This bridge gets struck more than any other bridge in Houston | Dump Truck Company

This crash on March 2 is one of 14 since January 2017 to occur on I-10 at the Houston Avenue bridge.

The Houston Avenue bridge over the Katy Freeway (Interstate 10) gets struck more times than any other bridge in Houston, the latest occurring July 13 when a tractor trailer hit the bridge and snarled traffic for hours.

The bridge has been struck 14 times since January 2017, according to the Houston Chronicle, despite infrared detectors installed in 2014 that alert drivers in vehicles that exceed the bridge’s 14-foot, 3-inch clearance.

The alarms, however, have curbed strikes, according to Texas Department of Transportation. In this video, TxDOT spokeswoman Emily Black tells KHOU 11 TV news that the year before the detectors were installed, the bridge was struck 35 times. In the year after their installation, 12 vehicles struck the bridge.

In 2018, the sensors have sent an alarm 4,640 times in I-10 westbound lanes and 8,837 times in eastbound lanes as of June 2, according to KHOU’s report. The detectors send a warning to a roadway message board to alert drivers of oversized vehicles to detour to Interstate 610.

TxDOT plans to raise the 50-year-old overpass bridge as part of its $7 billion North Houston Highway Improvement Project, but charlotte nc dump truck company on raising the bridge above the current interstate vertical clearance standard of 16 feet won’t occur until at least 2020, according to the Chronicle story.

TxDOT maintains that the bridge – which has undergone $753,000 in emergency repairs since 2011, according to the Chronicle – remains structurally sound.