All bridges should be at least 14 feet high.  A defacto standard from the Eisenhower days.

If anything is lower, then 100 feet from that bridge should be hanging chains.  That rattle on any vehicle that is too high.  It is not dumb truck drivers.  Those drivers already have too much to watch and read.  Meaning one mistake will always happen.  Those chains then make it obvious to a driver that he has made a mistake.  Because some transportation organization has created a threat.  That bridge is too low.

A bridge next door to a close friend is constantly hit.  Recent was hit by a truck so hard that the major commuter rails on that bridge dislodged.  Fortunately that bridge is next to their maintenance facility.  They were able to halt all trains before a massive derailment could happen.

Why is that bridge hit at least once every six months?  It violates the a national defacto standard.

BTW same applies to telephone, electric, and cable wires.  I lost a car because those were too low.

Too many worry about costs rather than fix the mistake.
 

And so we take down those bridges or raise them.  To eliminate a problem that should never exist.

That interstate standard is (should be) now the standard for all bridges.  And everything else that crosses a road.  Including telephone and electric lines.

Anyone watching the road every minute of every day will always make a mistake.  Especially when he must also read all those signs.  Again, best truck drivers are still hitting my friends nearby bridge at least once every six months.

Just like in the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire outside Cincinatti.  They blamed victims for their own death.  Not the scum bags who installed defective wiring.  Blame a driver for burning to death in his Pinto.  Blame those seven Challenger astronauts for that explosion.

Things are always designed and upgraded so that mistakes cause less damage - every decade. But only when product thinking replace bean counter mentalities.  Deepwater Horizon.  Relevant word is evil when one is an MBA:anti-innovation.  It might cost money.  Reduce profits for the central committee of the communist party.

In one town, they needed to raise a bridge two feet.  So that fire trucks could pass under that bridge while another one was being built.  And then later, the railroad demanded the bridge be lowered (after the other bridge was completed).  Why.  Hate of what should be standard.  Worse, the railroad then abandoned those tracks.  Bridge remains - still too low.  Blame truck drivers.

They blamed her and blackballed her.  Ratht than a cover bridge that was best improved by arson.  Burn off a roof that does nothing useful.  Bridge is so bad that it only has one lane.  Why would anyone condone such crap?
 

Last edited by tw (11/20/2023 9:56 am)

Having spent money constantly repairing a defective bridge, the intelligent person (replacing an anti-American bean counter) has built a new bridge.  Without an expensive roof - that does nothing.  And with two lane for all traffic.

Even provided was a simple solution so that humans (who are always suppose to make mistakes) would hear rattling chains before hitting the bridge.  Why are so many so dumb as to not even implement that?  Same stupidity that installed and keeps repairing that defective crappy bridge.  That should have been removed decades ago.

Burn off the roof to improve it.

The only problem in that picture is the bridge.  That destroyed the career of a lady truck driver.

No truck driver should even have to worry about a low bridge - in a nation that is responsible - and thinking.

That bridge is so stupid as to only be one lane.  Not even hanging chains for a warning.  Apparently because some MBA types would cut costs - rather than think.

What did railroad across this country do so that trains can carry containers.  They raised all bridges on their railroads so that higher trains can now go from LA to Boston.  They fixed the crap - those bridges.

Covered bridges have roof because the expensive bridge surface is crap - wood.  And only one lane so that it can have that stupid roof.

Again, all truck drivers must be stupid because that bridge near my friends house is stuck at least once every six months.  Bridge is defective because drivers always make mistakes.  And raising it (or burning off the roof) is so easy and more intelligent.

Weather still harms wooden bridges with or without a roof.  Defective wood still requires more expensive maintenance.  Because it is crap.

Last edited by tw (11/20/2023 11:25 am)

Diaphone Jim wrote:

Let me guess: You once damaged a bridge by not being alert and responsible. 

That bridge was struck so many times that once rails shifted.  Fortunately a commuter train (maybe 100 or 200 people) was stopped before that scumbag (who did not fix the bridge) did not kill some 100 commuters.

Why do you so hate America as to condone such crap?  Especially when all solutions are so easy.  And do not happen because some beancounter has contempt for human life - just like in Flint MI.

Why would anyone have so much contempt for humans (ie truck drivers) as to blame her for doing what must constantly happen - when bridges remain too low.

This covered bridge so despicable as to also be a single lane bridge.  Burn off its roof to protect the life and jobs of good hardworking people

Why making conclusions from wild speculation.  Why ignore the most evil thing here - that bridge and a beancounter who protects it.

100 commuters could have been killed on that other 'too low' bridge had some patriot not been proactive and stopped the train.  Apparently Diaphone Jim thinks such threats to human life are acceptable.
 

An early warning like hanging chains, or just a cheap-to-replace sign at the same height over the road as the bridge roof should be there.  It's not there to protect the stupid or inattentive people; it's there to protect the bridge.