Warning - Low Bridge

[Bob G]

A road was closed for about 12 hours after a lorry struck a bridge and shed a "substantial amount" of paint.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-61618365

National Highways said the HGV hit the Watling Street railway bridge on the A5 between the A47 and the M69 in Hinckley, Leicestershire, at about 23:30 BST on Friday.
A National Highways spokesperson said: "A substantial amount of paint needed to be removed from the carriageway".

In 2020, the same bridge was dubbed the "most bashed" in Britain after being struck 25 times in a year.
Network Rail said there was an average of five railway bridge crashes per day nationally, with repairs costing an average of £13,000 per strike.

Now this bridge is on a main road, the A5, not a lightly used road at all. You would think that by now the road would have been lowered to allow lorries through, or another solution found?
In Tollerton, we have infra red scanners and warning lights to warn drivers and we provided turning circles either side of the low bridge so they can turn back. But the bridge still gets hit!

Bob

[exmouthcraig]

And tollerton is only on the Old Dalby Test Track but half the time the

OVERHEIGHT VEHICLE TURN BACK

dot matrix works and I only go through it in a transit 

[Newportnobby]

I'd like to think if the bridge was clearly signposted as being a low bridge then the firm he drove for should pay any costs. Driver maybe just blindly following a satnav??

[Bealman]

That explanation makes sense to me.

[emjaybee]

Some years back I was working in the village at the bottom of Bell Hill.
There's three roads down to the bottom. One from the High Street, which is a reasonable width, and two others which, at a pinch, you can get a 7.5 tonner up/down.
Whilst having lunch in the van I started to hear air brakes squealing and hissing and into view came a artic.
After 10 minutes of looking befuddled, he finally got out of the cab and came over to me.
He wanted to know if either of the other roads up out of the deep dip were passable in his rig.
"Not a chance" I said. "They're steeper and far narrower than what you came down."
He couldn't turn round, and couldn't reverse back up Bell Hill.
Two hours later, heavy recovery arrived and towed him backwards up Bell Hill.
The SatNav sent him down the Hill, and £8000 got him back up the Hill.

[chrism]

A friend used to have fun with Swaythling Arch in Southampton and his little steam roller, which he knew would fit under the bridge with bags of room to spare.
Shortly before approaching the bridge he'd pile on the coal, get a decent clag coming out of the chimney, and set off all the bells/klaxons/flashing signs, etc. as he steamed straight through 

[JunoF52]

I'd like to think if the bridge was clearly signposted as being a low bridge then the firm he drove for should pay any costs. Driver maybe just blindly following a satnav??

From what i can remember when I used to be in the traffic dept in Leicestershire when I attended an incident between a
lorry and a low flying bridge the British Rail man who attended said they always claim from the drivers insurance.  It seems to happen
more often nowadays - is it the number of foreign lorry drivers who cannot read english or is it english drivers playing with their
mobile phones and their mind in neutral
Geoff

[KevTheBusDriver]

A road was closed for about 12 hours after a lorry struck a bridge and shed a "substantial amount" of paint.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-61618365

National Highways said the HGV hit the Watling Street railway bridge on the A5 between the A47 and the M69 in Hinckley, Leicestershire, at about 23:30 BST on Friday.
A National Highways spokesperson said: "A substantial amount of paint needed to be removed from the carriageway".

In 2020, the same bridge was dubbed the "most bashed" in Britain after being struck 25 times in a year.
Network Rail said there was an average of five railway bridge crashes per day nationally, with repairs costing an average of £13,000 per strike.

Now this bridge is on a main road, the A5, not a lightly used road at all. You would think that by now the road would have been lowered to allow lorries through, or another solution found?
In Tollerton, we have infra red scanners and warning lights to warn drivers and we provided turning circles either side of the low bridge so they can turn back. But the bridge still gets hit!

Bob

no surprise, really - the A5 bridge and the one at Lichfield City are each hit about once a month - it's a pity the SatNav doesn't know the vehicle height. The Lichfield bridge is (from memory) 14'0" - I used to drive a Leyland Olympian bus under it on school runs - it was only 13'8" and used to scare the locals. However on days I got a different bus I had to go round it! As they tell you at driving school - KNOW YOUR HEIGHT!

[stevewalker]

Back in the '90s a supplier of large diesel and gas engines used to design skidded packages to fit through a nearby bridge. Then the council, without any consultation, resurfaced the road and cut the clearance down by 3 or 4 inches. The next skid to be delivered required the road surface ripping off.

Around the same time, the place that I was working used to send out over 50 oversized loads per annum. We had a truck come to move a 140 ton, gas turbine driven, 24MW generator set. A few weeks later, he returned to move the second set and had to demolish the new traffic lights that the council had repositioned, in order to access our site! Again, there was no consultation about the work, despite it being the access to our factory, where over 500 people worked and our sales were in the 10s of millions of pounds per year.

[chrism]

Back in the '90s a supplier of large diesel and gas engines used to design skidded packages to fit through a nearby bridge. Then the council, without any consultation, resurfaced the road and cut the clearance down by 3 or 4 inches. The next skid to be delivered required the road surface ripping off.

A similar thing happened to a steam special in the late-eighties or early-nineties, involving, IIRC) S&D 7F no.53809. The route had all been surveyed, all clearances checked and the run approved. Between the checks and the run, the P-Way department did some repacking along part of the route and, unfortunately, raised the track.

I can't remember if it just smashed the chimney or ripped it right off.

[acook]

Before then, 6000 King George V:

In September 1974 the safety valve of the locomotive struck a road overbridge at Llantarnam whilst the locomotive was travelling at speed. The valve cover was ripped off together with the valves which released a boiler full of steam. The local fire brigade were called to pump water into the boiler to minimise the damage. The cause of the accident was the recent re-ballasting of the line which caused the trackbed to be raised a few inches. The badly damaged safety valve cover was found in an adjoining field. Following the incident the locomotive was pushed to Ebbw Vale Junction by a diesel shunter. 6000 stayed there for six days whilst it was examined and a borrowed safety valve was fitted from GWR Prairie 4150 which was then at the Dean Forest Railway.
From Preserved British Steam Locomotives

Alan