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11 Foot 8 – The Can-opener Bridge
- mauvehaus 6y agoBoston is home to any number of bridges that trucks don't fit under, most famously on Storrow Drive. Rating truck/bridge interactions has become a bit of a past time on universalhub: https://www.universalhub.com/storrow https://www.universalhub.com/storrow Every year when college students move back in and out, the powers that be put up illuminated construction signs everywhere to try to keep the number of rental trucks on roads they shouldn't be to a minimum. They're mostly successful.
- SOLAR_FIELDS 6y agoI drove a box truck (most often Penske/Ryder rentals just like the ones you see in this video) around most of the nation for a job when I was younger. The only two cities I had real trouble with clearances were Boston and Chicago. New York City was also a pain but for different and obvious reasons. I suspect if it hasn’t happened yet a decent commercial software solution would be to produce an app that took OSM and overlay all of the bridges with clearances in major cities into it so that you could route around them after entering your height. I specifically remember doing a lot of reversing back up streets in Chicago because nothing like that existed at the time (this was in the early 2010s).
- sebastien_bois 6y agoStill not high enough. They raised it another 8 inches to make it an even 12ft not too long ago, but evidently that still not enough. One would think they would've looked more closely at the traffic on that road and adjusted it accordingly. It's also really silly to have a sign indicating that too large vehicles must turn, which most drivers won't read/see in time, and practically force them to crash into the bridge, instead of having some sort of 'bumpers' ahead of the bridge for those vehicles to bump into first (I've seen those at entrances of parking lots that have both above ground and underground parking).
- teraflop 6y ago> a sign indicating that too large vehicles must turn, which most drivers won't read/see in time When the sign activates, it also causes the traffic light to turn red. In theory, that provides plenty of time to notice and respond to the sign; in practice, collisions still happen because people just run the red light. If someone's sufficiently determined to do something stupid and reckless, there's only so much you can do to discourage them. > instead of having some sort of 'bumpers' ahead of the bridge for those vehicles to bump into first That's what the big yellow beam is; it was installed to protect the bridge. If something was installed farther away (i.e. before the intersection) it would get in the way of large vehicles that were intending to turn before the bridge.
- jacquesm 6y agoRunning a red light should be an automatic re-exam for your license. Not two weeks ago: I stop for a red, the guy behind me stops, the guy behind him overtakes both of us and nearly kills a cyclist that had started to move in front of me. A fraction of a second quicker response by the cyclist off the mark and he'd be dead. I hate red light runners with a serious passion.
- __s 6y agoNote people aren't running reds here necessarily. A system detects a tall vehicle moving towards the bridge & times a red light. They stop, & during that time they might notice that the bridge is low & there's a sign telling them the max height. Some don't notice, & when the light goes green they drive on under
- sebastien_bois 6y ago> That's what the big yellow beam is; it was installed to protect the bridge. Yes, that one protects the bridge - what I'm talking about is a 'warning' bumper, that you can run into, but won't damage the vehicle (as others' comments here have mentioned). It would be put up further up ahead of the bridge itself (not at the bridge). Something like this: https://www.cisco-eagle.com/catalog/product/157494/garage-low-clearance-warning-bar-apparatus-swinging https://www.cisco-eagle.com/catalog/product/157494/garage-lo...
- xwdv 6y agoFucking assholes, normally I’d assume incompetence before malice but in this case I’m pretty sure this bridge was designed with malicious intent by someone.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- hattar 6y agoWhy not place an arch before the bridge that will impact but not damage vehicles going through? This exists in the entrance to most parking garages. Edit: like this https://www.jpsiteexperts.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/clearance-bars-7-1024x7681.jpg https://www.jpsiteexperts.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/cle...
- teraflop 6y agoPlacing an obstacle between the bridge and the intersection would be fairly pointless, because once you hit it, it would be too late to stop before hitting the bridge. (EDIT: in addition, a hanging warning sign would have to be suspended from something. My guess is any such structure would need to be made very sturdy and expensive, or else it would just get knocked down and increase the hazard to pedestrians and property when somebody hits the sign at significant speed.) Placing the obstacle anywhere else would impede vehicles that aren't trying to go under the bridge.
- LegitShady 6y agoLook at the video. Such a structure already exists. There is a yellow beam meant to protect the bridge right in front of it. It probably does most of the can openjng to spare the bridge
- teraflop 6y agoThe parent commenter asked for something that would "impact but not damage" vehicles, and the protective beam undoubtedly fails at that purpose.
- LegitShady 6y agoThere's an intersection right before the bridge - the beam is already at the "warning" location to protect the bridge. Bridge strikes arent' cheap and train companies HATE closing bridges for any reason (including replacing them).
