

[Lounatik]

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.

I lived in Brooklyn growing up and remember the semis hitting the pedestrian crossovers on the Belt Pkwy. I lived a block from the highway and can remember hearing the boom and scraping of metal on the bridges. Got some free watermelons an pieces of bathtubs as souvenirs. All around the highways before entering Brooklyn there were signs that said NO COMMERCIAL VEHICLES ON BELT PKWY. Ofcourse they weren't good enough for the dopes who hit the bridges.



Peace


Lounatik

 

[Jeff7]

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.

Yes. Or the aspect of "Let's assume that someone's not going to follow instructions." Now, you can obviously only account for a certain number of scenarios, and the design requirements list is usually already massive, even for simple projects. It's got to satisfy everyone in the company: Sales, marketing, production, shipping. And it's got to satisfy the customer. But then you've got the Morons wildcard, and they can be oblivious of just how incredibly creative they are when it comes to misusing things.

Also, I thought of a solution: If an overheight vehicle approaches, raise up those steel/concrete bollards like they use in Europe. Sure you'll still wreck vehicles, but it'll at least save the bridge from damage.

Or a large trapdoor.

Or a paintball cannon system with a vision sensor that would fire a pattern of "STOP" at the windshield of an overheight vehicle.

<Wile E Coyote> Pressure plate in front of underpass, if weight exceeds 2 megagrams, trigger spring and flip the whole plate back </Wile E Coyote> :biggrin:

And be sure to have a giant black X painted over it.

 

[Brainonska511]

It was "mentioned" several times, but evidence (streetview) seems to suggest that the mentioners are just making assumptions (or repeating someone else's assumption).

This link has the info: http://11foot8.com/faq/

It was posted earlier.

Could they install a low-clearance bar?

A low clearance bar is a bar suspended by chains ahead of the bridge. Overheight vehicles hit that bar first and the noise alerts the driver to to the problem. I understand that this approach has been successful in other places, but it’s not practical here. There are many overheight trucks that have to be able to drive right up to the bridge and turn onto Peabody St. in order to deliver supplies to several restaurants. Making Peabody St inaccessible from Gregson St would make the restaurant owners and the delivery drivers very unhappy.

 

[Pocatello]

Some drivers kept on driving. LOL.

 

[olds]

My dad's cousin's farmhand forgot to lower the dumptruck bed after dropping off grain at a silo. He nailed a county bridge on the trip back. I think it cost around a million dollars for the county to fix - good thing he had insurance.

Every time I drove truck and I'd come to a bridge, my hand would instinctively go to the lever to raise/lower the bed and ensure the bed was down.

 

[Triumph]

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.

Your argument is based upon a belief that there is a problem here that needs to be fixed. I really don't see the problem. The bridge hasn't fallen down due to an over height truck in 100 years, therefore there is no problem.

I don't see a problem with people having to pay for wrecking a rental truck, either. Because that's what they did, they wrecked the truck.

 

[DesiPower]

lol awesome