Motor home stuck under Flintshire bridge

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Bayblue

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The motor home got stuck under the bridge on Broughton Hall Road in Broughton at about 6pm today.
Can't see one of our stickers on it

Motor home stuck under Flintshire bridge blocks road - Daily Post

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One of our bridges got whacked by a truck the other day, totally stoving in the container on the back.

I send an inspector out to check on the bridge condition. A few hours later get a message "you're not going to believe this, it's been hit by another truck, right in front of the inspector".

Then about half an hour later I get "you're really not going to believe this........"

Yup, hit by 3 trucks in 6hrs. Gotta be something of a record.
 
hextal said:
One of our bridges got whacked by a truck the other day, totally stoving in the container on the back.

I send an inspector out to check on the bridge condition. A few hours later get a message "you're not going to believe this, it's been hit by another truck, right in front of the inspector".

Then about half an hour later I get "you're really not going to believe this........"

Yup, hit by 3 trucks in 6hrs. Gotta be something of a record.
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Surly these bridges are not up to eu standards ie hight or the trucks are on steroids.
 
trevskoda said:
Surly these bridges are not up to eu standards ie hight or the trucks are on steroids.
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It is a 2.2M bridge and signed as such so where do EU standards come in to it, the driver is at fault for not seeing it or not knowing the height of his motorhome, sometimes you have to have low bridges, there is always an alternative route
 
tezza33 said:
It is a 2.2M bridge and signed as such so where do EU standards come in to it, the driver is at fault for not seeing it or not knowing the height of his motorhome, sometimes you have to have low bridges, there is always an alternative route
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Personally I believe a lot of the times it comes from not knowing what 2.2m = in old money.
 
There are a couple of bridges near where I live that get smacked regularly. Thy are both around 14' 6". The problem is that they are close to a large Trading Estate and catch out newbies in HGVs.
 
a proper camper would let a bit of air out of his tyres, pull the thing out of there, and drive onto the rest of his holiday
 
Obviously I cannot say certain things, one of my favourite members/people delivers low bridges
 
What intrigues me is that the roof of the motorhome seems relatively intact?? At 2.2m I would expect it to be seriously damaged!
 
maingate said:
There are a couple of bridges near where I live that get smacked regularly. Thy are both around 14' 6". The problem is that they are close to a large Trading Estate and catch out newbies in HGVs.
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or agency drivers ... who are mostly newbies
 
A few years ago in Doncaster a car transporter smacked a bridge, common route to a large holding compound. I turned out the road had been re surfaced and the signage not changed. Sonot always th edrivers fault.

Channa
 
Auld Pharrrt said:
Personally I believe a lot of the times it comes from not knowing what 2.2m = in old money.
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On this occasion It's clearly written underneath it in old money buddy, 7"6 guy must be blind or was getting an ear bashing at the time from his mrs
 
tezza33 said:
It is a 2.2M bridge and signed as such so where do EU standards come in to it, the driver is at fault for not seeing it or not knowing the height of his motorhome, sometimes you have to have low bridges, there is always an alternative route
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Bar a few historical bridges here most under eu law were knocked down here and rebuilt,any roads with low bridges are marked long before you enter with weight/hight limitations ,england is full of we bridges but not so many here as poor paddy is not long out of the bog.:lol-049:
 
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trevskoda said:
Bar a few historical bridges here most under eu law were knocked down here and rebuilt,any roads with low bridges are marked long before you enter with weight limitations ,england is full of we bridges but not so many here as poor paddy is not long out of the bog.:lol-049:
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There is no EU law relating to bridge height in the UK.

The height is still governed by the DMRB (design manual for roads and bridges). The requirement is that existing bridges have a minimum maintained height of 5.03m. if they do not then a risk assessment and strategy is adopted to suit. If there is a lot of hgv traffic or it is a high load route then a higher bridge may be opted for.

A significant amount of bridges on minor roads are below this height and the cost involved in raising them all would be astronomic. They are more often than not, associated with railways. Now my pway design is rusty but the gradient change on a line is incredibly restrictive, so raising a bridge is a real big issue. While swapping decks can be achieved in a weekend, modifying the approaches is a different kettle of fish.
 
That is one of the more common approaches used. The main issues are gradient, drainage, adjacent buildings and foundation depth. Many of these bridges tend to be on relatively shallow footings, so there is a limitation on how much can be excavated in front of the toe.
 
hextal said:
That is one of the more common approaches used. The main issues are gradient, drainage, adjacent buildings and foundation depth. Many of these bridges tend to be on relatively shallow footings, so there is a limitation on how much can be excavated in front of the toe.
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Can they be underpinned like a house can? (just out of interest). Or too much weight involved?
 
Robmac said:
Can they be underpinned like a house can? (just out of interest). Or too much weight involved?
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Theoretically, it's certainly possible, but not something I've ever seen done. I suspect the bigger issue, above the increased surcharge from the new foundation, and localised settlement, would be the increased lateral earth pressure behind the abutments. The taller they are, the more horizontal load the are subjected to. Now the deck will, rightly or wrongly, act as a horizontal prop, but the centre of gravity of the horizontal load is 1/3 from the bottom of the abutment. So, they will potentially try to rotate. This too can be countered by casting a trough beneath the road to effectively brace the bottom of the abutments against each other.

The reality is that unless there is a burning need, or an easy win, they tend to just get managed.

A fall back is installation of collision protection beams up and down stream of the bridge. They are a structural portal set lower than the bridge and not flexible. So they are sacrificed rather than the edge of the bridge.
 
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