
11 Foot 8 – The Can-opener Bridge - IMAYousaf
http://11foot8.com/
======
Animats
The Sidney Harbor Tunnel had a similar problem. They came up with an elaborate
but successful solution.[1] There are detectors and huge flashing warning
signs that light up. Then, there's the last-chance sign. At the entrance to
the tunnel, pumps force a curtain of water straight down across the entire
roadway. Then a powerful laser system projects a giant octagonal red STOP sign
onto the water curtain, filling the entire height of the tunnel opening.
That's in addition to the six red traffic lights, flashing red Xs above each
lane, and a big STOP with a flashing frame above the tunnel mouth.

That was expensive, but after someone wedged an oversized truck into the
tunnel, blocking it for three weeks, it was worth it. Gets tripped about 18
times a year.

[1] [https://youtu.be/pRKA7m-tbqM](https://youtu.be/pRKA7m-tbqM)

~~~
Invictus0
Why cant they put a swinging bar at the tunnel height some distance before the
tunnel? The bar knocks the top of the truck and wakes up whoever is driving to
the fact that the truck is too tall.

~~~
loeg
Or a wedge barrier: [https://eci-illinois.com/wedge-barrier-versus-medium-
size-tr...](https://eci-illinois.com/wedge-barrier-versus-medium-size-truck-
wedge-barrier-wins/)

~~~
notatoad
i think the point is to prevent damage to trucks, not to completely destroy
them

~~~
loeg
For a major tunnel like this, you'd rather prevent damage / long-term
obstruction of the tunnel.

~~~
closeparen
A technology meant to kill suicide bombers might be a little much for that.

------
IMAYousaf
What's beautiful about the 11 Foot 8 bridge is that quietly it's been a
constant in my life. I distinctly remember watching the videos over a decade
ago on this YT Channel:
[https://www.youtube.com/user/yovo68](https://www.youtube.com/user/yovo68)

There's an element of schadenfreude that's so compelling in watching ordinary
situations go terribly wrong.

~~~
erk__
They even added another 8 inches, but the trucks still hits it.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPt4ijPFzc8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPt4ijPFzc8)

------
weeksie
So far the best solution I've seen to this sort of thing (other than building
a taller bridge) is the waterfall approach. Probably a bit spensie for some
rando railroad bridge but it's clever nonetheless.

[https://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/news/video-1008464/Amazing...](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/news/video-1008464/Amazing-
water-curtain-Stop-sign.html)

~~~
simias
I've often seen large gates with hanging chains at the maximal height just
before low bridges and tunnels. Wouldn't that also be pretty efficient,
reliable and not requiring any maintenance? I suppose having an obstacle
spring in front of you would be even more likely to make you stop, but if
you're still going when some chains hit the top of your vehicle you deserve to
have your license suspended anyway.

~~~
wolfgang42
The trouble with 11foot8 in particular is that it’s right on the intersection,
so through traffic passing by the bridge without going under it would hit the
chains as well.

~~~
surround
But that bridge in Australia isn’t on an intersection. There’s plenty of room
for a hanging bar.

------
SenHeng
They ought to make it _lower_ , so it’s most obvious that a truck won’t fit.
Make it no more than 2metres, whatever that is in American, so that only cars
can go through.

~~~
aidenn0
This is America. People have pickup trucks that have been raised to a height
above 2m (about 6'6" in American)

~~~
SenHeng
And thus the presumably unstoppable forces meets the immovable object.

~~~
Thorrez
Is the goal to reduce crashes or increase them?

~~~
SenHeng
The goal is to protect the bridge behind the barrier.

~~~
sosborn
Is it? Shouldn’t the goal be to protect the driver?

~~~
globular-toast
If the goal was to protect the driver then the bridge would be removed. The
bridge carries a railway so many more lives are at stake if it's damaged.

~~~
Thorrez
Sure more lives are at stake, but I think the probability of physical harm to
them is pretty low because

a) The bridge has been hit tons of times, and I don't think anyone in a train
has been hurt yet.

b) The bridge is probably a lot stronger than the truck, so while the bridge
may take damage and need to be repaired, the damage is probably not enough to
harm train traffic.

c) If the bridge is damaged enough to harm train traffic, there's probably not
a train coming immediately; any on-route trains can be likely stopped before
they reach the bridge.

------
mauvehaus
Boston is home to any number of bridges that trucks don't fit under, most
famously on Storrow Drive.

