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Bridge bashing


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2 hours ago, SamThomas said:

Yes, but not by much & no match at all for a substantial stone structure.

 

& before anyone picks holes in that statement I drive both fridge & curtainsider 18 tonners & am more than aware of the structural strength of both.

It's an arch - designed to resist downward forces from above, strong in compression. It possibly doesn't require that much force to move a bit at the edge of the arch when hit from below and forwards.

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3 hours ago, Hobby said:

Lorry drivers are now demanding (and some seem to be getting if the Press are to be believed) much higher wages, quotes of £50k seen though I'm not sure if it's true. With that comes responsibility, same as the much maligned train drivers. It will be interesting to see what the outcome is on this one, though I doubt it'll make the headlines the same as if it were a train driver...

And with that increase in wages you might just get people into the job who take such responsibilities seriously. With the delays in driving tests following covid, it'll take a while for them to filter into the workforce though, and they'll still be woefully inexperienced - a learner one week, and in charge of a fully loaded 44ton artic the next. I saw the consequences of that some years ago.

 

 

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7 hours ago, SamThomas said:

Yes, but not by much & no match at all for a substantial stone structure.

 

& before anyone picks holes in that statement I drive both fridge & curtainsider 18 tonners & am more than aware of the structural strength of both.


Stone and masonry structures work in compression.  Their tension capacity is very small and the action of the truck body lifting the stone arch put it into tension.  All that resisted this was the dead weight of the stone being lifted - hence the damage that you see.

 

Cheers

 

Darius

 

PS - I don’t drive trucks but I am a Civil Engineer.

 

 

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Saw pictures of damage  the lorry managed to move bricks at the base of the arch ,the news item called the driver a Tesco idiot .Also managed to have a go at GWR with comments such as  why couldnt they have given us earlier warning and dose not matter as trains in the s/west never run on time.They also asked if Tesco were going to pay for the damage fat chance of that !

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20 hours ago, SamThomas said:

Looking at the bridge it looks in porr condition if a relatively flimsy truck body is capable of doing that sort of damage.

 

9 hours ago, SamThomas said:

& before anyone picks holes in that statement I drive both fridge & curtainsider 18 tonners & am more than aware of the structural strength of both.

 

I take it you are also a qualified structures engineer and therefore able to judge the condition and strength of a bridge from a couple of photos ?

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6 minutes ago, caradoc said:

 

 

I take it you are also a qualified structures engineer and therefore able to judge the condition and strength of a bridge from a couple of photos ?

Why can't people on here actually read what is being said ? They could also be a bit less confrontational in their responses & use a little politeness.

 

I said it looks to be in poor condition - looks - my opinion as a layman. And before a qualified English teecher comes along I am aware of my spelling mistake.

I have seen pictures of many similar arched bridges that have been hit by trucks carrying such loads as steel ISO containers where the containers have been serverly damaged & the stonework suffering no more than a few scrapes.

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5 minutes ago, SamThomas said:

I said it looks to be in poor condition - looks - my opinion as a layman.

 

So as a layman why say it all ?

 

I make no apology whatsoever for challenging such statements, in my role as railway staff I dealt with bridge strikes nearly every day - My personal record was three, not in one week, or one day, in one shift; And not in the whole of the UK but in just in Scotland. 

 

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For the sake of the rest of us who find the subject interesting,

can we stop the squabbling before the thread gets locked, please!

Edited by rab
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1 hour ago, Mike_Walker said:

Truck has now been removed and seems to have suffered remarkably little damage.

 

 

Probably not what their insurance company will say :D

 

Also Tesco have apologised for the incident.

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36 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Is the lorry a 7.5 tonnes one that can be driven on a car licence?


I found an image of the number plate in the Cornwall live news website, checking its MOT status says Gross weight of 18000kg

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43 minutes ago, rab said:

For the sake of the rest of us who find the subject interesting,

can we stop the squabbling before the thread gets locked, please!

Agreed, as long as people take personal opinions as exactly that - opinions, not intended to be facts.

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1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

Is the lorry a 7.5 tonnes one that can be driven on a car licence?

It looked like it from the photo when it was under the bridge, didn't it? Confused me a bit because it's an Actros, when the MB 7.5t is the smaller Atego cab.

But the later photo of it removed from the bridge clearly shows it to be an 18 tonner. With as someone else commented, remarkably little damage. That'll be because it's a fridge body, not a curtain- oh never mind.... :rolleyes:  :banghead:  :fool:

Edited by F-UnitMad
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I believe, and no doubt Caradoc will confirm, that all rail bridges are checked regularly, especially on a mainline like that one. So I'd be amazed if the condition of it was that bad. More likely that the impact has removed the mortar thus making it look worse than it is. 

 

But, hey, I'm not an expert and so making it clear this is a personal opinion and not based on fact! 

 

 

 

NR are saying three to five days to fix it so I suspect Tesco and/or their insurance company are in for a large bill... I think this is one occasion where NR will get their money back... 

Edited by Hobby
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16 hours ago, kevinlms said:

Also despite what the nearby resident says, the bridge look like it has had some recent repair work done. Presumably from a similar incident.

But the steepness of the road is quite something and presents a problem with longer vehicles and the angle.

I know this bit of road quite well.

 

If you approach from the bridge from south, as this lorry did, you approach on a slightly rising gradient.  This gradient then changes sharply to a very steep rise under the bridge.  It goes that if you are driving a long vehicle, then the clearance could be significantly less than the signage indicates.

 

If you have turned off the main road (Alexandra Road), then the bridge is immediately in front of you, I estimate about 30 yards from the junction.  A few years back I saw an artic make this turn.  The driver, realising that he couldn’t get under the bridge, then had the problem of reversing his rig back onto a fairly busy main road!

 

John

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Network rail have done a little photo montages of the bridge damage. Its even broken sleepers. 

 

 

 

Edited by Kris
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