Trucks hit this Kansas City bridge so often it has a Facebook page to keep score
The signs are clear.
They’re bright yellow with black text. Flashing lights warn drivers in both directions.
But the signals aren’t enough to stop a constant barrage of trucks that can’t seem to quit colliding with an overpass on Independence Avenue near Wilson Avenue in northeast Kansas City.
With only 12 feet of clearance, the bridge has been hit by box trucks and tractor trailers for years. It’s so notorious that it touts its own satirical Facebook page that proudly proclaims: “I have been feasting on your human concoctions for decades. Your wheeled steel boxes are quite delicious. Please feed me more!”
That page is a scrapbook of collisions. There’s an image of a semi lodged between the concrete and asphalt. Another shows a trailer crumpled up like foil, leaning over to one side.
Yet the Facebook page is hardly comprehensive — because these collisions occur too often.
The Kansas City Terminal Railway Company, which owns the bridge, says it gets hit about twice a month. Collisions are so common that sometimes the company isn’t even notified of them, said Shawn Lauby, director of safety and administration for the railroad.
Just last week, at least three trucks collided with the bridge. On Friday, a FedEx box truck scraped its roof along the bottom of the bridge, though it kept on moving down the avenue.
“The problem sure doesn’t seem to be resolving anytime soon,” Lauby said.
He said the railroad frequently sends engineers to inspect the structure after a collision. Those and more routine inspections show the 1912-era span remains structurally sound.
“Although these collisions may look rough, they’re not doing much to the bridge,” he said. “With regular upkeep, there’s no plans at all to replace that thing anytime soon. It’s in good condition. It was just designed at a time when you needed clearance for horse-drawn carriages, not 13-and-a-half foot semis.”
It’s unclear why trucks hit the bridge so often. But officials say a state highway designation brings lots of traffic from box trucks and big rigs down Independence Avenue.
The railroad and the city have worked to better mark the bridge, brightly advertising the low clearance. But beyond that, only pricey solutions exist.
They’ve looked at digging the street lower, but city utilities underneath the bridge would complicate any effort to go lower. And Lauby doesn’t believe the street could be lowered enough to make way for the tallest trucks.
“It would be expensive to do that,” he said. “But replacing the bridge would be tens of millions of dollars more expensive.”
The Kansas City bridge is in good company, with several similar examples across the country of bridges notorious for wrecking the tall vehicles of inattentive drivers.
The so-called “canopener” train trestle bridge in Durham, North Carolina, which has video cameras capturing footage of collisions, has been entertaining viewers for years. A website devoted to run-ins with that bridge says the structure has “earned a reputation for its unrelenting enforcement of the laws of physics.”
In Spokane, Washington, dozens of trucks have collided with a downtown railway viaduct bridge. The Spokesman-Review reported that city leaders last year installed a reader board that measures approaching traffic and lights up with a bright warning for those that are too tall for the 11-and-a-half-foot structure.
Lauby says a similar effort might be possible on Independence Avenue.
Maggie Green, spokeswoman for the Kansas City Public Works Department, said the city is already grappling with drainage issues under the bridge. So any attempt to change the street would be even more costly and complicated.
So far the city has focused efforts on signage around the bridge. City crews regularly measure the distance between the roadway and the bridge to ensure the 12-foot clearance signs remain accurate.
Though no big solution appears to be imminent, the city does hope state action might help divert truck traffic away from the bridge. The Missouri Department of Transportation has been working on a plan for several years to reroute U.S. 24 away from Independence Avenue. Officials hope that action might push GPS-reliant drivers to a major highway like Interstate 70.
The transportation department said a contractor has ordered signs and will begin replacing the highway markers in the spring. That work should be complete by July, when the state will remove the U.S. 24 designation from Independence Avenue.
While trucks occasionally hit some of the hundreds of other bridges across Kansas City, Green said the one in the Northeast is unmatched in its record.
“Independence Avenue is a major arterial road and it is a road that connects Independence, Mo., to Kansas City, Mo. So it tends to be a truck route,” she said. “That is something that is a challenge at this particular location.”
The Star’s Tammy Ljungblad contributed to this story.
This story was originally published November 23, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
