The Daily Gazette reported on Wednesday, July 7, 2021, that a semi tractor-trailer bridge strike earlier this week has City officials in Glenville asking the state to intervene and make much-needed improvements to an underpass at Glenridge and Heckletown Roads.
According to Town Supervisor Christopher Koetzle, the city wants the road to be close to raise the underpass level so that semi tractor-trailer rigs are not striking the low clearance rail bridge or having to turn around. Currently, the clearance is just 10 feet 11 inches.
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On Monday, July 5, an 18-wheeler struck the bridge. Extensive amounts of wreckage came off of the big rig, some of it striking a 2012 Hyundai that was directly behind the truck. Pieces from the truck managed to shatter and come through the car’s rear window and injured a 48-year-old Schenectady woman.
The truck driver, 26-year-old Mousa Diomande of North Carolina was fined some $450 for attempting to pass under the railroad bridge without having enough clearance for his rig to do so.
The town has paid some $50,000 for police, fire, and emergency crews responding to the same underpass since 2012.
While there are numerous signs and pavement markers in both directions warning truck drivers about the bridge’s low clearance, it has become obvious most large commercial trucks should not be using the route.
Koetzle believes that because the railroad bridge needs to be raised, the road should be closed until it is.
“If it costs $2 million, if it costs $3 million– they’re throwing around money in Washington and Albany that are 10 times that amount for infrastructure, Koetzle said. “Make the investment. Make us safe.”
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