Another tractor-trailer gets stuck under Green Valley Road railroad bridge
Oct. 4—A tractor-trailer carrying chicken to Costco got jammed under a CSX railroad bridge on Green Valley Road on Tuesday morning, blocking traffic in both directions for several hours.
The same bridge has been struck by tractor-trailers many times over the years.
The top part of the trailer was bent in. Some shredded pieces of metal atop the trailer were curled up.
Because of rain, the bridge had a light waterfall spilling over and onto the street.
No one was injured, Maryland State Police Sgt. Josh Bonneville said in an interview late Tuesday morning.
Ronnie Wise, 61, of Alabama, was driving the tractor-trailer. He said in an interview that he was taking chicken from a nearby Costco warehouse to a Costco store.
He said he was told to go down Green Valley Road, or Md. 75, since something happened on another road.
He was driving slowly, he said — about 15 mph as he got to the bridge.
The tractor cleared the bridge, but the trailer got stuck. He said that as he was driving on Green Valley Road, he didn't know there was a bridge ahead.
He also said there weren't adequate warnings.
"I think they need to clearly mark it, because I ain't see no 'There's a bridge down here,'" Wise said.
Before going onto Green Valley Road from any direction, there are signs that say trucks taller than 12 feet, 6 inches are not allowed on the road.
Approaching the bridge, a sign shows that the clearance under the bridge is 12 feet, 6 inches. Attached to the top of the bridge is a sign that says "Low clearance."
Wise was driving south and hit the bridge at around 6:20 a.m., Bonneville said. He said Wise failed to adhere to the road signs.
Grimm's Automovation, a Frederick-based towing and truck repair company, helped pull the truck out.
At around 10 a.m, Grimm's employees were using a forklift to get boxes of chicken out of the trailer and into another tractor-trailer.
Dale Grimm, owner of Grimm's Automovation, said during an interview Tuesday afternoon these types of incidents have happened for 20 years.
Roughly eight days ago, he said, another tow company had to dislodge another tractor-trailer from the bridge.
Tractor-trailers only started taking Green Valley Road once the Costco Distribution Center was built on Intercoastal Drive, he said.
Neither the distribution center nor Costco's headquarters could be reached for comment Tuesday afternoon.
"These guys a lot of times will use a car GPS, whereas a truck GPS tells you weight limits on bridges, heights on bridges," Grimm said.
He doesn't ever see the issue being solved.
"They put up all kinds of warnings, all kinds of signs," he said. "When you have people ignoring it, what are you going to do?"
The Maryland State Highway Administration and elected officials have tried to take steps throughout the years to solve the problem.
In 2016, members of the Frederick County delegation to the General Assembly sought to increase the fine for trucks stranded on the road to $10,000 as an increased deterrent. The bill failed in committee, but sparked meetings between local leaders, residents, state highway officials and trucking representatives.
At the time, officials said that since 2010, the State Highway Administration had responded to the bridge hundreds of times to help trucks that were wedged underneath or needed help turning around.
Danny Allman, a spokesman for SHA, wrote in an email Tuesday afternoon that the agency would follow up with additional information on the state's efforts to curtail similar incidents.
According to Allman, a CSX inspector went to the scene to see if the bridge was damaged. CSX spokeswoman Cindy Schild said Tuesday afternoon the agency would follow up with more information.
The road was blocked for roughly seven hours, based on Grimm's estimate of when the tractor-trailer was freed.
Follow Clara Niel on Twitter: @clarasniel
