Durham Bridge

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The overpass in 2015

The Durham Bridge (official name: Norfolk Southern – Gregson Street Overpass ) is a railroad overpass in the city of Durham , North Carolina in the United States . Due to the low headroom of the road below, there have been accidents involving trucks, buses and mobile homes for years. The frequently filmed accident scenes have made the bridge to an Internet phenomenon and thus internationally known.

Technical specifications

The flyover spans South Gregson Street (NC-1327), a two- way one - way street in downtown Durham that runs north-south . In front of the bridge there is a crossing with traffic lights ; here along the crosses railway embankment running West Peabody Street the Gregson Street . A single-lane railway line runs over the overpass ; Durham Train Station is 300 meters southeast of the bridge . The route is used by the railway companies Amtrak and Norfolk Southern Railway for passenger and freight traffic. The bridge is owned by the state-owned North Carolina Railroad Company NCRC.

The steel girder bridge rests on two concrete pillars; the superstructure consists of a base plate supported by four U-shaped steel girders on which the track lies. The total length of the bridge is around 28 meters. Until October 2019, the approved headroom was 3.56 meters or 11  feet , 8  inches in the Anglo-American measurement system , since then 3.76 meters (12 feet, 4 inches). This means that the height is still 51 centimeters below the US standard of 4.27 meters (14 feet) set in 1973.

The bridge could only be raised further if the track had to be modified considerably. Such a structural measure would also affect other overpasses and embankments. A lowering of the street is not possible because of a sewer running under the street. For the maintenance of Gregson Street is Transportation Department of the city of Durham in charge. According to a study from 2003, around 11,000 vehicles pass the underpass every day, 6 percent of which are transport vehicles. Vehicles that are too tall must turn onto Peabody Street at the intersection .

North side of the bridge before the elevation and renovation

history

The bridge is based on a design from the 1920s; it was completed in 1940 and opened with an 11 foot, 8 inch (3.56 meter) license. With the increase in height of box bodies and semi-trailers of transport vehicles, accidents have increased over the years. In the Durham daily newspaper The Herald-Sun , photos of crashed vehicles appeared as early as the 1950s and 1960s. The roofs of the vehicles were regularly damaged in the accidents, but there was no personal injury.

In 2008, computer scientist Jürgen Henn, who works in an office near the bridge, installed a camera and in the following year installed a second camera that recorded the traffic from two different directions. The resulting accident films are shown on the 11foot8.com website . From April 2008 to October 2019, the accidents of 145 vehicles were recorded and presented.

To protect the bridge, the North Carolina Railroad Company had a structure built around three meters in front of the bridge in 2014 with a steel profile girder designed for the expected collisions across the carriageway at the level of the passage minus tolerance. This beam is designed as a double T-beam as it is used in steel construction and in this function is also referred to as an English crash beam . As a result, if vehicles are too tall, caused by their careless drivers, the inevitable collision occurs shortly before reaching the bridge. The vehicle is either stopped by the damage or excessively high vehicle parts or superstructures are torn down so that the rest of the vehicle can drive through the bridge without causing any further damage to the bridge structure and its structural engineering. Warning lights were also installed in 2014 to inform the drivers of the height restriction.

In 2016, the North Carolina Department of Transportation NCDOT installed an optical warning system triggered by height sensors, which also switches the traffic light system in front of the bridge to red for 30 seconds when a vehicle is detected that is too high, so that the drivers of vehicles that are too high by means of warning lights and a To draw attention to the danger with the text "OVERHEIGHT MUST TURN". But even these additional measures did not reduce the number of accidents from careless drivers, from an average of one accident per month.

For safety reasons and to reduce the large number of accidents, which also endanger vehicles and pedestrians on the adjacent sidewalk, the bridge was raised by 20 centimeters (8 inches) by the NCRC in November 2019. For this purpose, the steel girders of the bridge were lifted with several hoists and the gap between them and the concrete pillars was filled with steel plates. The tracks of the railway embankment were adapted and the bridge was renovated. The height of the crash beam has also been adjusted and remains to protect the bridge structure in front of the underpass. The NCDOT put the damage caused by accidents from 2008 to 2016 at around half a million US dollars. Despite the elevation, careless drivers continue to collide.

The eponymous road sign that indicates the headroom: 11 feet, 8 inches. Also recognizable: the crash beam

Notoriety

Until the installation of the Henn cameras in 2008 and 2009 and the publication of the recorded films, the bridge was only notorious regionally because of its risk of accidents. From 2008 the transfer became known internationally through the distribution of the films on social media ; it is known as the most famous bridge on the internet. A video compiled in May 2013 by YouTuber Peter Hemmings from various accidents with this bridge was viewed 4.4 million times within the first three years. By 2019 there were already 6 million hits.

