The mods (perhaps wisely) shut down the last 11-foot-8 discussion after it inevitably degenerated into a debate between know-it-all engineers and know-it-all 11-foot-8 fans. But I say – let the human factors vitriol fly! Just not in the boing topic.
In our last episode, [it was] argued that the City, State, and Railroad are all disgracefully negligent in allowing too-tall trucks to try to drive under a too-small bridge. Meanwhile, other [users] insisted it was an absolutely insoluble problem that could not be addressed without endless time, space, money, and political capital. I spent a lot of time playing bingo.
Is the 11-foot-8+8 bridge destined to chomp on trucks forever? Are the lorry drivers of greater central North Carolina doomed? Will the unstoppable force win, or the immovable object?
Find out the answer to these questions and more on this episode of Armchair Urban Engineering, starting [WHOOSH] RIGHTNOW!
In the previous discussion I tallied a really-ballpark 3.2 million dollar cost for the railroad company to raise the bridge. One of the fellow commenters suggested that this was quite cheap as infrastructure changes go – and they’re right.
But the railroad operator’s interests are all already being met. The rail bridge is safe, thanks to the crash beam. Even if the cost of all the wrecked trucks / road freight in a year approaches or exceeds the cost of regrading the crossing, none of the losses are borne on the rail operator, so why should they act?
The only way that the NCRR would choose to act is if they were compelled to by the City and/or State and/or other agency with the ability to compel. As another commenter noted, railroad law is powerful, and it’d probably be up to the feds to act if they wanted to “force” the railroad to regrade.
[Not tagging any of the relevant commenters in case they are not interested in being dragged into this thread.]
