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Truck goes over overpass3/7/2023 It's not yet clear when the work will start, officials say, though they expect it to begin this month. Now the state transportation department is looking for a contractor to handle the emergency repairs, which are expected to wrap up by the end of November. And the permit said to go underneath that bridge." "When it comes to an oversized, there is a permit. "Everybody wants to blame the driver," he said. The driver has not been cited, Anchorage Police Department spokeswoman Renee Oistad said Wednesday.įairbanks, who has held a Class A license to drive trucks for almost 30 years, was clear on what his load measured. That's where the permit came into the picture, he said: A police officer on scene verified the information that showed the trucks were required to travel under the overpass. The modules he carried weren't damaged when they hit the bridge, Fairbanks said. The other truck was able to barely clear the bridge by moving into a different lane. That's when the load clipped the overpass, damaging a girder, as the truck passed beneath it. Transportation officials were not able to answer questions about why the permit didn't call for the drivers to similarly go around the overpass that was struck by the load.Īt the South Eagle River bridge, Fairbanks said, he approached the overpass in fairly heavy traffic at no more than 45 mph, as required by the permit, and then slowed down to about 25 as he got close. The permit required that they take a winding route through Anchorage to avoid traffic lights and go around - rather than under - six other Glenn Highway bridges, including those at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson and Hiland Road. His load, consisting of modules bound for the North Slope, was 16 feet, 11 inches, he said. His permit allowed a load height of up to 17 feet. 28 with no problems until they got to the overpass. It wasn't immediately clear what such a survey involves.Īs an emergency measure, the statement said, the transportation department has marked the northbound side of the damaged bridge with a sign labeling its height as 16 feet, 1 inch - even though that's not the actual height of the bridge - "to provide extra clearance to prevent further damage to the bridge as we await repairs."įairbanks said Wednesday that he and another driver came through Anchorage from Kenai on Sept. "We are doing an immediate check of all the bridges on the Glenn Highway to confirm their height to make certain that (the division) has up-to-date information."Ī statement the agency issued notes the permit was based on the trucking company's representation of the load height and that a permit manual states that "it is the responsibility of the party transporting an over-height load to conduct a route survey prior to travel." "DOT is concerned and we are conducting an internal investigation," department spokeswoman Shannon McCarthy said Thursday. State transportation officials say they are reviewing the incident, the height of the truck's load and the measurements of the highway's overpass clearances with the department's Division of Measurement Standards and Commercial Vehicle Compliance. Glenn Highway, Bridge Crash, New Entrance, Semi Crash, Modular Building, Alaska Department of Transportation The bridge is the same one that was struck in March 2018 by a truck hauling a load too tall to fit on the southbound side of the Glenn, triggering colossal traffic jams. The cost of repairing the bridge, damaged over the highway's northbound lanes, is estimated at $500,000 to $1 million, according to a bid invitation the state issued this week. "I was in the lead and I followed the path." You cannot stray from the path," said Fairbanks, the owner of Sterling-based FBX Equipment and Services.
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