Irish Rail wants to use infra red to end bridge strikes

monument

“Irish Rail wants to use infra-red technology to help prevent bridge hits that can hold up traffic and disrupt train commuters in Laois and many other counties.”

http://www.leinsterexpress.ie/news/motoring/276155/irish-rail-wants-to-use-infra-red-to-end-disruptive-bridge-hits-in-laois-and-other-counties.html

LeChienMefiant

Great idea. Just hook it up to a red traffic light and send a firing squad down.

MGWR

And I remember the days when most lorries were not taller than a double deck bus too.

Good old government ripping out most of the rails. The freight could have travelled on those instead, and there would be less need (not no need, but less) to go on a motorway craze.

IE 222

Should the NRA not be playing a part in resolving this problem seen as its road traffic causing the problem here.

Spanish Eyes

Surely all that is required is a height restriction barrier a bit in advance of the bridge. If that slices the top of your lorry off, you ain't going anywhere near a rail bridge.

But I suppose the Nimbys will object to that ugly thing on their road or something.

Simple solutions are the best.

john boye

The bridges are going on strike now??

Dravokivich

Spanish Eyes wrote: »

Surely all that is required is a height restriction barrier a bit in advance of the bridge. If that slices the top of your lorry off, you ain't going anywhere near a rail bridge.

But I suppose the Nimbys will object to that ugly thing on their road or something.

Simple solutions are the best.

It's been discussed in another thread here recently about how to avoid bridge strikes. A bar like that would be pointless unless there are quite a distance away, with room for vehicles to turn about. Having them just before the bridge, doesn't mean the truck is going to be able to get away from it either.

marno21

A simple solution would be to increase penalties for those who do strike a bridge deliberately.

It happens all the time in the Limerick tunnel - if you can pass 3 signs, 2 of them illuminated, in addition to the max height VMS signs, pass a set of red lights and still arrive at the barrier - then maybe you should be off the road.

The "yera I'll give it a go anyway" followed by a bridge strike attitude needs to be dealt with.

ED E

This is what I've been bloody saying!

Woodpecker1

I worked alongside the IR bridge gangs for years with GPX.

One job that took ages was lough atalia road in Galway.

Iggy Maden's truck company depot right beside the bridge. They constantly hit the bridge most scraping underneath. But a few times that did some serious damage. The whole front of the bridge needed replated .. The old decorative castings from the 1800s destroyed. took a few weeks to fix and reduced traffic to one lane in a very busy place.

Our ganger(forman) started to quiz the drivers still insisting in scraping through.

Do you know what height your rig is?

Nearly every one got it wrong. Some did not even speak English. Scary stuff..

I wonder who paid for all the work.

The road has since been lowered.

wordofwarning

MGWR wrote: »

Good old government ripping out most of the rails. The freight could have travelled on those instead, and there would be less need (not no need, but less) to go on a motorway craze.

Lets ignore the missing railway lines, as it is a bit of a weak argument...

Why aren't the existing lines being used for freight? Lets not pretend that rail freight isn't happening, as the rich industrial heartlands of the likes of Donegal are not connected to Dublin. Rail freight is not happening in Ireland, as it is not very efficient over short distances.

Cork, Galway, etc are all connected to Dublin, but have minimal rail freight to Dublin. Why is that? Sure, as you said it only isnt happening, as there is no rail lines, but there is rail lines are no one is really using. Rail freight is generally only efficient with a single type of good over long distances eg coal, oil, gas, chemicals etc. Navan zinc ore used to go to Dublin Port, as it was a single source

A lot of industry is in the GDA. It is not in anyway economical for freight rail to be used for such short journeys

Spanish Eyes

Dravokivich wrote: »

It's been discussed in another thread here recently about how to avoid bridge strikes. A bar like that would be pointless unless there are quite a distance away, with room for vehicles to turn about. Having them just before the bridge, doesn't mean the truck is going to be able to get away from it either.

I don't think I said these barriers should be a metre away from the bridge itself!

It's a no brainer that they would be far enough back to allow a turn around if necessary. Albeit without a roof on the rig! But no damage to the railway bridge either.

Dravokivich

Spanish Eyes wrote: »

I don't think I said these barriers should be a metre away from the bridge itself!

It's a no brainer that they would be far enough back to allow a turn around if necessary. Albeit without a roof on the rig! But no damage to the railway bridge either.

No, but you pretty much expected that it's not been considered here previously. All I did was advise it's been challenged in a reasonable manner rather recently. Check it out...

Cuddlesworth

Spanish Eyes wrote: »

Surely all that is required is a height restriction barrier a bit in advance of the bridge. If that slices the top of your lorry off, you ain't going anywhere near a rail bridge.

But I suppose the Nimbys will object to that ugly thing on their road or something.

Simple solutions are the best.

I think in a lot of places that wouldn't work, eg bridges at or close to main junctions.

Also it a transfer of responsibility right? Irish Rail owns the bridges that get hit. But the county council would own and be responsible for the early strike setups. Including maintenance and repair. Can't see many councils taking that on, not with their attitudes.

Woodpecker1

There are buffer bars in front of some bridges. Like the ones in Monasterevin.

They are very substantial steel barriers. That can take the initial impact.

The problem I see with them is that they are still part of the bridge structure and can still push the stone work on the bridges.

To erect a second structure in front of the bridge, maybe 10 meters away, would be a big job

tabbey

A physical barrier is the only real solution.

A flexible warning of steel chains a hundred metres in advance, followed by a heavy duty rigid barrier closer to the bridge.

It is ugly and crude but preferable to the bridge strikes and the expense and disruption which ensues.

The unfortunate victims of the Clogh disaster, New Years Eve 1975 would be still alive perhaps if a strict attitude had been in place then.

