6 ms·

The Canopener Bridge

81 points by djoldman 3y ago

mmastrac 3y ago
I used to watch this on YouTube regularly until right about when the city tried to make the underpass deeper. It didn't help, hah.
- jrockway 3y ago
  Sadly making the underpass deeper did help a little bit. There are now a lot less videos than there was in its heyday (it's 12'4" now, which is a pretty normal bridge height). Also, I think they raised the railroad rather than lowering the road. I believe there is a video of the weekend they did it on the channel.
aaron695 3y ago
[dead]
Animats 3y ago
The Sydney Harbor Tunnel had this problem. After an over-height truck got wedged in the tunnel and took three weeks to remove, the tunnel operators had to do something drastic. They already had multiple sets of detectors, flashing lights, signs, and movable bars hanging down to bang on overheight trucks. That wasn't enough. So they had something custom built, which is now a product called Softstop.[1] When the detectors sense an over-height truck, water jets shoot downward across the road. Then, a very high powered projector projects a giant STOP sign on the water curtain, right in front of the truck. That seems to successfully get truckers attention. Softstop is a complex installation, with pumps, tanks, drains, lights, and controls. It's probably overkill for some minor underpass. [1] https://vimeo.com/253900884 https://vimeo.com/253900884
- fnordpiglet 3y ago
  That’s incredibly cool. I wonder if it could be simplified with misters instead of pouring water, which would at least require less water storage, emitters, and drainage.
  - rob74 3y ago
    Misters probably aren't fast enough, plus the mist would get blown about by air currents, so it wouldn't make a good projection surface...
- afandian 3y ago
  In case anyone else was curious to see Roland music equipment in that video, it's an AR-3000 Digital Announcement Recorder. https://www.roland.com/uk/products/ar-3000/ https://www.roland.com/uk/products/ar-3000/
- ragazzina 3y ago
  How is such a system cheaper than a big breakable but solid STOP sign on an arm, like those american school buses.
  - jkingsman 3y ago
    The video explicitly mentions -- "you can't put things in front of vehicles doing 60 or 80kph" (~40-50mph), I assume with the implicated "without causing damage to them or making road conditions unsafe".
    - Dalewyn 3y ago
      Another reason mentioned is that police and emergency response vehicles need to get through.
    - adrian_b 3y ago
      Other countries do not use this excuse, which actually is irrational. If a resistant barrier is put before the tunnel at the height limit, it will damage any too high vehicle that attempts to pass, but removing the barrier guarantees that the vehicle will be damaged later, in worse conditions, inside the tunnel. If the vehicle stops later inside the tunnel, instead of being blocked before it in some place with good visibility, then the road conditions will certainly be even unsafer.
      - regularfry 3y ago
        It's a question of liability at that point, not damage to the vehicle. If I put a barrier across the road, and you hit it, you can make the argument that while you hit the barrier you wouldn't have hit the tunnel roof. That's going to play out differently in different jurisdictions, I'm sure.
      - gambiting 3y ago
        I imagine like many things in the US - it's about liability. Putting in a barrier specifically designed to damage your vehicle could be seen as accepting liability for it(even though it prevents larger damage if you continue). A bridge damaging your vehicle isn't there on purpose - it's your own fault for ignoring it. Other countries aren't as litigious as the US so I suspect it's just easier to do things like that.
- adrian_b 3y ago
  Other countries use a much cheaper method. At some distance before the tunnel or passage under a bridge with limited height (but after the signs that advertise this) there is a solid metal barrier at the height limit and when any too high truck attempts to go forward (which of course happens from time to time) the barrier cuts the top of the truck, which is guaranteed to attract the attention of the drivers (and presumably the anger of their employer). EDIT: I have posted this before watching the video, which shows exactly how this method, of using a steel "crash beam" works. In this case, the truck was only slightly above the height limit, but in another place I have seen a similar incident where the truck was higher so all its roof has been cleanly cut and detached from the truck. This is the right method of handling such height limits, the only one that is guaranteed to be foolproof. Even if it damages the vehicle, if the vehicle were able to pass with an extra height, it is certain that it would be damaged anyway, but in worse conditions, especially in the case of a tunnel.
  - mark_undoio 3y ago
    Near where I live we've got a guided busway (a track system that modified buses can travel down, tram-style). On the railway bridge before it's entrance there's a height barrier in advance consisting of a whole load of bells that dangle down from a metal bar and will hit over-height vehicles without making a really solid collision. They still haven't figured out a way to stop cars driving up the bus tracks, though (where they inevitably get stuck).
  - gnfargbl 3y ago
    > This is the right method of handling such height limits, the only one that is guaranteed to be foolproof. Near where I grew up, there was a low bridge. At one point many years ago, an excavator on a low-loader hit the bridge, causing the excavator arm to swing around... into the upper deck of a loaded bus travelling in the opposite direction. The point is, this method might be foolproof in terms of preventing damage to the bridge, but it has other potential drawbacks.
  - topspin 3y ago
    > I have posted this before watching the video They've done every conceivable thing to mitigate the problem at this bridge. Watch the old videos, before they had the crash bars and huge signs and flashing lights. Before they raised the bridge to the limit of what the rail line could tolerate.
