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QUESTION:These devices are normally set up far enough ahead of the bridge, so that you
have time to stop. In the old days, they were just a bunch of chains hanging
down. If your truck hit the chains, then you better not go under the bridge.
No day, they have gotten a little more sophisticated.
ANSWER: I work for a heavy equipment company. We employ about 40 drivers. In the last
ten years, we have hit a bridge twice. Our average is much better than most
haulers of heavy equipment.
In one case, it was a very large forklift on a single drop neck equipment
trailer, specifically designed for hauling mobile heavy equipment. The driver
had gotten under that same bridge perhaps a hundred times with the same load.
Then one day, he forgot to lower the mast on the forklift, so that it did not
fit under the bridge any more.
In another case, we were hauling a sixty ton steel test weight on a special
trailer designed for that much load. The driver got under the bridge OK in one
direction, but when he returned, he hit the bridge. I do not know why he was
able to make the trip in one direction and not the other, but we suspect that he
had more air in his air bags on the return trip.
Bridges are normally hit by one of two types of drivers:
1. The amature who rents a truck.
2. The flat bed operator, who hauls different things everytime he travels.
This is the case of the mobile heavy equipment haulers.
In this state, Florida, it is legal to haul a load 13' 6" high without permits.
Anything higher requires a permit, which will specify a particular route. In my
opinion, we ought to load up that 60 tons of steel again, and just take out any
bridge with less clearance than is required for a permit. Fortunately, these
low bridges are very rare in this State. You will only find a few of them, and
they will be on the back routes. It is up to the driver to be careful.
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