Some of the folks on my project team were meeting with the people in the VDOT bridge section to discuss a new product being built with our GIS Roads layer. It's intended to help steer overweight vehicles over appropriate roads, and to keep them away from weight restricted bridges.
In the middle of the meeting their beepers and phones start going off.
A one-lane bridge in Giles County collapsed yesterday when a heavily laden cement truck tried to cross the weight-restricted span.
The state Route 713 bridge over Walker Creek was posted with a restriction limiting the maximum weight of vehicles to 8 tons.
"It appears that an overweight vehicle violating the posting collapsed the bridge," said Malcolm T. Kerley, the Virginia Department of Transportation's chief engineer.
The 2003 Mack truck was carrying 15½ tons of cement, said state police Sgt. Michael Conroy. "The [cement] alone . . . pretty much doubled the limit on the bridge."
"This is an example of why we post weight limits on bridges," Walus said. "We want to remind all drivers to heed posted weight limits and follow posted safety instructions."
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