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9.29 The Southern Motorway, southbound at Penrose is reduced to one lane as engineers inspect damage to the Penrose overbridge.
The bridge was struck by an over-height truck just after 6.30pm. The debris from the impact was quickly cleared but lanes have had to be closed to enable engineers to work in safety.
Some trucks with freight on our roads are fairly tall
It is not known how long the closure will be required.
8 Comments
At least with these cases we know who is responsible, and has to pay, or at least face disciplinary action/prosecution.
When our roads crumble into pieces bit by bit as trucks get ever heavier (thanks to Steven Joyce), people will say “Ooooh, who could have seen THAT coming?… ah, too late now.”
Lucky we armor our motorway bridges. There is no way this should keep happening though. How hard is it for a driver to measure 4.25 meters?
I sure hope we have over height barriers either side of our electrified level crossings. I know the main wire will be quite a bit higher than our waterway bridges (they will be about 5.5m tall.)
I can still imagine one truck taking down half our rail network with an over height load.
Trucks have the upper hand backed by the government building more roads in 2010? What backward thinking.
My wife was going out to see her parents tonight when she came across this, the motorway was down to one lane when she went through
“I sure hope we have over height barriers either side of our electrified level crossings.”
Barriers were indeed studied, both solid and warning type, as well as a few other types of protection. However, I am not sure what they decided after getting the report.
“Barriers were indeed studied, both solid and warning type, as well as a few other types of protection.”
That is good to hear. Any barrier will be better than nothing. I don’t think flashing lights will cut it though. people still hit motorway bridges with them.
How about we electrify the overhead with 25,000 volts and a huge amount of current so people would be crazy to risk bringing one down over the tracks
The trouble is some people are crazy. They need to be planned for.
Plus if you stay in the cab you are unlikely to get hurt by the electricity. Its the people running to help the driver who are at risk.