Our favorite truck-eating bridge is being lifted by 8-inches, which will effectively put it on a starvation diet, because many more trucks will be able to pass under it without getting their tops ripped off. In this video, we see how a crew is raising the bridge.
From the 11foot8 bridge YouTube channel:
On October 29, 2019, a crew hired by Norfolk Southern and the NC Railroad Company raised the 11foo8 bridge on Gregson St. in Durham, NC by 8 inches (20 cm) to increase the clearance over Gregson St to 12 foot 4 inches. The purpose of this $500,000 project was to improve traffic safety at this railroad trestle. We have documented 150 crashes of overheight vehicles at the old 11foot8 bridge since April 2008. This is the end of the old 11foot8 canopener … welcome to the 11foot8 +8 bridge. Let’s see what happens :)
In the screenshot above, you can see that the bridge has already been raised by 8 inches. There’s still much work to be done, including inclining the tracks on either side of the raised bridge.
Image: YouTube