dang 3y ago
Related: 11 Foot 8 – The Can-opener Bridge - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23587190 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23587190 - June 2020 (202 comments)
PetitPrince 3y ago
The Tunnel de l'Étoile[1] use to have the same problem until it was closed in 2015. It's now reopened as a bicycle only tunnel. It had blog associated with it; now defunct and cybersquatted but you can still see what it looks like through the wayback machine [2]. It was one of the earliest novelty blog I remember. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunnel_de_l%27%C3%89toile https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunnel_de_l%27%C3%89toile [2] https://web.archive.org/web/20230000000000*/http://www.2m40.com/ https://web.archive.org/web/20230000000000*/http://www.2m40....
latchkey 3y ago
There are a few bridges like this in Saigon on Truong Sa / Hoang Sa streets that run along a long river through the city. They are super busy traffic streets at almost all times of the day. It was always entertaining to watch trucks get stuck under them almost daily and back up traffic on the little streets for hours. Found a google maps photo of one of the bridges... https://goo.gl/maps/8eFk6EgxbdvhMyNk8 https://goo.gl/maps/8eFk6EgxbdvhMyNk8
davefol 3y ago
Used to work in an office overlooking this bridge. When a crash happened all work ceased and we’d gather around a window to gawk at the accident. Sometimes it felt like they came in clusters. I felt extra bad when it was a rental.
- maxbond 3y ago
  Interestingly random events like this do tend to cluster. There are lots of arrangements where clusters exist and very few where it doesn't, so clustering is a lower entropy state. Plane crashes are similar. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisson_clumping https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisson_clumping https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/109390/how-odd-is-a-cluster-of-plane-accidents https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/109390/how-odd-is-...
caf 3y ago
The Montague St Bridge (affectionately known as Monty) similarly likes to turn box trucks into parallelograms: https://howmanydayssincemontaguestreetbridgehasbeenhit.com/ https://howmanydayssincemontaguestreetbridgehasbeenhit.com/ Monty is 3.0m (9ft 10in).
fsckboy 3y ago
the most smh aspect of this was that truck actually does fit under that bridge, it just doesn't fit under the even lower warning board. the whole thing was an accident intending to happen!
- omnicognate 3y ago
  It's not a warning board. It's a crash beam to protect the bridge, because the consequences of damaging the rail bridge are much worse than those of canopening a truck that ignored numerous obvious warnings, including a flashing one triggered by a vehicle height sensor. The bridge itself has already been raised by 8 inches (though it's still unusually low), which would have also cost a fair bit. They haven't just gone and put an unnecessary "warning board" under it. There are many more incidents, BTW. Scroll down for more videos.
kazinator 3y ago
Looks much more like a thickness planer than a can opener to me. Yo, does that go any lower? I need another quarter inch off that truck.
endgame 3y ago
A bridge like this would make a great plot point in a big-dumb-action-style heist movie. Force a truck under a low canopener bridge at speed to rip its top off, then herd it onto the highway to drop people in via helicopter and extract the package.
- sneak 3y ago
  This happens in the first big chase scene in the beginning of Terminator 2.
jzb 3y ago
I live in Durham and drive by this occasionally, but funny enough I don’t think I’ve ever needed to drive under it. They actually raised it a few years ago, but it still claims the occasional truck.
Ilasky 3y ago
We got a similar issue in Boston - the Storrow bridge. So much so we call it "getting Storrowed"[0] [0] https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2021/08/19/boston-storrowing-what-to-know/ https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2021/08/19/boston-sto...
- neonnoodle 3y ago
  The wonderful thing about Storrow Drive—it’s a MAJOR ARTERY that is integral to traffic flow in downtown Boston. Since Boston has so many students, September 1st is like an informal holiday[^1] where we wait for newcomers to Storrow their U-Hauls. [^1]: actually one of two September 1 holidays observed. The other is “Allston Christmas,” when the streets of a popular student neighborhood are filled with free furniture people tossed out when they moved.
- local_issues 3y ago
  Fun fact! The namesake of Storrow Drive was "an investment banker who led a campaign to create the Charles River Basin and preserve and improve the riverbanks as a public park. He had never advocated a parkway beside the river, and Helen Storrow, his widow, publicly opposed it" It's one of the urban highways that can absolutely go, and should.
Svip 3y ago
In Europe, E-routes require a clear height of 4 metres, which is the maximum allowance for a regular vehicle. So if you're a trucker, you can be safe in knowing that driving on an E-route, means your vehicle will clear all bridges. There are definitely examples of countries upgrading their existing roads to become E-routes, which sometimes include raising bridges.
zabzonk 3y ago
happens with much older structures: https://romanlincolnshire.wordpress.com/2017/05/18/a-close-scrape-for-lincolns-newport-arch/ https://romanlincolnshire.wordpress.com/2017/05/18/a-close-s...
ndsipa_pomu 3y ago
There's some similar fun to be found by following the World Bollard Assocation on the platform formerly known as Twitter https://www.thepoke.co.uk/2023/01/06/the-world-bollard-association-on-twitter-is-anything-but-a-load-of-bollards-13-favourites/ https://www.thepoke.co.uk/2023/01/06/the-world-bollard-assoc...
ajxs 3y ago
Here's a website set up to track crashes involving another infamous bridge in Perth, Australia: https://www.howmanydayssincebayswaterbridgehasbeenhit.com/ https://www.howmanydayssincebayswaterbridgehasbeenhit.com/
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