Gerrup Outta Dat!

The penalty point list says "Bridge strikes, etc.". What does the "etc." refer to? Does striking permanent fixtures like bollards count as well?

GM228

Gerrup Outta Dat! wrote: »

The penalty point list says "Bridge strikes, etc.". What does the "etc." refer to? Does striking permanent fixtures like bollards count as well?

They say "etc" because the offence is actually for driving under and striking a "structure" - which is defined as a bridge, viaduct, subway, tunnel, underpass, overpass or flyover.

Mind you, you would be doing well to drive under and hit a subway, underpass or tunnel!

Dravokivich

GM228 wrote: »

They say "etc" because the offence is actually for driving under and striking striking a "structure" - which is defined as a bridge, viaduct, subway, tunnel, underpass, overpass or flyover.

Mind you, you would be doing well to drive under and hit a subway, underpass or tunnel!

Must mean the roof of'em?

cython

And another bridge strike at Barrow Street makes a mess of DART and Dublin commuter services for Friday rush hour

Seriously, how incompetent or negligent can these so-called professional drivers (given that these must all be high-sided vehicles) be, do they see it as a challenge to outdo each other?!

marno21

cython wrote: »

And another bridge strike at Barrow Street makes a mess of DART and Dublin commuter services for Friday rush hour

Seriously, how incompetent or negligent can these so-called professional drivers (given that these must all be high-sided vehicles) be, do they see it as a challenge to outdo each other?!

A driving ban would definately reduce the frequency of this happening.

The amount of times it happens with the Limerick tunnel given the amount of advance warning at the tunnel entrance is proof of how little these drivers care about strikes.

XPS_Zero

Here we go again. I'm not, for once, annoyed at Irish rail for this delay, they have to check the bridge even though they know it's probably fine, and to their credit they are usually out pretty fast...but it's time to come down hard on this.

It's happening every other week now, even though it's a FAMOUS problem "don't hit the f----g bridge around Grand Canal Dock everyone knows what bridge it is at this stage and if you don't know one of the most common road issues in the city should you be driving a truck in it at all?

My idea of putting a sniper up there might seem far fetched, but let me make my case. Our snipers, especially the ones in special forces, win competitions all the time against guys with far more operational experience in other forces, if were not gonna put them to use eliminating a certain gangster abroad causing remote ciaos here (as I'd like) - lets put them to use handling this? Come on they'll be that much closer to the city centre if an active shooter situation develops, if some angry virgin "Muslim" twentysomething watches too many youtube videos about Syria and goes nuts they'll be right near by anyway - it's win win. Once they shoot one of them do you think a second one will hit that bridge?

Too much? Can we at least strip their license then? I don't think points are enough. There needs to be an extreme deterrent it's a bridge TRAINS full of people go over what if they hit it at full speed and it actually does damage it's structural integrity? Will we wait until some idiot actually does it as a train goes over it and theres deaths?
That is our general security policy in Ireland isn't it? hope it does not happen then fumble when it does happen then close the barn door after the horse has bolted.

GreeBo

The Haulage company should be forced to pay for the repairs and also a fixed fine.


While a barrier before the bridge wouldnt stop trucks getting that far, it would stop them hitting and damaging the bridge.

I'd rather a delay while the trucks turns around than days/weeks of delay while the bridge is repaired.

monument

XPS_Zero wrote: »

My idea of putting a sniper up there might seem far fetched, but let me make my case. Our snipers, especially the ones in special forces, win competitions all the time against guys with far more operational experience in other forces, if were not gonna put them to use eliminating a certain gangster abroad causing remote ciaos here (as I'd like) - lets put them to use handling this? Come on they'll be that much closer to the city centre if an active shooter situation develops, if some angry virgin "Muslim" twentysomething watches too many youtube videos about Syria and goes nuts they'll be right near by anyway - it's win win. Once they shoot one of them do you think a second one will hit that bridge?

Joking about snipers is one thing but we really can do without dealing with the bit in bold -- don't post it again.

-- moderator

marvin80

john boye wrote: »

The bridges are going on strike now??

I thought one of our favourite posters would have come along by now and said "there perfectly entitled to go on strike"

monument

cython wrote: »

And another bridge strike at Barrow Street makes a mess of DART and Dublin commuter services for Friday rush hour

Seriously, how incompetent or negligent can these so-called professional drivers (given that these must all be high-sided vehicles) be, do they see it as a challenge to outdo each other?!

I know bridge strikes happens at other places besides Barrow Street and it's not a solution for most other places, but there was a plan to close the Barrow Street underpass to all but people on foot and on bicycles.

The reason for the plan was mainly to do with giving space to the large volumes of pedestrians and make the street more friendly to both cycling and walking given the volume of both going to offices on the street (not just Google).

I thought it was given approval but maybe it never was.

With a quick search I can't see details on the city council's site, only this news report: https://www.herald.ie/news/locals-fear-google-hq-traffic-chaos-28848371.html

Cookie_Monster

GreeBo wrote: »

The Haulage company should be forced to pay for the repairs and also a fixed fine.


While a barrier before the bridge wouldnt stop trucks getting that far, it would stop them hitting and damaging the bridge.

I'd rather a delay while the trucks turns around than days/weeks of delay while the bridge is repaired.

This, so much simpler than faffing around with infra red etc. Just put some big piece of steel in place, paint it up nicely (why not?) and off you go.

Vic_08

XPS_Zero wrote: »

There needs to be an extreme deterrent it's a bridge TRAINS full of people go over what if they hit it at full speed and it actually does damage it's structural integrity? Will we wait until some idiot actually does it as a train goes over it and theres deaths?

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/remembering-the-new-year-s-eve-train-crash-of-1975-1.2480479