Rating truck/bridge interactions has become a bit of a past time on
universalhub:

[https://www.universalhub.com/storrow](https://www.universalhub.com/storrow)

Every year when college students move back in and out, the powers that be put
up illuminated construction signs _everywhere_ to try to keep the number of
rental trucks on roads they shouldn't be to a minimum. They're mostly
successful.

~~~
SOLAR_FIELDS
I drove a box truck (most often Penske/Ryder rentals just like the ones you
see in this video) around most of the nation for a job when I was younger. The
only two cities I had real trouble with clearances were Boston and Chicago.
New York City was also a pain but for different and obvious reasons.

I suspect if it hasn’t happened yet a decent commercial software solution
would be to produce an app that took OSM and overlay all of the bridges with
clearances in major cities into it so that you could route around them after
entering your height. I specifically remember doing a lot of reversing back up
streets in Chicago because nothing like that existed at the time (this was in
the early 2010s).

------
johan_larson
How about something counter-intuitive: _lower_ the limit? There is a built-in
hard limit imposed by the structure itself. Set the marked limit to something
well short of that, like 8 feet. Then add very obvious soft barriers like
light swinging bars to indicate the lower boundary. That would encourage
anyone driving anything that might actually hit the hard limit to take an
alternate route. (Of course, that means there actually needs to be a realistic
alternate route.)

~~~
syshum
" it’s not practical here. There are many overheight trucks that have to be
able to drive right up to the bridge and turn onto Peabody St. in order to
deliver supplies to several restaurants. Making Peabody St inaccessible from
Gregson St would make the restaurant owners and the delivery drivers very
unhappy." [1]

at the end of the it seems most of the trucks are often Rental Trucks drive by
people that likely should not be driving a large truck in the first place. In
the US you do not need a CDL or special endorsement to rent many of these
UHaul type trucks since they do not have Air Brakes, all you need is a normal
operators license.

[1][http://11foot8.com/11foot8-faq/](http://11foot8.com/11foot8-faq/)

~~~
userbinator
I think the parent comment may be suggesting to low the limit on the bridge
even more, like adding a wall to the underside of it, so that it's obvious
nothing higher than normal cars or perhaps a large van would fit.

Then again, maybe a large portion of the crashes are from people who forget
they're driving a truck, so that might just make the carnage worse...

------
PhantomGremlin
My all-time favorite picture for this situation is:

    
    
       ON THE ROAD TO SUCCESS,
       THERE ARE NO SHORTCUTS.
    

[https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/c7fpl6/on_the_road_to...](https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/c7fpl6/on_the_road_to_success_there_are_no_shortcuts/)

------
gurustave
Sadly its the 12 foot 4 Bridge now, and its snacks are much lighter.

------
pretendgeneer
Another one from Melbourne, Aus

[https://howmanydayssincemontaguestreetbridgehasbeenhit.com/](https://howmanydayssincemontaguestreetbridgehasbeenhit.com/)

------
chrisseaton
What is so special about this bridge? Why do people drive under it without
checking their height? You wouldn't normally think you can just drive under
any bridge, would you?

It doesn't even look like a very low bridge. Why do people approach it without
a care in the world at full speed?

My vehicle is only 2m tall and I still do take a quick look at height signs as
I approach them.

~~~
NobodyNada
According to the Wikipedia article [0], the bridge is very old and does not
meet current clearance standards:

> It was designed in the 1920s, and opened in 1940, with a clearance for
> vehicles of 11 feet 8 inches (3.56 m). This was a standard height at the
> time it opened. The standard clearance, since 1973, has a minimum height of
> 14 feet (4.3 m), which is 2 feet 4 inches (0.71 m) higher than the bridge as
> built.

I imagine most trucks are built to be just under 14 feet so that fitting under
bridges is not usually an issue.

Another thing I’ve noticed watching some of these videos is that most of the
accidents are rental trucks. Presumably many of these drivers have never
driven a truck in their lives and ignore clearance warnings out of habit.

[0]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norfolk_Southern–Gregson_Stree...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norfolk_Southern–Gregson_Street_Overpass)

~~~
greggman3
I ruined the top of a rental truck. It wasn't bridge it was a tree overhanging
the street. Partly because the tree was not directly overhead like a bridge I
didn't notice it was too low and all I was trying to do is park the truck so I
was going slow but yea, smashed the top of the truck. Truck Rental company
says it happens at least one a month.

[https://photos.app.goo.gl/Q6QS9Uy3HNijYXEt7](https://photos.app.goo.gl/Q6QS9Uy3HNijYXEt7)

------
rkagerer
This problem is already solved. The steel beam rakes off any overheight bits
allowing the trucks to pass through.

~~~
dmohs
Thank you so much for this. Very well delivered.

------
Svip
The maximum standard height for a vehicle is 4 metres in Europe. All E-routes
in Europe require that bridges and tunnels can clear at least 4 metres,
otherwise they cannot get designated with the E-route. Is there a similar
concept of safe routes for lorries and buses in the US?

~~~
anticensor
Interstates?