81 points by djoldman 3y ago

I used to watch this on YouTube regularly until right about when the city tried to make the underpass deeper. It didn't help, hah.

jrockway 3y ago
Sadly making the underpass deeper did help a little bit. There are now a lot less videos than there was in its heyday (it's 12'4" now, which is a pretty normal bridge height). Also, I think they raised the railroad rather than lowering the road. I believe there is a video of the weekend they did it on the channel.

aaron695 3y ago

[dead]

Animats 3y ago

The Sydney Harbor Tunnel had this problem. After an over-height truck got wedged in the tunnel and took three weeks to remove, the tunnel operators had to do something drastic. They already had multiple sets of detectors, flashing lights, signs, and movable bars hanging down to bang on overheight trucks. That wasn't enough. So they had something custom built, which is now a product called Softstop.[1] When the detectors sense an over-height truck, water jets shoot downward across the road. Then, a very high powered projector projects a giant STOP sign on the water curtain, right in front of the truck. That seems to successfully get truckers attention. Softstop is a complex installation, with pumps, tanks, drains, lights, and controls. It's probably overkill for some minor underpass. [1] https://vimeo.com/253900884 https://vimeo.com/253900884

fnordpiglet 3y ago
That’s incredibly cool. I wonder if it could be simplified with misters instead of pouring water, which would at least require less water storage, emitters, and drainage.
- rob74 3y ago
  Misters probably aren't fast enough, plus the mist would get blown about by air currents, so it wouldn't make a good projection surface...
afandian 3y ago
In case anyone else was curious to see Roland music equipment in that video, it's an AR-3000 Digital Announcement Recorder. https://www.roland.com/uk/products/ar-3000/ https://www.roland.com/uk/products/ar-3000/
ragazzina 3y ago
How is such a system cheaper than a big breakable but solid STOP sign on an arm, like those american school buses.
- jkingsman 3y ago
  The video explicitly mentions -- "you can't put things in front of vehicles doing 60 or 80kph" (~40-50mph), I assume with the implicated "without causing damage to them or making road conditions unsafe".
  - Dalewyn 3y ago
    Another reason mentioned is that police and emergency response vehicles need to get through.
  - adrian_b 3y ago
    Other countries do not use this excuse, which actually is irrational. If a resistant barrier is put before the tunnel at the height limit, it will damage any too high vehicle that attempts to pass, but removing the barrier guarantees that the vehicle will be damaged later, in worse conditions, inside the tunnel. If the vehicle stops later inside the tunnel, instead of being blocked before it in some place with good visibility, then the road conditions will certainly be even unsafer.
    - regularfry 3y ago
      It's a question of liability at that point, not damage to the vehicle. If I put a barrier across the road, and you hit it, you can make the argument that while you hit the barrier you wouldn't have hit the tunnel roof. That's going to play out differently in different jurisdictions, I'm sure.
    - gambiting 3y ago
      I imagine like many things in the US - it's about liability. Putting in a barrier specifically designed to damage your vehicle could be seen as accepting liability for it(even though it prevents larger damage if you continue). A bridge damaging your vehicle isn't there on purpose - it's your own fault for ignoring it. Other countries aren't as litigious as the US so I suspect it's just easier to do things like that.
adrian_b 3y ago
