April 27
...serving up your daily dish.
A tipster sends in the above...
Truck stuck under the parkway overpass, between Blmfd. Ave. and Franklin St. opposite the new Dunkin Donuts. Taken around 5PM.
April 27, 2006 in Seen around town | Permalink
Now I know why traffic was backed up a mile all the way to the parkway exit down the Bloomfield ave exit ramp.
I'm glad I get off at exit 151
Posted by: albee | Apr 27, 2006 6:51:10 PM
For a few hundred dollars, they could eliminate this nonsense.
Hang a few cans from a bar exactly the same height as the bridge, but a few hundred feet before the bridge.
If the truck hits the cans, they make a whole lot of noise, and the driver wakes up, comes out of his haze, or otherwise notices the impending bridge. Before he gets wedged under it.
Posted by: Paul from OB | Apr 27, 2006 9:43:26 PM
I was wondering what happened. The message signs on the GSP in Union flashed a warning to avoid 148 at about 5:45. Very helpful.
Posted by: State Street Pete | Apr 28, 2006 9:34:03 AM
Glad they spent the last year fixing up that overpass. I despise that intersection. There is no warning that you can't make a left on Bloomfield coming from the Parkway Southbound, so cars end up making illegal u turns on Bloomfield. Also the timing of the lights means that cars always end up blocking the box.
Posted by: hammond | Apr 28, 2006 9:50:53 AM
i wonder if they let out the air in the truck's tires to get it out of the way...didn't a child come up with that solution?
Posted by: Julsey | Apr 28, 2006 10:05:22 AM
On the last weekend of August in the Fair City of Boston, tens of thousands of new college students migrate to town in what is known locally as "The Ryder Rodeo." Invariably, a half-dozen rental trucks a day get trapped under the low bridges and pedestrian overpasses of Storrow Drive, along the banks of the Charles River. That is where I first saw the "let the air out of the tires" trick. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that well when your truck is 14' high and the overpass is 11'9". Then you call the wrecker, the rental company, and your daddy, in that order.
Posted by: Conan the Chowdahhead | Apr 28, 2006 10:22:45 AM
And during rush hour, no less...what a pain! This is the first time I've actually seen a truck not make it under the GSP overpass. The truck must have been unusually high. On the other hand, trucks frequently get caught going underneath the NJ Transit rail overpasses in Bloomfield Center (even though there are clear warnings about the height limit). Since these place are obviously common truck delivery routes the longer term solution (albeit not cheap) would be to regrade the road level to create a slight dip as it passes underneath. Changing the bridge height is, no doubt, a far too expensive and disrruptive solution.
Posted by: todd | Apr 28, 2006 11:11:15 AM
