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  1. Y’all know the Gregson Street underpass (or railroad bridge) in Durham, NC? It’s the can opener bridge; it’s got its own website: 11foot8.com, because that’s the posted clearance. Well, the can opener is being raised, albeit by eight inches. Going by the video I’ve seen (ibid.), that might do it for most of the box trucks, by the skin of their teeth for many of them.

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    • Up here in Alaska we have a bridge like that on the highway between Chugiak and Wasilla. Our Highway Department’s answer was to post warning signs to truckers to take the off ramp and then the on ramp to avoid going under the bridge. It’s a good solution except for the truckers who disregard the warning or just plain forget.

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      • In Durham, the bridge is in a 25 mph speed zone, and I’m told there are warning sides for three blocks beforehand and a laser sensor triggers a flashing LED sign on the last half-block. The website has 150 or so crashes listed and it’s mostly six and ten-wheeled trucks, with a lot of those being rentals. One of the latest crashes was the boom of an excavator, the elbow joint of it, hitting the crash bar and maybe the bridge itself. (There is lot of explanation on the 11foot8 website.)

        Raleigh has (or had for years anyway) one bridge near downtown that was 12 feet, 4 inches. I think it was Peace St. and Wade Avenue. I think that would be a little ways north of the Krispy Kreme (which I’m told may be moving because they’ve lost their lease). That bridge would snag an occasional eighteen wheeler.

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