Dipper_Dave:
I have, can’t remember where but the height of the whole span was marked as well as the central section for high vehicles.
The solution is to just lower the road, obvious really.
Edit: Bit like this one, although the one I’m thinking of had the white lines across the bridge to make it virtually idiot proof.
Difficult to judge with no obvious scale, but those goalposts look to be a normal trailer width? Do you know where it is?
One potential issue with simply digging the road a bit deeper is the infrastructure under the road - especially the drains. Lowering the road may lead to water being required to flow uphill. Not insurmountable but not a simple fix.
dozy:
Said it before and I’ll say it again they need redesigning , the full span needs to be of set height not a few feet in the middle , £1.3 million later and there still not listening to me , I actually sent a letter in to the Grantham journal detailing how to stop a lot of bridge strikes ( height needs to be full span of bridge ) , yes you’ve guessed it not published
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They can’t just knock them all down but they can redesign the roads leading up to them, and make sure there are height indicators even when not needed – they look lower than they are in some cases. For example, there’s an arch bridge, with a dismantled railway on top, on the A272 between Winchester and Petersfield, with no indicator, and when pulling a double decker a few months ago I didn’t know if I could stay in lane or not, so I took the middle. Where railways have been dismantled, they should remove the bridges (I remember the low bridge they left on the A222 near Croydon for years after they removed the Woodside-Selsdon railway, which stopped double deck buses from using it for decades until they built the tram lines).
Sometimes the approach roads make it difficult or impossible to get a trailer cleanly through – the arch on the only route from the A31 to the A339 and old A32 (to Odiham) in Alton being a good example. There actually is a bridge tall enough, and arch wide enough (the road that leads from the A32 roundabout west of Alton), but trucks are banned from it altogether.
Rowley010:
I am partially with dozy on this. Sometimes the arch bridge gives you a height, with markers on where the height is, but the width of those markers is nowhere near the width of a truck. The advertised height should be the whole width of the road rather than a few inches in the middle. That could prevent a lot of arch bridge strikes.
Really? How many such bridges do you know of? I’ve never seen a set of markings that are less then a standard trailer width.
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Yes. There’s one near settle where the height markers are about half a trailer width. What’s the point in that?
Rowley010:
I am partially with dozy on this. Sometimes the arch bridge gives you a height, with markers on where the height is, but the width of those markers is nowhere near the width of a truck. The advertised height should be the whole width of the road rather than a few inches in the middle. That could prevent a lot of arch bridge strikes.
Really? How many such bridges do you know of? I’ve never seen a set of markings that are less then a standard trailer width.
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Yes. There’s one near settle where the height markers are about half a trailer width. What’s the point in that?
Maybe to allow a flat with a Hiab or a flat with a steel girder an a trestle sicking out over the cab or even VERY tall bloke on a motorbike to safely pass under ?
Regards. John.
It doesn’t help when you have a 12’ 6" truck, nice shiny new sign on road 3 miles from bridge says 12’ 6", get to bridge and the sign says 12’ 3".
Luckily you can turn left and avoid the bridge (though it adds a couple of miles) but it’s not the first time I’ve seen this sort of thing happen. Obviously you don’t try the bridge if you’ve got half an ounce of common sense, but you have to despair at the council muppet who didn’t bother to cross-check.
To add insult to injury that railway bridge hasn’t had a train across it for over 50 years and wouldn’t be likely to for at least another 50; in the unlikely event of the railway ever re-opening it’ll almost certainly need to be rebuilt anyway so why not just demolish the ■■■■ thing?
malcolmgbell:
Y not build arched trucks, problem sorted
Quality !!
Arched trailers at least,to help with tunnels,have been around for decades but still won’t make any difference in the case of drivers not going through on the centre line of the bridge.
Rowley010:
I am partially with dozy on this. Sometimes the arch bridge gives you a height, with markers on where the height is, but the width of those markers is nowhere near the width of a truck. The advertised height should be the whole width of the road rather than a few inches in the middle. That could prevent a lot of arch bridge strikes.
Really? How many such bridges do you know of? I’ve never seen a set of markings that are less then a standard trailer width.
Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk
Yes. There’s one near settle where the height markers are about half a trailer width. What’s the point in that?
If it’s only half a trailer width it doesn’t meet the specifications laid down in the Traffic Signs Manual (which stipulates a minimum of 3 metres). The Highways authority needs taking to task if it really is that narrow.
Half might be an exaggeration but it’s not full width, and the road bends before and after the bridge so if you were anywhere near the max height you’d be struggling
I would imagine the majority of the strikes occurred when the driver was using sat nav looking at the device as opposed to where he/she was going.
My employer has had six strikes this year (2 of those to my knowledge were contractors) this reflects badly on the ‘O’ licence and another point worth mentioning is passengers who are delayed in their journies can now sue network fail for compensation, the bill for this compensation and all associated costs including engineer visits surveys and so on could be huge how many passengers are their on a packed mainline commuter train all of which are entitled to compensation.
This hefty bill will then be passed to the haulier responsible, there is no excuse for hitting bridges they are clearly marked often miles beforehand, this to me is a reflection of the standard of individuals now driving trucks we have to be scraping the barrel pretty well close to the bottom if you can’t read road signs.
The dumbing down of the job on every level in the name of health and safety, this is where we are, the job being done by licence holding car drivers.
What happened to common sense ■■?..I’m only a dealer mechanic ,but when like I did recently I had to bring a truck back to the workshop from an area I didn’t know ,I was constantly wondering about bridges etc… will say it was only a rigid with a body ,But surely common sense tells you when approaching an arched bridge that (A) you know the height of your vehicle (B) If it is close to your height you either take it slowly ,or stop and find an alternative route …Now I realise reversing a unit and trailer for god knows how long and you have traffic etc isnt easy, but surely hitting the bridge isn’t an option ■■?
Rowley010:
Half might be an exaggeration but it’s not full width, and the road bends before and after the bridge so if you were anywhere near the max height you’d be struggling
Max width for a truck in the UK is 2.55 metres. 3 metres is more than that. Is it really less than 2.55 metres? Which road is it on?
Sidevalve:
It doesn’t help when you have a 12’ 6" truck, nice shiny new sign on road 3 miles from bridge says 12’ 6", get to bridge and the sign says 12’ 3".
Is this early doors in Wales, I’ve never seen sheep doing the walk of shame before.
Sidevalve:
It doesn’t help when you have a 12’ 6" truck, nice shiny new sign on road 3 miles from bridge says 12’ 6", get to bridge and the sign says 12’ 3".
Is this early doors in Wales, I’ve never seen sheep doing the walk of shame before.
Trust you to be more interested in the local entertainment than the bridge.
Pesky bridges leaping out on poor unsuspecting lorry drivers 
Still looks a tight fit though! 