New York's $1.4 million solution to Glenville's bridge strikes: Does it work?

Any time New York State spends over a million of your taxpayer dollars on something, it's worth checking out.
A new, $1.4 million high-tech warning system was recently installed in Glenville, designed to stop trucks from hitting the very low railroad bridge on Glenridge Road.
The laser system was installed to read the height of approaching trucks and to warn drivers if their truck won't fit under the bridge.
We have one simple question: Does it work? We decided to put it to the test.
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[@funkyjunkyjai]

"The truck made it through somehow" Well yeah, it was under the height limit 🤷‍♂️😆

[@KingNast]

Mystery solved 👍😂

[@sigmet5713]

Maybe add inexpensive red strobe lights across the bottom edge of the bridge that also go off with the other warnings?

[@Azure1Zero4]

Though the same thing. One of the problems is its difficult to gage the bridges actual height visually especially at night.

[@OhCyrus]

I drive by this 4 times a day due to work and lunch break, they have a GIANT sign in lights stating it’s 10 feet tall. You CANT miss it. It’s insane how much this happens, so often that it doesn’t even hold up traffic anymore. The authorities know instantly what to do and how to keep flow of traffic minimally held up. Once I saw a man out there in slippers trying to clean glass from a headlight lol. I have not seen this in the last month or two so I would say yes, their plan is working.

[@rossstevens6165]

The bus that ignored the warning probably knew ahead of time they would fit. They probably built in a margin of error in the height limit. It's also awesome that they put in a way for trucks to turn around. A lot of low bridges don't have that and often don't have warning signs until the truck has passed the ability to turn around or detour.

[@adventureoflinkmk2]

Not to mention over the years of road paving and repaving the height can be off by a few inches either way So in other words... today the bus makes it, tomorrow... CRRRRRRRUNCH!!!

[@The_Crafty_Hood]

How about hacking up the road and making it fit high loads

[@DARKSEID007]

Unless they have a way to drain the water from the road dip, It won't be possible shaving the roadway 3 ft deep is definitely pretty expensive once you start on it. They would have to scrape it at least 1/2 mile in each direction to keep the angle properly for proper roadway drainage unfortunately.

[@sinkingslowlywithasmile]

Okay or what about a hill over and now make the train go through a tunnel or something like that

[@jdwht2455]

Good luck with that since CSX rail system owns the bridge as well as the road under it - and their response is that it isn't their problem

[@BenDovers48372Channel]

@@sinkingslowlywithasmilestop think while you still have brain cells, don’t want ya burning the very few you have left. 😂😂

[@rightsdontcomewithpermits7073]

No way in hell it really cost 1.4 mil$.

[@zz449944]

The engineering and planning costs prolly ate up 1/3 of the cost, Installation and testing another 1/3, with the cost of purchasing the equipment only about 1/3 of the total.

[@Harleyrk99]

Don't forget a hammer and his pockets cost all of $100,000 on their own. 😆

[@jdwht2455]

Sure it did. This is NY State and cost is no object! And yes, I know this bridge and the one on Maple avenue all too well along with the 3rd one that was removed a few years ago. My 5th wheel RV's height often required a long detour to get home when I lived in Glenville.

[@JakeLightswitch]

1:24 those are some sick sensors

[@no_dr0ids]

The signs on bridges always give a height lower than the actual bridge just to err on the side of caution. That bus company knew their buses made it but they’re still going to trigger the system.

[@zz449944]

Why not also paint the bridge in some ugly but bright colors?? I also favor warning signs that are purposely hung Crooked to be more noticeable. Or, put 3 or 4 of the exact same sign on a single pole.

[@bobshowup2501]

So as a truck driver unless the signage says "ACTUAL" above the numbers telling you the clearance, it's uselley 12inches higher then what's posted. Example, sign says it's 10 ft 11 inches... if you got out and measured it it's likely to really be (11 ft 11 inches) and that's why the bus made it under...

