GWSR Broadway Developments

I've heard two, both skip lorries. It was a huge thunderous rumble, as a large steel bin is forced under a bridge at 40mph and then stops.
One fessed up and I took his details, the other, whom I saw - and photographed - reversing away hurriedly, flatly denied it. Didn't photograph him actually under it, did I. Police informed, heard no more.

 

As the Bridge strikes are likely to happen again and again on this bridge and I believe there was a bad strike on it in BR days, could you not install sacrificial beams on either side of the bridge, ( there is at least one rail bridge in Swindon that has these) see below, or the other alternative is the road gets dug out and lowered below. Even just lowering it say 1 metre might be enough.

To me just repairing the damage doesn't solve the issue. It is bound to happen again.

 

I believe the bad strike was in 1975, it nearly cut the bridge in half. Again, it was a 360 on a low loader.
Lowering the road is not a good idea I have heard (it is already 2ft below the original ground level) but protective measures are being seriously considered.

 

It is a very pretty bridge however, these preventative bars do bring down the aesthetics, protecting the bridge is paramount though of course. Perhaps an infrared or laser scanner that can detect if a vehicle doesn't have the clearance which activates a sign telling the driver as such, similar to the tech you see in those signs that show you your mph. Whatever happens a cctv feed is clearly needed, or better signage.

 

We have a bridge near SOA at Bearley hit by an artic. The trailer was an imediate wright off but worse wass to come for the haulier. The tractor unit was almost new but when examined it was broken backed. One would think hauliers would better manage their staff who had ignored height sensor warnings

 

See my 1845 - drivers regularly ignore over height warnings

 

I remember reading about this accident during BR days (I think in the GWSR own magazine when I used to be a member). Apparently what happened is that the 360 being moved on a lorry and passed under the bridge no problem, then say a week later when it had finished the work it was taken home again on the same lorry back under the bridge and this time it hit the bridge and caused the damage and they couldn't understand why.

Eventually they worked out the first time the 360 had been parked with the bucket curled under the gib, but on the return trip the bucket was curled outwards and this meant the arm was just a bit higher than previously enough to hit the bridge, so if the 360 had just been parked the same way it wouldn't of happened. There was a simple diagram in the article showing the difference in the two ways it had been parked on the lorry.

Can you still see this damage/repair on the bridge today. ?

 

The trouble is that the sensor would have to be well ahead of the sign, which would have to be big enough to be seen by the most idiotic of drivers, and that would need to be far enough ahead of the bridge to give time to react and stop. It would probably require reinforcing with a row of flashing lights on the bridge triggered at the same time. All requiring power and interconnecting. And of course on both sides of the bridge. The system would require regular testing to confirm it is functional. It starts to sound horribly expensive.

 

Yes, look on the new bridges blog entry. It's a big plate bolted to the Cotswolds side. The jib of the 360 carved a big 'V' into it.

I would dearly like to know the date of that 1975 (?) strike, can anyone help?

 

On top of that, according to an article I saw on the BBC website a few months back, such warning triggers/lights prevent only one third of the accidents. Two thirds just carry on.

The people who cause the accidents get the sack, get a new driver, move on. There ought to be far more serious consequences, with punitive damages payable to the bridge owner. It costs the railway horrendous amounts of time to sort each one out. All this is unpaid.

 

I understand that problems of HGV speeding somewhere in Australia were reduced significantly by making the haulage firm jointly liable for speeding, unless they could demonstrate that they'd taken proactive measures to make sure drivers didn't speed. I wonder if something similar might work - says he living in a town with 3 regularly struck low bridges on the ECML.

 

How about a sensor coupled to a heat-seeking missile battery mounted in the bridge?
Erm... I'll just get my coat. ..

 

There are surely alternative routes, so why not a blanket ban on lorries over a certain weight/height. One sees signs all over banning lorries off certain roads; the drivers may well ignore them but then can be reported for just being on the road.

 

When it comes to lorries and freight haulage, is there an idea of where they are trying to get to? If you know the reasons why most of them are using that road then a solution can be worked towards, I understand that broadway has a bypass, so the low bridges can be avoided surely, or is it a case of fools blindly relying on sat nav...

 

Why is it unpaid if the driver or vehicle has been identified ? Damage must be covered by the vehicle owner's insurance in the same way as if they'd hit another vehicle and, in any case, even if the culprit is not traced, surely the railway has insurance cover on its assets ?

 

I'm sure they do, but will also have a hefty excess and face increased premiums, if multiple strikes are claimed for.

Sawdust.

 

Even if the railway has insurance, if the bridge is repeatedly hit then the premiums can only increase if the railway's insurance has to fork out!

 

We have to get the money off the culprits, otherwise our insurance skyrockets, or gets refused altogether.

However...

Who did it?
Prove it!
How much?
Did I really cause all that?
Argue...
Settle...
Find cheapest contractor
Argue over cost of contractor with insurance...
More, unreported damage is found.

Who on the railway is going to volunteer to handle all that. For every strike, and there have been at least 12.

 

This, plus the fact that whilst any repairs are undertaken no trains can run to Broadway means that whilst CCTV is helpful, we really need a preventative measure - once trains begin running to Broadway a bridge strike will cause chaos.

 

Yes, I used to live in that same town! Barrowby Road Bridge - strike city! It does have 2 large sod-off crash beams either side now though!