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Sydney tunnel water screen stop sign for oversized vehicles [video]

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Re: Sydney tunnel water screen stop sign for oversized vehicles [video]

#181

Post by JshWright »

twistedpair wrote: post #109
evan_ wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you see the truck in the video take out an enormous steel beam that was presumably attached to the structure of the tunnel in some kind of permanent way? How would your solution avoid the same fate?

That beam they took out is called a "sacrificial beam." It was not a structural support, but was meant to take the impact before any structural members were damaged. You'll see them on many modern bridges and underpasses.

The sacrificial beam that appeared to fall on top of the car behind the truck?

Re: Sydney tunnel water screen stop sign for oversized vehicles [video]

#182

Post by rtkwe »

Supermighty wrote: post #64
josh_fyi wrote: post #56

Why not have a plastic flap hang down and thwack the top of the too-tall truck? Next, if that's ignored, a plywood barricade hanging down: Better some splintered plywood than a jammed tunnel.

And lastly a large flashing sign, or water sign, saying there is tire damage up ahead. Then have tire damage spikes come out of the road. It's the drivers responsibility to not damage the tunnel or bridge. Better to damage some cheap tires on a truck than the tunnel.

Yeah about that, giving some severe tire damage to a truck isn't the best way to bring it to a safe halt.

Re: Sydney tunnel water screen stop sign for oversized vehicles [video]

#183

Post by EGreg »

dragonwriter wrote: post #167
EGreg wrote: post #138

Why not just have those things which actually hang down and hit the top of your truck showing you that you're too tall? As for that water sign ... why don't they put it further back and have a way for offending vehicles to exit in front of it? Am I missing something?

> As for that water sign ... why don't they put it further back and have a way for offending vehicles to exit in front of it? Am I missing something? The projected-onto-water sign relies, for visibility, on the fact that is in front of a tunnel that is dark (hence why the lights near the entrance shut down when it activates), so it wouldn't work farther back; it also makes the road wet and incrementally more dangerou…

Okay, well why don't the progressively more dire warnings include stuff that dangles from the sign and causes the truck driver to hear a big rattling sound on his roof?

Not this far though: http://www.theatlanticcities.com/neighborhoods/2012/10/durha...

Re: Sydney tunnel water screen stop sign for oversized vehicles [video]

#184

Post by evolve2k »

LaGrange wrote: post #172
twistedpair wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You just need to remember that a small number of people are just not going to get it. Mostly truck drivers that are dead tired. That water screen does the trick because you're not expecting it. Signs, bumps, and noises are all common to highway driving. In Boston a few months ago a coach bus had the top ripped off going under a 10ft bridge on a road that truck/bus traffic is banned from. The driver hit several low ba…

"Mostly truck drivers that are dead tired." This. People don't even realize how important it is that people operating heavy machinery are well rested, and sometimes even put down appropriate regulations as just "worker's issues". Then you get a sleepy, bored guy on a highway, with neither awareness to spot dangerous situations, or willpower left to restrain from doing stupid things. It's a testament to how good they…

I wonder if it would help to put some sort of heart rate monitor or something on the drivers, some way to detect that they are bone tired and require the companies to let them sleep.

Re: Sydney tunnel water screen stop sign for oversized vehicles [video]

#185

Post by Devilboy »

fab13n wrote: post #74

That's a cute high-tech solution. A simpler one is to put a horizontal bar, the same height as the tunnel's ceiling, which will physically stop the truck before causing millions worth of damages. It's often done in France, sometimes with an early warning: a first arch with chains hanging to the maximal height. It makes a lot of noise on the truck's top, but won't destroy it.

That causes stuff to be knocked off the top of the truck onto other cars on the road possibly killing innocent people.

Re: Sydney tunnel water screen stop sign for oversized vehicles [video]

#186

Post by Devilboy »

bluedevil2k wrote: post #2

It's a really cool idea, but I couldn't help but think they should move the water stop sign to well BEFORE the million dollar damage point. Some big trucks would have a hard time seeing the stop sign, reacting to it, slamming on the brakes, and coming to a complete stop in time before they cause damage to the overhang and beams.

There are already THREE HUGE flashing stop signs that light up on the way to the tunnel if your truck is too big. The water sign is a last resort only.

