Stuck truck on the Monaro Highway

I actually witnessed this happening first hand this morn at 7.50. Here is what happened. The truck got about 20m into the concrete section when his rear tires started to rub on the dividers. The rear axles are much wider than the front axles to take the wide load. So the truckie stopped the truck, I could see his getting angry, then he just turned to the right put it in gear and absolutely hammered over that concrete barrier. Once I saw him start to move I knew he was going to get stuck.
What puzzles me is that there was not a line up of traffic behind him, there was only one car. He could have easily got that car to reverse and hold any other traffic up for a minute or two while he reversed up.

I actually don’t think that what they’ve done with that bridge was too bad.

You have to remember that when they released the road designs for that area that the current state was always only an interim state until the Majura Parkway was built, and the plans released at the time showed that. (Not sure if they where on the TAMS website, I work at Brindabella Park and our office manager forwarded a newsletter from the airport people showing what was happening which had the plans in it)

The road was widened over the original footpath which is the cause of the height variation, which necessitated the concrete divider. The bridge as a whole was not widened.

I think that this was done as a lower cost measure as part of the solution to solve the traffic problems that were pretty horrendous in that area a few years ago, in the knowledge that in the not too distant future that the whole intersection would be rebuilt for the parkway. I actually think it was a fairly smart thing to do

Grail said :

Though it does raise the question of why the bridge extension wasn’t built at the same level in the first place.

Do it right the first time.

Your not used to the “Canberra way” are you?
In Canberra the way to do things is

1. Throw money at a study
2. Ignore that the study said it should be done this way and do what you want anyway.
3. Do a half arsed attempt at building the thing, so the new thing doesn’t quite fix the problem
4. After thing is considered finished, upgrade the thing so that it actually does what is needed.
5. Ignore the fact that what you have and what you’d planned for do not match in the slightest
6. Realise that because the first attempt was done half arsed the upgrade will cost significantly more and there are now technical limitations preventing the upgrade from actually giving what you want.
7. Have drinks night and tell everyone how cleaver you are for keeping interstate contracting companies employed.
8. Repeat

Apply this to just about any public works in Canberra…

Though it does raise the question of why the bridge extension wasn’t built at the same level in the first place.

Do it right the first time.

I always thought TAMS designed that divider with the specific aim of beaching vehicles – it worked superbly at first – I’d say dozens of cars and trucks came to grief on it – just have a look at the amount of damage to the top of the concrete next time you drive past.

They spoiled it with the addition of the flexible divider posts, but obviously in the right circumstances it can still deliver a good beaching. My guess is that the truck driver had to brake suddenly to avoid rear-ending someone.

Thoroughly Smashed said :

YetAnotherBlowIn said :

I’ve been told by a local in my office that this small concrete divider replaced a standard height concrete jersey kerb (same as what runs down the middle of the Parkway). Apparently this was replaced because a truck became wedged on it previously and needed a crane to be lifted off.

Can anyone confirm/deny this?

This has never been the case.

Although there may have been one there at some stage(s) of construction for site safety reasons.

YetAnotherBlowIn said :

I’ve been told by a local in my office that this small concrete divider replaced a standard height concrete jersey kerb (same as what runs down the middle of the Parkway). Apparently this was replaced because a truck became wedged on it previously and needed a crane to be lifted off.

Can anyone confirm/deny this?

This has never been the case.

steveu said :

But what I will say is that its about F’ing time they fixed the monaro highway and made it dual carraigeway all the way instead of that ridiculous thing over canberra avenue which seems to cause the monaro carpark every morning.

Umm, if you looked out the window whilst stuck in said traffic jam, you might have noticed that they are in fact working to make it a dual carriageway. Preparations are in progress to build the second bridge across Canberra Ave.

This isn’t the first time – but maybe the biggest vehicle. Very early on when the road was opened I saw a family wedged on it who attempted to switch lanes to go to the airport. the yellow poles were added some time after that incident to try to alert people to the kerb/obstruction.

It was certainly fun trying to get through there this morning (seems to be my week for road blocks!) with everyone turning left to the round about instead of the usual smaller group.

not having seen the incident Im gonna reserve judgement on the driver. But what I will say is that its about F’ing time they fixed the monaro highway and made it dual carraigeway all the way instead of that ridiculous thing over canberra avenue which seems to cause the monaro carpark every morning. When they built the buildings out at the airport surely they could have recognised the need to fix this?

More a beaching than a breakdown!

