you’d also have to grade the incline, and that section looks so short it might include dropping the whole intersection.
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Perhaps the area would benefit greatly by making a slightly taller bridge? Seems that the inconveniences caused by the constant bridge crashes is pretty big.
The railway would have to do that and raising rail tracks is not easy or quick. They would have to start the grade change quite a ways back probably affecting many other bridges.
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Not to the people who own the bridge. They’re likely not inconvenienced at all, and raising that bridge would probably be a major effort.
From Wikipedia, and the FAQ, and upthread:
“The 79-year-old bridge along South Gregson Street . . . cannot be raised because nearby railroad crossings would also have to be raised with it. The street also cannot be lowered because a major sewer line runs only four feet (1.2 m) under Gregson Street”
At some point drivers need to take responsibility and pay attention to the multiple signs posted around the bridge.
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They need this:
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The difference, I think, is that Gregson Street is one of the most direct routes between Hwy 147 northbound to I-85 northbound. If you’re approaching Durham from the south and want to go north and east, you either have to go a long way out of the way to stay on highways or get forced into at least one bad left turn on the other surface street option. With Gregson Street, you have almost a straight shot from 147 to 85.
So I would think a lot of the problem is that the fastest route through the city that way (and thus the default for navigation systems) is through the Can Opener. As a result, a lot of out-of-towners end up taking that route. If you’re from Durham, you know about it and avoid it if you’re driving a tall vehicle.
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I’m waiting for one of these videos where the tow truck driver gets it unstuck and then drives under the bridge and gets them both stuck again.
It may just be an absurdly short green light. (Which is probably why the truck and SUV both ran the red.) It didn’t turn yellow until the overheight warning sign had been on for a few seconds. If it’s triggered by oversized vehicles, that just seems dangerous, as an unpredictably short green light is going to cause accidents. But yeah, the truck driver ignored a red light, so I’m not sure how much better a longer, albeit clearer, sign would do.
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I hear you. I just hope that that big ass steel bar continues to do its job.
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The problem there is that all the trucks that pass through would get hit by the chains, not just the ones driven by wingnuts who try to go straight.
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Our local equivalent has it’s own website
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That’s the most sensible suggestion so far. Use psychology. I don’t know how the “no trucks” on that section of road would affect traffic patterns overall, though.
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Again, the FAQ has you covered:
Can’t the bridge be raised?
Here, too, the question is who would want to pay the millions of dollars to raise the tracks a couple of feet? To accomplish this, the grade of the tracks would have to changed on both sides of the trestle, probably for several miles. That would require rebuilding all trestles in Durham. And NS would have to shut down this busy track for months. I don’t think they are interested in that idea.
and the bit already posted by Jorpho.
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I am a transportation engineer with over 30 years in the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, Department of Highways. One of the things I read about in a transportation magazine circulated at work was an experiment by students and teachers at a transportation college, the local police and the city highway department. (I forget the city but it was in another state.)
They spent several days measuring the speed of vehicles on a stretch of road. Then they changed the speed limit signs and measured again, for several iterations. Each time some drivers would be stopped by the police and asked why they weren’t obeying the speed limit signs.
The near-universal response was “What signs?”
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Just ran into this (not literally) today in France. Looks like a sacrificial barrier designed to stop you driving your truck into the (electrified) tram wires.
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Maybe it’s a limbo challenge for really really tall people
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