Adventures in low bridge height

First of all, let’s get this out of the way. As a driver, this is my responsibility to route plan appropriately. When I saw that our new route was going to take us through the VMI campus in Lexington Virginia I should’ve found another resource other than Trucker Path to consult.

anyway, this is what happened, and how we dealt with it.


we were delivering with our 13’6” tractor and tall Conestoga when just a mile from our destination I came across this bridge in front of us. There were no low bridge warnings or even a height on this bridge. We were not on a truck restricted route that I’m aware of. I retraced the route on Google Earth and didn’t see any signs restricting trucks or warning of low heights.




I pulled the tractor up close and stopped, put on my hazards, and got out to look at it from the sidewalk. No go! we weren’t going to fit under it. It’s 7:30 AM and people are starting to show up for work or school. Traffic was light but starting to pick up. We waved about five cars around us and then backed up about 100 yards up a hill, side street. (Letcher Ave)






we waited for a bit for traffic to cease, and began a three point U-turn. It was dawn so my wife was outside with the flashlight to Stop oncoming traffic. Luckily, the first vehicle to arrive was a construction vehicle, that he kindly turned On his beacon to alert traffic behind him.





The second vehicle to show up behind the construction vehicle was being driven by Ltcol who rolled down his window to tell us we were making an illegal turn. Well I mean he’s not wrong…. my wife is wearing our headset so I could hear her respond “ no ####, Sherlock “ lol. I was so proud of her. Ltcol then asked “well then why are you doing it?” my wife responded” it’s either this or we ruin your beautiful footbridge”. Ltcol rolled up his window.


I thought about calling the police to have them help us get out of the situation but traffic wasn’t to the point where we couldn’t handle it on our own. If it had been busier, we would’ve had no choice but to call the police to have them stop traffic.

What should I have done different to not end up in that situation? I did check our atlas and it doesn’t have a blow up of Lexington Virginia.

in the future we will avoid all college campuses like the plague. We are just glad that things went as smoothly as they did once we were in that situation.


my wife didn’t want me to post this but I thought nobody’s perfect and this is how we handled the situation. Maybe it’ll generate discussion that could’ve saved us from being in the situation in the first place.

 

this is the angle from backing away from the bridge up Letcher Avenue to the left.

 

thank you!


We left walmart at - 1233 N Lee Hwy, Lexington, VA 24450

headed to - 200 w Denny Circle, lexington VA 24450

 

Thanks, also I do appreciate your thoughts on calling the police.