(The following story by John Dyer appeared on the Boston Globe website on February 7.)
BOSTON — The railroad bridge over East Main Street in Westborough stands 12 feet, 6 inches above the road surface. A typical tractor-trailer truck stands 13 feet, 6 inches tall. Therein lies the problem.
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Roughly five times a month, police respond to tractor-trailer trucks either hitting the steel bridge or stopping just before they hit it, Police Chief Alan Gordon said. Both the accidents and near-accidents clog traffic in a part of Westborough that is already often congested because of the rotary in the town center and the recently opened Bay State Commons retail complex, he said.
Although Gordon and other town officials are discussing ways to decrease incidents at the bridge – such as installing new, large signs like the ones that warn truckers not to enter Boston’s Storrow Drive – they acknowledge there isn’t much they can do if big-rig drivers try their luck with the span and its owner, the CSX Corp., doesn’t replace it.
Robert Sullivan, a spokesman for CSX, said the Florida-based railroad giant has no plans to replace the 1921 bridge, a project that could cost millions and would require tearing up and adjusting extensive amounts of rail bed to align the grade of a new bridge with the tracks on either side of it. “The answer is to continue to work with the town as they put the signage up,” Sullivan said.
CSX uses the bridge for freight cars. The MBTA also uses the bridge for its Framingham/Worcester commuter rail line.
Gordon accepted that CSX does not want to replace the bridge, but he warned that one day the company might not have a choice. The bridge never has been damaged severely by a collision, he said, but there is always a first time.
“They have no incentive to raise their bridge,” he said. “They just better pray someone doesn’t try to go down East Main Street with a large piece of construction equipment on a trailer. If anything heavy-duty goes down there with any speed, it is going to bend one of those beams.”
When trucks run into the bridge, Gordon said, he often has to call a special towing company that has wreckers large enough to pull the damaged trucks out from under it. Often, he said, the tow-truck drivers need to tie straps around the trailer to keep it from falling apart.
“It’s just like a sardine can,” he said. “It peels off the roof. Once it peels the roof, it weakens the structure. If it has a full load inside, once they get caught there and the roof is peeled back, the frame falls in the middle.”
When a truck stops before hitting the bridge, officers are called to direct traffic. “We have to go and help them back up because of the cars behind them,” Gordon said.
Last month, police responded to three near-misses at the bridge and two collisions, Gordon said. The most recent collision occurred at noon Jan. 28 when a driver followed his GPS system’s directions and ran into the bridge. It took four hours to clear the truck from the bridge, he said. In December, police assisted with six trucks that almost banged it and one collision.
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The bridge has a sign in both English and French, with measurements in American and metric units, to warn truckers about its height. Some of the drivers involved in incidents were from Quebec, Gordon said, but the addition of a warning in French hasn’t seemed to help much. Police can fine drivers $35 for failing to observe traffic signs, he said.
A number of the trucks that tangle with the bridge are heading to and from E.L. Harvey & Sons’ baling facility on Hopkinton Road to pick up scrap paper for recycling, said Gordon.
Jim Harvey, the company’s CEO, said his employees either avoid the bridge or drive vehicles that fit under it. But private, out-of-town haulers – called “gypsies” in the trucking industry – don’t have that local knowledge, even though Harvey said he bends over backwards to educate them. As many as 10 gypsy drivers pick up paper at the facility every day, Harvey said.
“We actually give them little maps telling them not to go there,” said Harvey. “We show them pictures on the wall showing them what happens. And they still screw up. Other than getting into the cab and going with them, what can we do?”
Gordon said he was has been working with the Westborough engineering department to install sidewalk-mounted signs that would direct trucks around the bridge. But, he added, those measures are far from perfect.
“People are not very receptive to change,” he said. “They have their mind made up that there is only one way to their destination. If you give them an alternate route, it confuses people.”
Selectman George Thompson laid blame squarely on the shoulders of inattentive truck drivers who know the height of their vehicles but ignore the height of the bridge.
“It reminds me of pigeons flying into the screen door, but here we have truck drivers who don’t read the signs.”
Thompson said he and his colleagues on the Board of Selectmen would consider imposing additional fines on truck drivers who repeatedly get stuck at the bridge.