Olive Road bridge: Simple solution is gaining some traction
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - There might be a solution on the road for Augusta’s battered and berated Olive Road bridge.
For years, city traffic employees have been ruling out an apparently common-sense solution to keep trucks from getting stuck under the notoriously low railroad over.
But after pressure from Augusta Commission , the employees may be budging.
They presented commissioners on Tuesday with a drawing of a so-called chain curtain above the roadway approaching the bridge.
The device would consist of a horizontal bar over the roadway with a line of chains hanging from it.
The bottom of the chains would be at the same height as the underside of the bridge. The chains would noisily bang on the top of any ing vehicle that wouldn’t fit under the bridge.
City traffic employees in the past have said such a plan would never happen due to “liability” issues.
However, commissioners have been pushing the Augusta Traffic Engineering Division to consider a chain curtain, a solution that’s being used in Kansas City.
John Ussery, assistant director of the division, was at Tuesday’s gathering of Augusta Commission to present them with a schematic and a price tag.
Ussery said Kansas City’s system cost $100,000, but he thinks Augusta could probably do it for $60,000 to $80,000.
Commissioners are now pushing city legal and risk-management employees to work together over the course of a month to see how Augusta could use such a system. City leaders are also looking for procurement employees to start getting estimates.
The bridge carries railroad tracks over Olive Road near White Street.
Once or twice a month, the driver of a truck – often a rented box truck – will misjudge the height and try to under it despite several warning signs and a bright red beam on the underside of the bridge.
The beam has kept the bridge from sustaining much damage, but it hasn’t stopped trucks from getting wedged under the bridge.
We all knew the bridge was pretty bad, but CSX officials recently told city leaders it’s one of the two most destructive bridges on the railroad’s entire network. The other one is about 100 miles northwest of here in Athens.
Copyright 2023 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.