Other countries use a much cheaper method. At some distance before the tunnel or passage under a bridge with limited height (but after the signs that advertise this) there is a solid metal barrier at the height limit and when any too high truck attempts to go forward (which of course happens from time to time) the barrier cuts the top of the truck, which is guaranteed to attract the attention of the drivers (and presumably the anger of their employer). EDIT: I have posted this before watching the video, which shows exactly how this method, of using a steel "crash beam" works. In this case, the truck was only slightly above the height limit, but in another place I have seen a similar incident where the truck was higher so all its roof has been cleanly cut and detached from the truck. This is the right method of handling such height limits, the only one that is guaranteed to be foolproof. Even if it damages the vehicle, if the vehicle were able to pass with an extra height, it is certain that it would be damaged anyway, but in worse conditions, especially in the case of a tunnel.
- mark_undoio 3y ago
  Near where I live we've got a guided busway (a track system that modified buses can travel down, tram-style). On the railway bridge before it's entrance there's a height barrier in advance consisting of a whole load of bells that dangle down from a metal bar and will hit over-height vehicles without making a really solid collision. They still haven't figured out a way to stop cars driving up the bus tracks, though (where they inevitably get stuck).
- gnfargbl 3y ago
  > This is the right method of handling such height limits, the only one that is guaranteed to be foolproof. Near where I grew up, there was a low bridge. At one point many years ago, an excavator on a low-loader hit the bridge, causing the excavator arm to swing around... into the upper deck of a loaded bus travelling in the opposite direction. The point is, this method might be foolproof in terms of preventing damage to the bridge, but it has other potential drawbacks.
- topspin 3y ago
  > I have posted this before watching the video They've done every conceivable thing to mitigate the problem at this bridge. Watch the old videos, before they had the crash bars and huge signs and flashing lights. Before they raised the bridge to the limit of what the rail line could tolerate.

dang 3y ago

Related: 11 Foot 8 – The Can-opener Bridge - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23587190 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23587190 - June 2020 (202 comments)

PetitPrince 3y ago

The Tunnel de l'Étoile[1] use to have the same problem until it was closed in 2015. It's now reopened as a bicycle only tunnel. It had blog associated with it; now defunct and cybersquatted but you can still see what it looks like through the wayback machine [2]. It was one of the earliest novelty blog I remember. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunnel_de_l%27%C3%89toile https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunnel_de_l%27%C3%89toile [2] https://web.archive.org/web/20230000000000*/http://www.2m40.com/ https://web.archive.org/web/20230000000000*/http://www.2m40....

latchkey 3y ago

There are a few bridges like this in Saigon on Truong Sa / Hoang Sa streets that run along a long river through the city. They are super busy traffic streets at almost all times of the day. It was always entertaining to watch trucks get stuck under them almost daily and back up traffic on the little streets for hours. Found a google maps photo of one of the bridges... https://goo.gl/maps/8eFk6EgxbdvhMyNk8 https://goo.gl/maps/8eFk6EgxbdvhMyNk8

davefol 3y ago

Used to work in an office overlooking this bridge. When a crash happened all work ceased and we’d gather around a window to gawk at the accident. Sometimes it felt like they came in clusters. I felt extra bad when it was a rental.

