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The 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

by Svip 6y ago

The 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 ago
Interstates?
- Svip 6y ago
  Do 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 ago
    America 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 ago
I 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.
chiph 6y ago
The federal interstates are supposed to have 16' (4.9m) clearance under bridges. However in older parts of the country (mostly the Northeast) there are many bridges that don't have that clearance and have been grandfathered in. And of course, Texas has bigger clearances, because Texas. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_Highway_standards https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_Highway_standards edit Looks like Texas may have consulted with the Army's Transportation Engineering Agency for design input, as it's mentioned in their design standard manual http://onlinemanuals.txdot.gov/txdotmanuals/rdw/freeways.htm#CHDGBIHC http://onlinemanuals.txdot.gov/txdotmanuals/rdw/freeways.htm...
jcranmer 6y ago
The US has a standard clearance of 14' (or 16' for interstate highways); anything lower than that would have low clearance signs of various sorts. These values are comfortably above 4m. The roads that have these low clearances are usually local roads whose right-of-way was constrained a hundred years ago, or "parkways" originally devised to permit motorists to enjoy scenic drives and unencumbered by heavy truck traffic (possibly also built 100 years ago!).

by Svip 6y ago

anticensor 6y ago

Interstates?

Svip 6y ago
Do 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 ago
  America 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 ago

I 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.

chiph 6y ago

The federal interstates are supposed to have 16' (4.9m) clearance under bridges. However in older parts of the country (mostly the Northeast) there are many bridges that don't have that clearance and have been grandfathered in. And of course, Texas has bigger clearances, because Texas. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_Highway_standards https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_Highway_standards edit Looks like Texas may have consulted with the Army's Transportation Engineering Agency for design input, as it's mentioned in their design standard manual http://onlinemanuals.txdot.gov/txdotmanuals/rdw/freeways.htm#CHDGBIHC http://onlinemanuals.txdot.gov/txdotmanuals/rdw/freeways.htm...

jcranmer 6y ago

The US has a standard clearance of 14' (or 16' for interstate highways); anything lower than that would have low clearance signs of various sorts. These values are comfortably above 4m. The roads that have these low clearances are usually local roads whose right-of-way was constrained a hundred years ago, or "parkways" originally devised to permit motorists to enjoy scenic drives and unencumbered by heavy truck traffic (possibly also built 100 years ago!).