- 6y ago
- SenHeng 6y agoThey ought to make it lower, so it’s most obvious that a truck won’t fit. Make it no more than 2metres, whatever that is in American, so that only cars can go through.
- aidenn0 6y agoThis is America. People have pickup trucks that have been raised to a height above 2m (about 6'6" in American)
- SenHeng 6y agoAnd thus the presumably unstoppable forces meets the immovable object.
- Thorrez 6y agoIs the goal to reduce crashes or increase them?
- SenHeng 6y agoThe goal is to protect the bridge behind the barrier.
- sosborn 6y agoIs it? Shouldn’t the goal be to protect the driver?
- globular-toast 6y agoIf the goal was to protect the driver then the bridge would be removed. The bridge carries a railway so many more lives are at stake if it's damaged.
- Thorrez 6y ago
- chrisseaton 6y agoWhat is so special about this bridge? Why do people drive under it without checking their height? You wouldn't normally think you can just drive under any bridge, would you? It doesn't even look like a very low bridge. Why do people approach it without a care in the world at full speed? My vehicle is only 2m tall and I still do take a quick look at height signs as I approach them.
- smitty1e 6y agoYou're a new driver, following Google Maps, and the fact that you hadn't cared about the height of your vehicle WRT your route just got expensive.
- chrisseaton 6y agoBut that could happen anywhere in the country. What's so special about this bridge that means it gets so much coverage. It doesn't even seem extremely low.
- dwighttk 6y agoThere are two cameras pointed at the bridge 24/7 and a guy posts every collision.
- sixothree 6y agoIt is low enough to exclude a large percentage of vehicles and it isn't exactly signed very well. It's just bad design.
- compiler-guy 6y agoIt’s was within spec when it was built.
- sixothree 6y agoBecause in general, people are human.
- 6y ago
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- eps 6y agoThere's also an excellent sub for this and many other "can openers" as well as assorted "cans" getting opened - https://old.reddit.com/r/11foot8/ https://old.reddit.com/r/11foot8/
- weeksie 6y agoSo far the best solution I've seen to this sort of thing (other than building a taller bridge) is the waterfall approach. Probably a bit spensie for some rando railroad bridge but it's clever nonetheless. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/news/video-1008464/Amazing-water-curtain-Stop-sign.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/news/video-1008464/Amazing...
- rlanday 6y agoThat’s really cool. Is that a divided highway? How do the trucks back up and turn around there?
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- ogre_codes 6y agoThey have them in more than one place, in some cases they have to stop traffic so the truck can back out.
- simias 6y agoI've often seen large gates with hanging chains at the maximal height just before low bridges and tunnels. Wouldn't that also be pretty efficient, reliable and not requiring any maintenance? I suppose having an obstacle spring in front of you would be even more likely to make you stop, but if you're still going when some chains hit the top of your vehicle you deserve to have your license suspended anyway.
- wolfgang42 6y agoThe trouble with 11foot8 in particular is that it’s right on the intersection, so through traffic passing by the bridge without going under it would hit the chains as well.
- surround 6y agoBut that bridge in Australia isn’t on an intersection. There’s plenty of room for a hanging bar.
- IMAYousaf 6y agoWhat's beautiful about the 11 Foot 8 bridge is that quietly it's been a constant in my life. I distinctly remember watching the videos over a decade ago on this YT Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/yovo68 https://www.youtube.com/user/yovo68 There's an element of schadenfreude that's so compelling in watching ordinary situations go terribly wrong.
- mathgenius 6y agoI feel like slightly less of a fuck-up every time I watch one of these.
- rkagerer 6y agoAnother good video that explains it and showcases some of the crashes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_9rWH0p43A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_9rWH0p43A
- dhosek 6y agoI don't know if it's this bridge, but I remember there being a live webcam before YouTube for at least a similar overpass situation, with RealVideo™️ of the "greatest hits."
- erk__ 6y agoThey even added another 8 inches, but the trucks still hits it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPt4ijPFzc8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPt4ijPFzc8
- ColeyG 6y agoI was about to mention a similar feeling. This place feels sacred in an indescribable way.
- jacquesm 6y agoYou have to wonder how much it would cost to dig that out two feet and solve the problem. Likely a lot less than the annual capital destruction.
- teraflop 6y agoThat's answered by the FAQ: http://11foot8.com/11foot8-faq/ http://11foot8.com/11foot8-faq/ > Can’t the road be lowered? > That would be prohibitively expensive because a sewer main runs just a few feet below the road bed. That sewer main also dates back about a hundred years and, again, at the time there were no real standards for minimum clearance for railroad underpasses.