maxbond 3y ago
Interestingly random events like this do tend to cluster. There are lots of arrangements where clusters exist and very few where it doesn't, so clustering is a lower entropy state. Plane crashes are similar. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisson_clumping https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisson_clumping https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/109390/how-odd-is-a-cluster-of-plane-accidents https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/109390/how-odd-is-...

caf 3y ago

The Montague St Bridge (affectionately known as Monty) similarly likes to turn box trucks into parallelograms: https://howmanydayssincemontaguestreetbridgehasbeenhit.com/ https://howmanydayssincemontaguestreetbridgehasbeenhit.com/ Monty is 3.0m (9ft 10in).

fsckboy 3y ago

the most smh aspect of this was that truck actually does fit under that bridge, it just doesn't fit under the even lower warning board. the whole thing was an accident intending to happen!

omnicognate 3y ago
It's not a warning board. It's a crash beam to protect the bridge, because the consequences of damaging the rail bridge are much worse than those of canopening a truck that ignored numerous obvious warnings, including a flashing one triggered by a vehicle height sensor. The bridge itself has already been raised by 8 inches (though it's still unusually low), which would have also cost a fair bit. They haven't just gone and put an unnecessary "warning board" under it. There are many more incidents, BTW. Scroll down for more videos.

kazinator 3y ago

Looks much more like a thickness planer than a can opener to me. Yo, does that go any lower? I need another quarter inch off that truck.

endgame 3y ago

A bridge like this would make a great plot point in a big-dumb-action-style heist movie. Force a truck under a low canopener bridge at speed to rip its top off, then herd it onto the highway to drop people in via helicopter and extract the package.

sneak 3y ago
This happens in the first big chase scene in the beginning of Terminator 2.

jzb 3y ago

I live in Durham and drive by this occasionally, but funny enough I don’t think I’ve ever needed to drive under it. They actually raised it a few years ago, but it still claims the occasional truck.

Ilasky 3y ago

We got a similar issue in Boston - the Storrow bridge. So much so we call it "getting Storrowed"[0] [0] https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2021/08/19/boston-storrowing-what-to-know/ https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2021/08/19/boston-sto...

neonnoodle 3y ago
The wonderful thing about Storrow Drive—it’s a MAJOR ARTERY that is integral to traffic flow in downtown Boston. Since Boston has so many students, September 1st is like an informal holiday[^1] where we wait for newcomers to Storrow their U-Hauls. [^1]: actually one of two September 1 holidays observed. The other is “Allston Christmas,” when the streets of a popular student neighborhood are filled with free furniture people tossed out when they moved.
local_issues 3y ago
Fun fact! The namesake of Storrow Drive was "an investment banker who led a campaign to create the Charles River Basin and preserve and improve the riverbanks as a public park. He had never advocated a parkway beside the river, and Helen Storrow, his widow, publicly opposed it" It's one of the urban highways that can absolutely go, and should.

Svip 3y ago

In Europe, E-routes require a clear height of 4 metres, which is the maximum allowance for a regular vehicle. So if you're a trucker, you can be safe in knowing that driving on an E-route, means your vehicle will clear all bridges. There are definitely examples of countries upgrading their existing roads to become E-routes, which sometimes include raising bridges.

zabzonk 3y ago

happens with much older structures: https://romanlincolnshire.wordpress.com/2017/05/18/a-close-scrape-for-lincolns-newport-arch/ https://romanlincolnshire.wordpress.com/2017/05/18/a-close-s...

ndsipa_pomu 3y ago

There's some similar fun to be found by following the World Bollard Assocation on the platform formerly known as Twitter https://www.thepoke.co.uk/2023/01/06/the-world-bollard-association-on-twitter-is-anything-but-a-load-of-bollards-13-favourites/ https://www.thepoke.co.uk/2023/01/06/the-world-bollard-assoc...

ajxs 3y ago

Here's a website set up to track crashes involving another infamous bridge in Perth, Australia: https://www.howmanydayssincebayswaterbridgehasbeenhit.com/ https://www.howmanydayssincebayswaterbridgehasbeenhit.com/

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]