The Dreaded Bridge Hit

Best I can offer is helping out in Greenville, PA last summer.

With I-80 under construction through PA last year, running OD loads was a pain in the tail to say the least. Quite a few of them ended up wending their way through the small town of Greenville, working their way to State Rt. 18 to get to the Sharon/Hermitage area. Greenville is a wee little burg, a blip on the map not really built to deal with such large vehicles. I saw one guy with an RGN (and what looked to me like about a billion axles) making a turn that is tight for a regular daycab/53' combo!

Anyway, had a guy and his escorts pulling a 14' high (I think) load trying to head East. There was a RR bridge in his way, so he had to be directed around on the civilian side streets to get to the other side. I was on my way home from a project, and parked off to the side to help block traffic and advise on the trailer axles (got handed a handheld by the rear escort driver). Also got to help pulling a traffic advisory sign out of the ground so the truck could go over the curb to get the trailer around a corner without hitting a tree. Pretty fun, and I have to say the driver had a lot of patience and a good sense of humor. I'm guessing that's pretty important running OD stuff.

I don't think there was ANYONE happier than the Greenville PD when they finally started rerouting all the big stuff back to I-80.

 

You got that right. The guy I helped did pull all the way down to the bridge to see if he could fit under. I thought it looked ok, but he decided to not chance it, since there's a rise in the road directly after you pass the bridge. This is why I don't pull OD at this time.

Fortunately, there were two escort drivers, myself, and two Greenville PD cruisers to block traffic and get him backed up until he could make a turn on the side street. Plus he had police escort all the way through. So did the RGN...local AND state plus multiple escorts. THAT load must've paid really, really good, yeah?

 

Another reason to avoid OD when I finally go O/O, thanks! I'll leave that stuff to established carriers, and stick with whatever I can get paid on with a regular ol' flatbed...

Honestly, I thought the money in OD had to be fantastic to get anyone involved. I knew you had to pay the escorts, didn't know the police escorts were that expensive. And I'd heard about permits being pretty expensive, but thought those were worked into the freight rate.

I dunno....I'm planning on buying an older rig and going "power only" for a bit to save my pennies for a trailer of my own. Still on the fence about getting my own authority and running independent versus signing on with an outfit like Jones Motor and pulling under their authority with their customer base. Research in this has been going on for a few years, and there's still so much to learn!

 

Giddy-up baby...do this regularly, I'm rarely under 14', commonly around 15', been over 23' a few times.
...if you aren't 100% confident in your ability...& I'm not talking ####-of-the-walk here, I mean REALLY HAMMERING YOUR EGO when you evaluate yourself!
The best advise is to leave ths stuff alone, the mishaps can make you uninsurable!
If you think you've got the stuff...hire quality escorts, that you TRUST! If you can't get them today, wait for them til tomorrow.
Read your permit, NOT a cursory glance, I'm not kidding, every word...even the conditions sheet. If you don't understand it, phone the state and ask for verification...get a name. If it goes sideways, your gonna answer a lot of questions...can you say NTSB?
As soon as you realize you've missed a turn STOP IMMEDIATELY! Have your escort find the turn around, DO NOT proceed further. If your escort can't find a safe turnaround area shortly, call the authorities...they will be happy to help you get back on route when you tell them you'd like their help BEFORE you...tear down wires; knock down there nice trees; hit a bridge, overpass, sign; blah blah blah.
This ain't kiddy stuff folks...if your gonna play, be prepared to pay! Have LOTS of insurance, you may need it.

 

What helps me the most is to run the route a couple times before hand and make note of any questionable bridges ect. You also MUST know EXACTLY what your height is and add a couple just to be sure. I can't help you with the pilot car situation because Ive never used one. I haul hay and we have a round bale permit that are good for 1 year. It lets you be over dimensional as long as its round bales. Must have all flags, banners, and only interstates at night. When you do hit a bridge you will make sure it never happens again, its a weird feeling when it hits, lots of different emotions at once, trust me.


I was lucky and my boss wasn't really mad. I had never been that way, 3rd or 4th load of rounds ever, and he forgot to tell me about the RR bridge. There wasn't any damage to anything and we only lost a couple hundred pounds which isn't much. Anybody want to know what it feels like when it makes contact?

 

I was only 14-2 high.. 14 ft wide quarry truck. Arkansas routed me through Parkin Arkansas on 75 to highway 40. Its a 2 lane country road. It's even in the map book about the rail road bridge that was 14 ft. Stopped tried dumping the air bumped the bolts. Had to back out about 1/4 mile to turn around. By then a cop was there.. Big news for Parkin and helped me get turned around. And took me to the only phone in town, at the police station.. Finally got hold of permits for the state and was re routed down a road where I had to make a backward 45 degree turn. Then once I was 15-8 transformer.. Great pole guy.. Left transformer place in Belmont ,Ca . Had to go through Redwood City. Thank God for my pole guy. Make a turn down a residential street that we were routed on.. There must have been 10,000 miles of overhead wire going to all of the houses. Well all you saw were these low slung utility wires .. It was like OMG. Pole guy said good.. Never touched a wire. I don't know what it is with these transformer places. They will tell you one height and it will be a foot off. Then it's always fun getting the actual height off the top of the insulators.. But if it was easy.. A cave man could do it.

 

I don't know what happened to the picture.. But one was floating around where a guy in Kansas hit a overpass with a long boom excavator. The bridge looked like butter as the boom was about 2/3 of the way through the bridge.. That is not a good day.