The bridge was known as the 11foot8-bridge in the United States until the increase in passage in November 2019 . It was also referred to as a can opener , German  can opener , Gregson Street guillotine or truck scalping bridge .

Henn himself also became known through his films on the Internet.

“The can opener just kind of sits there waiting with very low clearance, much lower than many truck drivers seem to expect. And when they don't pay attention, the can opener sits there to pounce on them. "

“The can opener just sits there waiting, so to speak, with [its] very low headroom, which is much lower than many truck drivers expect. And if they're not careful, the can opener will sit there to pounce on them. "

- Jürgen Henn : CBC

On January 6, 2016, the Wall Street Journal ran the front cover of the bridge: "The Joys of Watching a Bridge Shave the Tops Off Trucks" "The joy of watching a bridge shave off the roofs of trucks." The article addressed the frequency with which inexperienced rental car drivers are involved in accidents. The Huffington Post called it "a notorious North Carolina landmark" in October 2019, describing it: "... peeling the roofs off trucks [... and] gaining a truck guillotine reputation".

Lifestyle website Mel Magazine scoffed at the bridge lift in November 2019 that it was a blow to the collective creation of internet memes . Binge watching based on evoking “ Schadenfreude ” is no longer possible. Let it be a farewell to this legendary truck-destroying flyover that has (virtually) conquered a nation. The bridge did the impossible - it remained viral for more than a decade.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Spectacular crash in Brugg - but take a look at how many trucks this bridge has already slashed. Badener Tagblatt , April 29, 2016.
  2. ^ John Hinson: The can opener bridge. Lulu.com , 2016, pp. 66/67, online at Google Books. ISBN 978-1-36536-5-539 . (English)
  3. ^ History. 11foot8.com (English)
  4. ↑ Tamara Schögl: 107 trucks have already fallen victim to this bridge. Autorevue , June 1, 2016.
  5. ↑ Tim Siniard: Inman street bridge solution coming. Cleveland Daily Banner, November 19, 2019. (English)
  6. ↑ yovo68: The new canopener nibbles on a box truck. Youtube, November 27, 2019, accessed December 30, 2019 .
  7. ↑ a b Steve Daniels: Work underway on Durham's famous 11-foot-8 'can opener' bridge. WTVD , October 30, 2019. (English)
  8. ^ Georgia Department of Transportation: Warning systems evaluation for overhead clearance detection. research project 15-21, Department of Civil Engineering and Construction Management, Georgia Southern University , February 2017, pp. 6–9. (English)
  9. ↑ Ernst Corinth: Release the Kraken! Telepolis , February 2, 2018.
  10. ^ "Can opener bridge" as an accident magnet. unsertirol24.com, April 25, 2017.
  11. ↑ a b Jonathan Ore: North Carolina 'can opener' bridge to be raised after years of shearing tops off trucks. CBC , October 25, 2019. (English)
  12. ↑ Jurgen Henn: An interview with the man who films truck crashes. strangecarolinas.com, 3/2016. (English)
  13. ^ The Duke employee behind the "can-opener-bridge" cam. Duke Today, October 30, 2019. (English)
  14. ↑ Ben Cohen: The epic story of a bridge too low draws internet fans. A North Carolina span shaves the tops of tall trucks; 'crash art' for sale. Wall Street Journal , January 6, 2016. (English)
  15. ^ Danny Hooley: A little off the top: Durham's "Canopener Bridge" makes the front page of The Wall Street Journal. indyweek.com, January 6, 2016. (English)
  16. ↑ in the original: "A notorious North Carolina landmark, ... peeling off the tops of trucks, ... has acquired a reputation as a truck guillotine."
  17. ↑ Mark Lebetkin: North Carolina's Infamous 'Can Opener' Bridge May Decapitate Trucks No Longer. Huffington Post , October 20, 2019. (English)
  18. ↑ in the original: "As Mel Magazine laments, the raising of the overpass marks a blow to collective internet meme-making and schadenfreude-based binge-watching."
  19. ↑ Jonathan Hilburg: Internet-infamous, truck-decapitating bridge will finally be raised. The Architect's Newspaper, November 1, 2019. (English)
  20. ↑ in the original: “Farewell to the legendary truck-destroying bridge that captivated a nation. The notorious 11-foot-8 overpass did the impossible in staying viral for more than a decade "
  21. ^ Miles Klee: Farewell to the legendary truck-destroying bridge that captivated a nation. MEL magazine / digg.com (English)

Web links

Commons : Durham Bridge  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 35 ° 59 ′ 56.7 "  N , 78 ° 54 ′ 36.8"  W.