Re: Sydney tunnel water screen stop sign for oversized vehicles [video]

#187

Post by gambiting »

peterkelly wrote: post #127
gambiting wrote: post #100

Or they could you know....just build a tunnel big enough to fir every vehicle size? I don't think this problem exists in the UK, I've driven through many different tunnels and they will accept any vehicle size.

And computer manufacturers should just include hard drives that are big enough to store as much data as people want.

Hardware manufacturers cannot possibly guess how much data people want to store. You could always find someone who would want to store more data.

Trucks are different - they can only have certain dimensions, and there's an upper limit on both width and height of the vehicle. If you make your tunnel that big,then any road-legal vehicle will definitely fit through it.

Oversized vehicles are different,but they need to have their routes approved first and get a permit anyway,so there is zero chance they could crash into a tunnel, because a route through it would never get approved in the first place.

Re: Sydney tunnel water screen stop sign for oversized vehicles [video]

#188

Post by gambiting »

LaGrange wrote: post #172
twistedpair wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You just need to remember that a small number of people are just not going to get it. Mostly truck drivers that are dead tired. That water screen does the trick because you're not expecting it. Signs, bumps, and noises are all common to highway driving. In Boston a few months ago a coach bus had the top ripped off going under a 10ft bridge on a road that truck/bus traffic is banned from. The driver hit several low ba…

"Mostly truck drivers that are dead tired." This. People don't even realize how important it is that people operating heavy machinery are well rested, and sometimes even put down appropriate regulations as just "worker's issues". Then you get a sleepy, bored guy on a highway, with neither awareness to spot dangerous situations, or willpower left to restrain from doing stupid things. It's a testament to how good they…

And that's why the EU every truck needs to be legally fitted with a Tachometer that measures every parameter of a vehicle, and a truck driver cannot legally drive for more than 8 hours (I think they can do 9 hours once per week, and they need a 24h break at least once per week as well) - after that, they need at least 8 hour break, when the vehicle cannot move. If the truck is stopped by the police,and they find that the driver has been driving over the time limit in the past 3 months, they will issue a massive, multi-thousand euro fine, so it's extremely rare for drivers to work overtime.

I knew a driver who drove for loading at a company, and because it was taking them too long, his time for a break started before they finished. He refused to move the truck from the spot for a whole 8 hours,even though it was blocking the warehouse - he knew that if he moved it even a little bit, he(and the company he worked for) could be fined several thousand euros months down the line.

Re: Sydney tunnel water screen stop sign for oversized vehicles [video]

#189

Post by gambiting »

evolve2k wrote: post #184
LaGrange wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Mostly truck drivers that are dead tired." This. People don't even realize how important it is that people operating heavy machinery are well rested, and sometimes even put down appropriate regulations as just "worker's issues". Then you get a sleepy, bored guy on a highway, with neither awareness to spot dangerous situations, or willpower left to restrain from doing stupid things. It's a testament to how good they…

I wonder if it would help to put some sort of heart rate monitor or something on the drivers, some way to detect that they are bone tired and require the companies to let them sleep.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5708857

Re: Sydney tunnel water screen stop sign for oversized vehicles [video]

#190

Post by bigiain »

Freestyler_3 wrote: post #122
evan_ wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you see the truck in the video take out an enormous steel beam that was presumably attached to the structure of the tunnel in some kind of permanent way? How would your solution avoid the same fate?

Something that causes the vehicles engine to stop... a shock? It wouldn't stop the vehicle but it will decrease destructive force. Or a trapdoor (warning this is a joke disregard it if you know you don't like jokes)

(intentionally ignoring joke warning…)

Excellent plan! A trapdoor! In the harbour tunnel!

Relevant anecdote: My Dad worked for the company who built the fire control system in the Sydney Harbour Tunnel. It's got (from fuzzy memory - numbers not guaranteed accurate) 128 sectors of "deluge valves". It's got pumps capable of keeping up with only 10 of those sectors of deluge valves - more than 10 sectors of valves open means even with all pumps running at maximum capacity the tunnel will fill up with water. There's some software controlling it all which is intended to ensure the operators don't accidentally flood the tunnel. Dad knows who wrote that software - he won't drive through the tunnel.

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