~~~
Svip
Do they have a requirement for bridge/tunnel heights? I recall an American
trucker telling me that such a requirement did not exist in the US, but he
could have been mistaken.

~~~
syshum
America is a collection of thousands of jurisdictions that all have authority
based on who is paying for the road.

Interstates are controlled by the Federal Highway Commission and must meet
Federal Highway standards as the federal government generally pays for them

State Routes are controlled by State Regulations

County Routes are controlled by County Regulations

City Routes are controlled by City Regulations

There is zero standard that is applied universally. This is is viewed by some
as a negative personally I prefer the federalist system over a central
authority

Most State and Federal routes do have Minimum Heights, though exceptions can
be made, one thing we often see in the US not remeasuring the surface, there
have been more than a few time where the height is reported as X but that
measurement was decades old and several resurfacing layers had been added to
the real height is lower. Or the road pitches to one side and someone measured
the highest side not the low side

------
hattar
Why not place an arch before the bridge that will impact but not damage
vehicles going through? This exists in the entrance to most parking garages.

Edit: like this [https://www.jpsiteexperts.com/wp-
content/uploads/2014/04/cle...](https://www.jpsiteexperts.com/wp-
content/uploads/2014/04/clearance-bars-7-1024x7681.jpg)

~~~
teraflop
Placing an obstacle between the bridge and the intersection would be fairly
pointless, because once you hit it, it would be too late to stop before
hitting the bridge.

(EDIT: in addition, a hanging warning sign would have to be suspended from
something. My guess is any such structure would need to be made very sturdy
and expensive, or else it would just get knocked down and increase the hazard
to pedestrians and property when somebody hits the sign at significant speed.)

Placing the obstacle anywhere else would impede vehicles that aren't trying to
go under the bridge.

~~~
LegitShady
Look at the video. Such a structure already exists. There is a yellow beam
meant to protect the bridge right in front of it. It probably does most of the
can openjng to spare the bridge

~~~
teraflop
The parent commenter asked for something that would "impact but not damage"
vehicles, and the protective beam undoubtedly fails at that purpose.

~~~
LegitShady
There's an intersection right before the bridge - the beam is already at the
"warning" location to protect the bridge. Bridge strikes arent' cheap and
train companies HATE closing bridges for any reason (including replacing
them).

------
jacquesm
You have to wonder how much it would cost to dig that out two feet and solve
the problem. Likely a lot less than the annual capital destruction.

~~~
teraflop
That's answered by the FAQ:
[http://11foot8.com/11foot8-faq/](http://11foot8.com/11foot8-faq/)

> Can’t the road be lowered?

> That would be prohibitively expensive because a sewer main runs just a few
> feet below the road bed. That sewer main also dates back about a hundred
> years and, again, at the time there were no real standards for minimum
> clearance for railroad underpasses.

~~~
jacquesm
Ah ok, thank you for clarifying that. So that leaves the next best option:
remove it from all navigation systems, that way at least the route will be
only used by locals familiar with the situation and all other traffic would
automatically detour around it.

~~~
WrtCdEvrydy
Alternatively, mark it as a classified military base.

------
hashmush
Slightly related, a now famous bus/car trap in Stockholm that became a short
documentary:
[https://www.svtplay.se/video/17480166/sparviddshinder](https://www.svtplay.se/video/17480166/sparviddshinder)
(only in Swedish, but should be viewable globally)

~~~
andreasley
With english subtitles:
[https://vimeo.com/425030709](https://vimeo.com/425030709)

------
eps
There's also an excellent sub for this and many other "can openers" as well as
assorted "cans" getting opened -

[https://old.reddit.com/r/11foot8/](https://old.reddit.com/r/11foot8/)

------
andrewcl
I used to work really close to where this bridge is at my last job and many of
my coworkers had worked in offices even closer previously. Supposedly, every
time there was a crash people would rush to observe what happened even though
it was a fairly common occurrence.

The bridge is located in a kinda odd space to do construction. While I imagine
it's possible to retrofit or dig it to be deeper, it likely would have been
really inconvenient to the adjacent businesses.

~~~
ocdtrekkie
They actually raised the bridge another 8 inches recently. The 11foot8 channel
covered a lot of the work being done and stuff.... and the 12foot4 bridge
still gets new victims from time to time, just less often.

------
dhosek
I live a block away from a can-opener bridge. We haven't had anything since
quarantine, but there's usually two or three trucks a year that get stuck in
it. We had one week where there were two trucks and a bus.

