Oversize Load Wedged Beneath A Bridge-I-93-Medford,MA

Now that I've seen this one.

I only started doing OSOW across the US a few months ago. Before that I did it for several years off and on in the southwest only.

Every state does things a little differently and have different requirements. I like to look at all of my turns in all of my routes on Google maps to get an idea of what they actually look like, and to prepare for what might be in store. It's also a good quick way to check for railroad crossings which will ground me. Street view is helpful for turns. Street view is also helpful for Bridges that you can't get any information on and can't find any listing of.

For the most part the interstate highway system is supposed to either be 16 ft tall or provide a way that you can get around the low clearance. Different states choose different standards for marking their Bridges. For instance in one state of 15 ft bridge might be marked, and another state of 15-ft bridge might not be marked. Especially when running tall you really need to do some very careful trip planning and still expect everything to go wrong.

Recently I ran a 15'2" tall from Carson CA to somewhere in Minnesota.

My route checked out, and I really didn't have any kerfuffles with Bridges. But what did happen is when I had to take some detours through some small towns. My load was capable of clearing the overhead power lines (which some I slowed down to idle speed for) but not capable of clearing some of the street lights which I had to very carefully weave it through. And for a moment I thought I was going to have to call the authorities to either get me out of the situation. Or we might have to call utilities.


That being said there is no "the shipper said this." Normally our specific process at least where I work. We get the supposed dimensions exaggerate a little bit and get a permit that's actually too big for what we probably need. And generally that gets us through the first state the rest. We get after getting actual dimensions, and actual weights since a lot of States charge by the ton and the mile for overweight.

Before even tying down any load that I get, I checked the actual dimensions either with a tape measure usually for width or my height Pole for height. We don't take anyone's word on anything.

And I have had permits that were telling me to turn left when I was actually supposed to turn right even given their directions.

But the fun part that is in almost every permit in existence ,probably all of them.

"You will indemnify and hold harmless the state" followed up normally by any damage is your bloody fault. Well more or less.

As for Massachusetts, they start requiring surveys and escorts. At heights that don't even require a permit out west. At least according to the information I have in front of me right now.

There are a thousand things that could have gone wrong with this. And unfortunately the driver lost the draw. Maybe he missed a detour. Maybe his detour was closed to do to road construction and he chose to plow ahead. Maybe he was supposed to be on the left side of the highway maybe he was supposed to be on the right side of the highway maybe he was supposed to be on the center line. Maybe he had a height Pole but it wasn't set to the proper height. Maybe a chunk of the height pole got broken and no one noticed. Maybe they didn't clamp it down good enough and it shrunk.

Maybe he just plain messed up. The unfortunate thing is that it could have been anyone's mistake. But once he hit the bridge it became his.

We all have our way of doing prep work for this stuff, and God knows I question my own methods everyday.