Yesterday, I had to go off my normal route in Holland. Driving down a country road, I approached a tunnel going under the railway and could see in the distance that it was height restricted to trucks and buses. My fault, I missed the warning signs. Cursing myself, I started looking for places to reverse into and turn around when I suddenly noticed that the local Dutch council for the province had built a half circle layby allowing errant overheight trucks or buses to screw round and head the other way. It was quite smart and got me out of a tight spot. They’d obviously had problems there before.
I was just wondering if any councils back in the UK had built such turn round points in front of low bridges? Anybody spotted something similar anywhere?
There’s one in Nottingham on
the A606 Melton Road just before you reach Tollerton about 500yds from the A52 Wheatcroft roundabout
You get diverted down the 52 and onto the A46 if you’re heading towards Melton
Coming off the A46 Nottingham bound there’s a sign warning of a low bridge 5 and a half miles away but over height vehicles still come that way
So they reach the bridge and have to turnaround and go all the way back and use the 52 to get Nottingham bound
Cheers Gary
Maybe a mile or so before you get to the low bridge at Haverfordwest from Pembroke there are a couple of signs directing vehicles that are to tall to turn into a large layby to do a u-turn basically and send you back to Pembroke.
Not a bridge but the weight limit at Greenwich has a u-turn through a car park that’s well signposted, the weight limit is well signposted too but the u-turn is still needed!
I’ve observed the fact that if you hammer down towards the bridge the majority if the vehicle will clear it ymtgus negating the need for wasteful turnaround points
Blackwall Tunnel Northbound has a slip road just for trucks that set the overheight signs off. When you go in, breathing a sigh of relief, you find that you are held by gates until the tunnel cops come and have a word…
gazsa401:
There’s one in Nottingham on
the A606 Melton Road just before you reach Tollerton about 500yds from the A52 Wheatcroft roundabout
You get diverted down the 52 and onto the A46 if you’re heading towards Melton
Coming off the A46 Nottingham bound there’s a sign warning of a low bridge 5 and a half miles away but over height vehicles still come that way
So they reach the bridge and have to turnaround and go all the way back and use the 52 to get Nottingham bound
Cheers Gary
You beat me to it on that one… especially as I turned left at the last roundabout out of Nottingham then got that awful sinking feeling till I saw the the turn round point! At which point I remembered I was pulling a flat so it didn’t matter anyway!!
I don’t think drivers think “oh well there is no designated turn around point so I’m just going to see if all the signs are wrong and see if it fits anyway”. Once they get that far they are oblivious to all dimensions and road signs.
Imagine if every low bridge in Britain had one of these turn around spots both side, how long before they’re full of overnight/weekend parkers?
I think a lot of trouble in this country is that people fail for some reason to believe the low bridge signs they pass. The A1 north was blocked at Ponton this morning, on my commute to work I travel under a 13’ 3" arch bridge and as I came out of it in my car I was greeted by the sight of upwards of ten lorries of all descriptions and all clearly over height for this route parked up before it with their hazards flashing away. What made me laugh was the look of puzzlement on the drivers faces as they all conferred with each other beside their trucks. Obviously after passing at least 3 low bridge signs it came as a surprise that there actually was a low bridge on the road.
Btw, it was one of ours who slammed into the side of a U turning W&D on the A1 that caused it.
Santa:
Blackwall Tunnel Northbound has a slip road just for trucks that set the overheight signs off. When you go in, breathing a sigh of relief, you find that you are held by gates until the tunnel cops come and have a word…
Back in the last century, our 4m tilts used to set the alarms off if we went through over 30mph due to the sheet blowing up.