- jacquesm 6y agoAh ok, thank you for clarifying that. So that leaves the next best option: remove it from all navigation systems, that way at least the route will be only used by locals familiar with the situation and all other traffic would automatically detour around it.
- WrtCdEvrydy 6y agoAlternatively, mark it as a classified military base.
- GiorgioG 6y agoThere's a sewer main near the bridge so, very expensive.
- Theodores 6y agoThe sewer and the railway are immovable objects, hence the problem. The rental truck depot up the road contribute to the problem. In theory this could be relocated but this has to have a cost greater than the loss of a few rental truck tops. There is a road junction next to the bridge meaning the parallel road limits the options for slowing down tall vehicles before the bridge. Thus far in this comment thread your comment has been the only one that sheds some light on the situation.
- gurustave 6y agoSadly its the 12 foot 4 Bridge now, and its snacks are much lighter.
- Animats 6y agoThe Sidney Harbor Tunnel had a similar problem. They came up with an elaborate but successful solution.[1] There are detectors and huge flashing warning signs that light up. Then, there's the last-chance sign. At the entrance to the tunnel, pumps force a curtain of water straight down across the entire roadway. Then a powerful laser system projects a giant octagonal red STOP sign onto the water curtain, filling the entire height of the tunnel opening. That's in addition to the six red traffic lights, flashing red Xs above each lane, and a big STOP with a flashing frame above the tunnel mouth. That was expensive, but after someone wedged an oversized truck into the tunnel, blocking it for three weeks, it was worth it. Gets tripped about 18 times a year. [1] https://youtu.be/pRKA7m-tbqM https://youtu.be/pRKA7m-tbqM
- gobins 6y agoThis is the first time I am hearing about this. Very elaborate but I guess it’s worth it.
- Invictus0 6y agoWhy cant they put a swinging bar at the tunnel height some distance before the tunnel? The bar knocks the top of the truck and wakes up whoever is driving to the fact that the truck is too tall.
- fouc 6y agoThis sounds like the perfect solution, a few swinging bars, thin enough not to knock something over but enough to make a loud banging noise.
- mc32 6y agoJust like the ones at parking garage entrances...
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- loeg 6y agoOr a wedge barrier: https://eci-illinois.com/wedge-barrier-versus-medium-size-truck-wedge-barrier-wins/ https://eci-illinois.com/wedge-barrier-versus-medium-size-tr...
- johan_larson 6y agoHow about something counter-intuitive: lower the limit? There is a built-in hard limit imposed by the structure itself. Set the marked limit to something well short of that, like 8 feet. Then add very obvious soft barriers like light swinging bars to indicate the lower boundary. That would encourage anyone driving anything that might actually hit the hard limit to take an alternate route. (Of course, that means there actually needs to be a realistic alternate route.)
- syshum 6y ago" 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." [1] at the end of the it seems most of the trucks are often Rental Trucks drive by people that likely should not be driving a large truck in the first place. In the US you do not need a CDL or special endorsement to rent many of these UHaul type trucks since they do not have Air Brakes, all you need is a normal operators license. [1]http://11foot8.com/11foot8-faq/ http://11foot8.com/11foot8-faq/
- userbinator 6y agoI think the parent comment may be suggesting to low the limit on the bridge even more, like adding a wall to the underside of it, so that it's obvious nothing higher than normal cars or perhaps a large van would fit. Then again, maybe a large portion of the crashes are from people who forget they're driving a truck, so that might just make the carnage worse...
- PhantomGremlin 6y agoMy all-time favorite picture for this situation is: ON THE ROAD TO SUCCESS, THERE ARE NO SHORTCUTS. https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/c7fpl6/on_the_road_to_success_there_are_no_shortcuts/ https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/c7fpl6/on_the_road_to...
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- pretendgeneer 6y agoAnother one from Melbourne, Aus https://howmanydayssincemontaguestreetbridgehasbeenhit.com/ https://howmanydayssincemontaguestreetbridgehasbeenhit.com/
- ourmandave 6y agoI'd hate to be a truck rental company near that thing. Random weekend movers peeling the tops off your fleet. I'd have free-take-one warning maps with a big red X at the checkout counter.
- ficklepickle 6y agoIME, typically damage to the roof of rental trucks is not covered by standard insurance. I briefly worked for a Budget in Canada once upon a time and they always reminded people not to take the truck through a drive thru.
- aaaaardvark 6y agoSomeone pls tell me why they are not suspending a light swinging plank 11'8" above the ground at some point ahead of the bridge.
- peteretep 6y agoBecause it’s right after an intersection
- quickthrower2 6y agoFor the greater good they should install something that makes a lot of noise but doesn't damage the car say 5m before before the hard hit. Maybe fine $100 per soft hit to pay for it? They can say well we've just saved you a lot more!
