An overheight warning system at a CSX bridge in Maryland decreased the number of tractor-trailer incidents by 75 percent
Date Posted
01/04/2012
Identifier
2011-B00750
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CSX bridge clearance warning is doing its job

Summary Information

In January 2010, commercial development near the MD75/Balwin Road intersection led to an increase in truck traffic Nearly 6,500 vehicles per day travel through the intersection. However, when vehicles continue along MD 75 southbound, they encountered a low clearance bridge at the CSX railroad crossing, with no room to turn large vehicles around. Tractor-trailers heading to the warehouse would often get stuck at the CSX bridge, sometimes blocking the road for hours.

Between January and September 2010, the State Highway Administration recorded an average of nine trucks per month getting stuck at the bridge with a clearance of 12 feet 6 inches.

In October 2010, SHA installed the first phase of an overheight warning system on southbound MD 75 near Baldwin Road on both sides of the CSX bridge. The $146,000 system would alert truck drivers if their vehicles are too high to pass beneath the CSX Bridge south of the intersection.

The system comprised of reflective tubes strung between two 30-foot steel poles that strike any vehicle too high to pass under the bridge, acting as an audible alert. Phase two of the system added steel poles with infrared height detectors on the eastbound and westbound approaches to the MD 75 and Baldwin Road intersection in February 2011.

The SHA reports that the number of tractor-trailer incidents has decreased by 75% (from an average of nine per month to three each month) since the project was completed.
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