I’ve been told by a local in my office that this small concrete divider replaced a standard height concrete jersey kerb (same as what runs down the middle of the Parkway). Apparently this was replaced because a truck became wedged on it previously and needed a crane to be lifted off.

Can anyone confirm/deny this?

Well having someone make a last minute decision to move from the left lane to the right turn ones is a change on the normal situation where queue jumpers drive down the right turn lanes and then push their way into the left lane at the last minute so that they can gain a few car lengths in the inevitable queue going north on Majura Rd.

Selfish pricks.

dvaey said :

shirty_bear said :

It’s the same from both sides.

The left side is significantly higher than the right. On the left side, its barely more than a low kerb, on the right side the drop would be closer to 40cm.

shirty_bear said :

It’s the same from both sides.

The left side is significantly higher than the right. On the left side, its barely more than a low kerb, on the right side the drop would be closer to 40cm.

I think that divider is there because that bridge was widened sometime back. As someone’s pointed out, it may have been the foot/cyclepath. I don’t know much about bridges, but I’d hazard a guess to say that the concrete divider is part of the structure and can’t be removed without the demolition of the bridge.

I’m pretty sure (although with current roads, who knows) that it would have been removed if it could have been.

The concrete divider in question is actually necessary. The bridge in question was widened a few years ago, and the road surface of the outside lane is a few inches higher than the other two lanes, hense the divider to prevent lane-hopping.

From the outside lane the divider looks like little more than a speed bump, but the drop off on the other side is substantial, hense why this truckie is beached az.

Ex Warrior said :

Are we mining around the territory?
Where has the big dumpster been or wheres it off to?

I hear they’ve been building some sort of concrete structure out near the Cotter.

It’s the same from both sides.

Can anyone you regularly uses this road tell me how much the concrete divider protrudes above the left hand/straight through lane? Obviously from this angle we can see that there is a significant drop but I’m wondering if from the left lane it looks like a normal height divider.

Are we mining around the territory?
Where has the big dumpster been or wheres it off to?

aussielyn said :

It was only a matter of time because that lane is so narrow for huge vehicles. Maybe it is the required minimum width required by Australian standards but truckies hate it.
I was expecting a Winnebago or B triple to come a cropper here.

Maybe they will take out the footpath now. How thick are traffic engineers!

What footpath? That lane used to be the footpath.

It was only a matter of time because that lane is so narrow for huge vehicles. Maybe it is the required minimum width required by Australian standards but truckies hate it.
I was expecting a Winnebago or B triple to come a cropper here.

Maybe they will take out the footpath now. How thick are traffic engineers!

shirty_bear said :

First time I saw that bizarre little concrete wall (/triumph of brainless road “design”), I wondered how long it would be before someone got hung up on it. Would have gladly bet on much sooner. Or is this merely the most impressive effort to date?

+1

It seems like it has no purpose other than to permanently disable any vehicle that attempts to cross it. Ive never seen any other lane separation done in that way. Its all well and good for cars that can change lanes in the space of 5-10m but for a big truck, they need space to change lanes and if caught off-guard and need to make a sudden lane change, this sort of event will happen.

Im also wondering if it might have occured early this morning when visibility wasnt the best and an interstate driver was simply unfamiliar with the bizarre road construction used in that area.

Its pretty obvious to anyone that has driven down there that this fool of a truckie wanted to turn right at the lights up ahead but ignored or didn’t see the signs saying that the left hand lane was for straight ahead traffic only!

The thing is, if he’d just continued on, he could have made his turn at the intersection anyway or just done a blockie and gone around the long way at the next set of lights.

The concrete divider is a joke though.

I’m willing to be a few 4WDs have taken their chances going over it already.

Haha, that’s a rather big oops. I can imagine the reported 4km traffic jam would have been overjoyed at seeing that too.

That silly lane divider is a rather large clusterf…

I’m sure there’s a good reason for it, and I’d like to hear what it is.

Has anyone else noticed when coming through there from the other direction, the 2 lanes are way to skinny?

First time I saw that bizarre little concrete wall (/triumph of brainless road “design”), I wondered how long it would be before someone got hung up on it. Would have gladly bet on much sooner. Or is this merely the most impressive effort to date?

I would say that either someone stopped suddenly in front of him and he took evasive action or he failed to consider that his truck probably shouldn’t go down there because it was too big (I think there may be signs with a size limit, will check on the way home) amnd tried to go towards the Airport at the last minute.

Wow.

Did Keith have any idea what happened? Because from the photo it is pretty clear something when wrong, but I would love to know why the truckie drove (halfway) over that.