[https://www.dropbox.com/s/9hbbbr1xl53e8u3/77EFF5A4-D593-4FB8...](https://www.dropbox.com/s/9hbbbr1xl53e8u3/77EFF5A4-D593-4FB8-A925-7B40DDDC1863.jpeg?dl=0)

~~~
dwighttk
my favorite was the RV that went through... slowed way down, decided he was
good... just fit, but then the A/C on the end got caught and popped off.

------
ourmandave
I'd hate to be a truck rental company near that thing.

Random weekend movers peeling the tops off your fleet.

I'd have free-take-one warning maps with a big red X at the checkout counter.

~~~
ficklepickle
IME, typically damage to the roof of rental trucks is not covered by standard
insurance.

I briefly worked for a Budget in Canada once upon a time and they always
reminded people not to take the truck through a drive thru.

------
quickthrower2
For the greater good they should install something that makes a lot of noise
but doesn't damage the car say 5m before before the hard hit. Maybe fine $100
per soft hit to pay for it? They can say well we've just saved you a lot more!

~~~
hwc
They have flashing lights that go off if your vehicle is too tall.

------
arrty88
I love the sub reddit too

[https://www.reddit.com/r/11foot8/](https://www.reddit.com/r/11foot8/)

------
aaaaardvark
Someone pls tell me why they are not suspending a light swinging plank 11'8"
above the ground at some point ahead of the bridge.

~~~
peteretep
Because it’s right after an intersection

------
jchook
Does anyone know their method (and how it has evolved over the years) for
detecting a crash from the raw feed?

~~~
dwighttk
Not 100% on this but I think I remember reading that they just look at the
audio and then look at the video near the sharp peaks

------
pgt
This is what I love about the Internet. "Feed the Canopener" links to his
Patreon. Hahahaha.

------
lwhi
Make every truck stop before it's able to pass under.

------
michaelmarion
Durham represent!

------
dec0dedab0de
Why dont they make the road dip down a smidge?

~~~
zanny
Water and sewer pipes run under that road I heard.

They ended up raising the bridge 8".

------
classified
How quaint, naming a web site in the 21st century after those atavistic
imperial units.

------
sebastien_bois
Still not high enough. They raised it another 8 inches to make it an even 12ft
not too long ago, but evidently that _still_ not enough.

One would think they would've looked more closely at the traffic on that road
and adjusted it accordingly.

It's also really silly to have a sign indicating that too large vehicles must
turn, which most drivers won't read/see in time, and practically force them to
crash into the bridge, instead of having some sort of 'bumpers' ahead of the
bridge for those vehicles to bump into first (I've seen those at entrances of
parking lots that have both above ground and underground parking).

~~~
chrisseaton
You make it sound like it's normal that people would expect that they can
drive into a bridge without checking the height first - as if it's the
bridge's fault for being too low. Why don't the drivers check?

~~~
jacquesm
Because they're not used to driving trucks. Modern light weight cargo vehicles
accelerate and brake as though they are personal cars. Spend an hour or two
behind the wheel of one and you're liable to forget that you have this huge
box behind you that extends well over the height of the cab, the part that is
in your immediate field of view. It takes some serious situational awareness
to keep that at the front of your thoughts when driving an unfamiliar vehicle
on unfamiliar roads.

The basic assumption people make is that the roads they know or that are
indicated by their navigator are the roads that they can drive on. I don't
recall even if my navigator has a way of setting the vehicle height, I should
check that.

~~~
chrisseaton
Isn't the first and last thing anyone driving a tall vehicle is told that they
should check the height of bridges before going under them?

~~~
jacquesm
Absolutely. And then you do it for a couple of hours concentrating on the road
and driving the car between the lines nicely widthwise and you'll forget it
when you need it most.

I've done a lot of driving, some of it boxtrucks and larger and when you
switch vehicles it is a thing that you need to remind yourself of
_constantly_. The easiest solution would be to dig that road out to standard
depth, the next best would be to drop it from all navigation systems so that
at least people that do not know about it won't try to use it.

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
Somewhat related to this is the problem of children being left in hot/cold
cars accidentally.

When our son was very young (< 2 years old), my girlfriend/wife was usually
the one to take him to daycare in the morning. Occasionally she would have to
leave for work early or was running late and would ask me to take him instead.
This seemed to me to be a perfect storm to have him left behind in the car
when I went to work: not used to having him there, I might drive directly to
work "on autopilot" and get out and leave him asleep in his car seat.

I often wondered if this was at the heart of kids being left in hot cars.

Anyway, I forced myself to get into the habit of always turning around and
checking that the car seat was empty before getting out the car, every single
time, just in case.

Of course, it never happened, but I can see how easy it is to forget stuff
like this when you're simply not used to doing it.

~~~
macintux
That’s exactly why it happens so often. Most of us live (well, until recently
lived) lives of quiet routine, and a quiet child in the back seat is
surprisingly easy to overlook when that’s not your routine.