[@rdbjrseattle]

Why not put the large warning sign above the middle of road. Put “Your Truck is too tall for low bridge”😊

[@dustbat]

I drove the big rigs for 33 years. This won't be a fix all. One of the first things they taught me was to check your height. It seems even with these devices, drivers are in a trance and run right into it. I saw one device on rt 5 in Va. Prior to the low bridge they had another rig across the road well ahead of the bridge. It was same height. If you hit that it was a lot less damage than hitting the bridge.🦇

[@InternetKilledTV21]

Boston has lots of those to prevent trucks from getting "storrowed" though it's Boston so they put them like 50 ft before the bridge.

[@smedleyfarnsworth263]

What about lowering the road?

[@DARKSEID007]

As a truck driver myself, I see this particular bridge has way more strikes happen with tractor trailers than with close call bridges. Low bridge signs farther, back up the road before you turn onto the road, before the last major highway turn off or street would help a lot of us drivers know and to communicate the danger to us over height vehicles. Certain towns have the sensor that starts to flash a mile or even 2 miles, before the bridge & up to 8 different yellow lights starts to flash above that portion of the roadway, not just the 2 sign lights they have in this video saying you're over height, could definitely help get the drivers attention of imminent danger and turn off ahead of time. Having that 1 led sign on the left side of the road, isn't enough. Communication well ahead of time helps drivers pay attention, especially if they missed the 1st set of signs, so put some signs further back up the road, rather than like 500ft as I have seen in this video. 1/2 mile and even a mile back, just to help drivers out more. I have even seen a town that has a "if you hit this sign, you will hit that bridge" sign. Cheaper to replace a breakaway cable, than replacing the bridge, for sure. As I stated on a different video of this situation, it is a lot of fault from these fly by night truck driving schools that just turn out all these undertrained drivers or somehow getting a person through that can't read English at all, this is where some of the problem lies, most often. I took CTD training for 8hrs a day, 5 days a week, for 9 weeks, to get my certification. It is a lot to learn definitely. As this video shows the private bus going under the bridge, it cleared it ok, but it is probably adjusted to 10'-8" for allowing road expansion for over height during the summer months, when the road can swell due to heat expansion, but most times local folks will ignore it. Only time will tell if this has helped with the problem or not. I am glad they have done something though to help protect us drivers from certain danger or even death, as our cabs height is at the driver's seat is 9ft minimum for a 13'-6" tractor trailer.

[@peterrudy9207]

Too cheap to put in a new higher bridge .

[@DARKSEID007]

The problem is, it would cost the railway a few million dollars to do that, while I agree it would be the simpler solution, it would involve grading adjustments roughly 3-4 miles to build up the height from each direction. I had this same thought for other bridges, I have seen over the years & when I looked into it more, it has to do with the grade of the tracks because height adjustments require several miles sometimes, otherwise the train can get stuck on snowy tracks, especially if they could have a tendency to get iced over in the Northern states.

[@InternetKilledTV21]

Yes let's spend even more money lifting miles of track up a few feet, stopping all rail traffic while that can be completed. Can't just raise the bridge in one spot, the FRA gets mad.

[@rororose70]

Watching video after the truck crash early December at SAME exact bridge. Something has to be done about this bridge. My best friend lives 5 mins from this spot and just in 2023 there’s been 5 accidents with trucks at this site.

[@no_dr0ids]

Nothing needs to be done to the bridge. Drivers just need to be paying attention, as they should.

[@DTB4ctive]

Or they can lift the bridge not finna hurt nobody and would be near impossible for another accident to ever occur

[@am74343]

They really should have RED FLASHING LIGHTS to force the overheight driver to STOP! and then turn around!

[@championdrinker]

Or how about lowering the road….

Why don't they simply lower the road? That shouldn't be a problem in the US

[@petercook3143]

Damm I gota get into the laser business, 1.4 Million. I heard that a mile of road costs 1 million dollars. At that rate you could have built 1.4 miles of road around the obstruction or under it. Duhuh. This is what happens when Laymen are "elected officials" you know teachers, managers, Supervisors, etc, non technical people.

[@KevinSun242]

Aged like milk

[@BrownEyePinch]

Wont work

[@techparkRPI]

guess not This is clearly a DOT issue