I16 bridge in eastern Georgia shifted after being hit by raised dump trailer

[Retiredat46]

The SR86 bridge over I16 in Treutlen County, Georgia, was shifted six feet when hit by raised dump trailer on July 15, 2021.

https://twitter.com/GDOTEastTraffic/status/1415743543017082884

https://mailchi.mp/dot.ga.gov/emerg...t9LyqNmypNllvHpvnHClqG8cL_qaVr-ztLCchgMCR0U5g

Efforts are underway to demolish the entire bridge so the I16 can be partially reopened by July 17.

Wow! I can see demolishing and replacing the concrete deck, but it seems like a large part of the steel structure could be saved and moved back into place. It would be interesting to see some pictures of the underside of the bridge and learn the justification for a complete demolition.

 

[Cool_Controls]

Great photo of the deck. Link

 

[GPR_Tech]

How do we not have simple safety lockouts to prevent this is beyond me.
I know that these trucks need to be able to maneuver at the job site with the dump raised but there has to be a solution to this.
And clearly the solution would need to be a passive one, not one requiring the driver to activate.
Just a red flashing strobe light in the cab, when the bed is up, could have prevented this...

 

[SuperSalad]

I would suspect a governor to limit speed while the bed is raised could solve the problem. I would also have to assume that there is a good reason why such a simple seeming solution is not employed.

Andrew H.

http://www.MotoTribology.com

 

[Cool_Controls]

Bed fully down and locked limit switches need to be mandatory and difficult to defeat.

 

[phamENG]

That'll solve the problem in about 30 years. Are we going to enforce retroactive installation? How? Not saying we shouldn't, just saying it's not going to solve the problem for all the 80s and 90s model trucks still driving around out there. Insurance companies offering incentives and discounts for installation might help.

 

[Retiredat46]

That portion of I-16 was built in the mid-'60s, so age will partially justify complete replacement . It's hard to tell from the available pictures if there's a lot of damage to the steel structure. There's a little curve built in, and the depth of the beams gets deeper near the center support. I imagine the momentum of the truck and/or trailer frame could have lifted them into the framework with considerable force.

Any idea on how they'll go about demolishing the bridge? How much does something like that weigh? Could a mobile crane lift an entire span to simply set it aside?

 

[SuperSalad]

That'll solve the problem in about 30 years. Are we going to enforce retroactive installation? How? Not saying we shouldn't, just saying it's not going to solve the problem for all the 80s and 90s model trucks still driving around out there. Insurance companies offering incentives and discounts for installation might help.

Couldn't a governor or a limit switch, like Cool Controls mentioned, be installed on existing equipment? Of course they could be 'defeated' but I would say if they increase the civil/criminal penalties and insurance policies for these companies to reflect the danger removing them posed, it would at least be an net positive on the situation.

Andrew H.

http://www.MotoTribology.com

 

[phamENG]

Yes, but I would think they'd have to be designed for each application - a universal probably wouldn't work. That complicates it and drives the cost way up. How many of these incidents occur per mile traveled by this type of truck? I'm guessing the number is going to be pretty low. Charging some of these owner/operators thousands of dollars to pitch in for the design, manufacture, and installation of a governor device seems like it could be ab it onerous.

Now installing a large red light in the cab (that's obvious but not distracting while the operator is moving around on the job site) could work. Maybe put it on a timer - once the bed has been up for more than 5 minutes it starts to flash. Something like that. That would be some simple circuitry and a limit switch.

 

[MortenA]

happens more frequently than you think. Also with mobile cranes not lowered and/or secured before taking to the road.

 

[MechinNC]

Stack some cribbing, jack up the moved end a bit and winch it over a few inches. Reposition jacks and repeat til back in position. Probably one of the easiest heavy lifts out there as all undesirable motion is restrained.

Of course I have not looked at it except from photo!!

 

[Cool_Controls]

That'll solve the problem in about 30 years. Are we going to enforce retroactive installation? How? Not saying we shouldn't, just saying it's not going to solve the problem for all the 80s and 90s model trucks still driving around out there. Insurance companies offering incentives and discounts for installation might help.

Make it a requirement to pass a DOT inspection.

 

[EdStainless]

Of course there is also the issue of whether the insurance co will pay out anything on this. Since it was obviously purly driver error then they should refuse to pay and force liquidation of the company.
Insurance companies need to grow a set and not pay for stupidity, this wasn't an 'accident'.
And of course the driver should never be able to hold a CDL again, at least for some time period.
I operated some Ag equipment built in the 60's that had a mechanical interlock, if things weren't in the 'road' position you couldn't shift out of low range on the trans. Simple and it worked.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
P.E. Metallurgy, consulting work welcomed

 

[TugboatEng]

GPR_Tech, tamper resistant lockouts is how you end up with the John Deere effect. Internet bloggers will write stories about dump truck divers complaining about not being able to use their truck because they don't want to repair it properly. They'll give the phenomenon a catchy name like right to repair.

 

[Retiredat46]

Well, they're hard at it with an excavator. They sure did a job on the dump body(lower right and in front of the excavator).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xT2zEIAiAe0

 

[Spartan5]

First - ripping that thing down is every 5-year-olds’ dream job.

Second - they should just put a little ram-air turbine air raid siren type device on a portion of the bed that would be exposed when it is up. Make it sound like the POH-lice.

 

[phamENG]

Make it sound like the POH-lice.

No, then they'll be driving that much faster when they hit it.

 

[TugboatEng]

I was going to say, here in California, they could never get going fast enough for the siren to make noise. But, in that case I guess it wouldn't do any damage either.

 

[JStephen]

Long ago, I was driving a bobtail dump truck. For whatever reason, I was driving a truck I hadn't driven before.
That truck, like many dump trucks, wasn't built as a dump truck, so the dump controls were two unmarked shop-made levers sticking up from the floor, one to shift PTO in/out of gear, one for the hydraulic control.
So I dumped the load at an off-road site, lowered the bed, and took off. Got about a hundred yards down the way, and discovered the bed was back up again. I thought I had it disengaged, but nope.
Fortunately, I didn't run under anything in the meantime, and no harm done, but lesson learned.
I suspect that's how the majority of these accidents happen, the bed goes up while they're driving without the driver realizing it, rather than forgetting to lower it.
One problem you have is that dump trucks in general tend to get beat up pretty good, so it's a continuing challenge just to keep trailer lights working, etc. So some ideas that sound great on paper are not likely to work out that well in reality.
One problem is that dump trucks and cement trucks are sort of the low rung of the ladder in the truck-driving world, so that tends to be the lower-paid lesser-skilled lesser-qualified segment of the truck driving population.
One problem is that a major user of dump truck services is various government entities themselves, so whatever you do that runs the cost of operating dump trucks up, increases road-maintenance cost as well.

 

[LionelHutz]

Here, they came up with a great idea. Load sense the truck to force the lift axle to be down when the truck is loaded. The problem is the required retrofit kits are about $15k and then they don't work right. The axle is down when it should be up or up when it should be down. There is no driver control allowed over the axle air bag pressure either. Put that axle down at the wrong time with too much pressure and the truck becomes dangerous because it takes all the weight off the steering axle. Drivers compensate by heavy loading the truck to the front which then creates other issues. But, the idiots who created this don't care about that - that axle needs to be down to properly distribute the reduce the wear on the roads. They decided too many drivers weren't doing it properly themselves so they legislated this forced automatic control. I imagine the same screwed up mess would happen with any kind of legislated automatic dump control.