- hwc 6y agoThey have flashing lights that go off if your vehicle is too tall.
- jchook 6y agoDoes anyone know their method (and how it has evolved over the years) for detecting a crash from the raw feed?
- dwighttk 6y agoNot 100% on this but I think I remember reading that they just look at the audio and then look at the video near the sharp peaks
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- rkagerer 6y agoThis problem is already solved. The steel beam rakes off any overheight bits allowing the trucks to pass through.
- dmohs 6y agoThank you so much for this. Very well delivered.
- dhosek 6y agoI live a block away from a can-opener bridge. We haven't had anything since quarantine, but there's usually two or three trucks a year that get stuck in it. We had one week where there were two trucks and a bus. https://www.dropbox.com/s/9hbbbr1xl53e8u3/77EFF5A4-D593-4FB8-A925-7B40DDDC1863.jpeg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/9hbbbr1xl53e8u3/77EFF5A4-D593-4FB8...
- dwighttk 6y agomy favorite was the RV that went through... slowed way down, decided he was good... just fit, but then the A/C on the end got caught and popped off.
- arrty88 6y agoI love the sub reddit too https://www.reddit.com/r/11foot8/ https://www.reddit.com/r/11foot8/
- andrewcl 6y agoI used to work really close to where this bridge is at my last job and many of my coworkers had worked in offices even closer previously. Supposedly, every time there was a crash people would rush to observe what happened even though it was a fairly common occurrence. The bridge is located in a kinda odd space to do construction. While I imagine it's possible to retrofit or dig it to be deeper, it likely would have been really inconvenient to the adjacent businesses.
- ocdtrekkie 6y agoThey actually raised the bridge another 8 inches recently. The 11foot8 channel covered a lot of the work being done and stuff.... and the 12foot4 bridge still gets new victims from time to time, just less often.
- dec0dedab0de 6y agoWhy dont they make the road dip down a smidge?
- zanny 6y agoWater and sewer pipes run under that road I heard. They ended up raising the bridge 8".
- Svip 6y agoThe maximum standard height for a vehicle is 4 metres in Europe. All E-routes in Europe require that bridges and tunnels can clear at least 4 metres, otherwise they cannot get designated with the E-route. Is there a similar concept of safe routes for lorries and buses in the US?
- anticensor 6y agoInterstates?
- Svip 6y agoDo they have a requirement for bridge/tunnel heights? I recall an American trucker telling me that such a requirement did not exist in the US, but he could have been mistaken.
- syshum 6y agoAmerica is a collection of thousands of jurisdictions that all have authority based on who is paying for the road. Interstates are controlled by the Federal Highway Commission and must meet Federal Highway standards as the federal government generally pays for them State Routes are controlled by State Regulations County Routes are controlled by County Regulations City Routes are controlled by City Regulations There is zero standard that is applied universally. This is is viewed by some as a negative personally I prefer the federalist system over a central authority Most State and Federal routes do have Minimum Heights, though exceptions can be made, one thing we often see in the US not remeasuring the surface, there have been more than a few time where the height is reported as X but that measurement was decades old and several resurfacing layers had been added to the real height is lower. Or the road pitches to one side and someone measured the highest side not the low side
- dwighttk 6y agoI was helping a friend move from North Carolina to Rhode Island a few years back and he rented a truck that was way too big. From NC to New Jersey we kept seeing "Truck Route" signs and they all referred to trucks that were still taller than our truck (I don't remember the height). So we started to pay less attention to the signs. Then Google Maps sent us into New York. We saw something about all trucks take some other road, but stuck with the route Google recommended. Then we saw a big "All trucks over X height take next right" sign and the height was like 2 feet lower than our truck. That started a whole separate adventure, but while there may be some kind of safe route thing in the US, there are plenty of routes that vary from state to state, and at least back then google maps didn't have a way to enter the height of your vehicle.
- classified 6y agoHow quaint, naming a web site in the 21st century after those atavistic imperial units.
- pgt 6y agoThis is what I love about the Internet. "Feed the Canopener" links to his Patreon. Hahahaha.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- hashmush 6y agoSlightly related, a now famous bus/car trap in Stockholm that became a short documentary: https://www.svtplay.se/video/17480166/sparviddshinder https://www.svtplay.se/video/17480166/sparviddshinder (only in Swedish, but should be viewable globally)
- andreasley 6y agoWith english subtitles: https://vimeo.com/425030709 https://vimeo.com/425030709
- lwhi 6y agoMake every truck stop before it's able to pass under.
- michaelmarion 6y agoDurham represent!