Size matters. Really.

At the corner of Gregson and Peabody streets in Durham, North Carolina skulks what at first glance appears to be an innocent railroad trestle – but this is no ordinary trestle. It is sinister and cunning and will mercilessly scalp any vehicle too high and mighty for its own good. It is infamously known amongst the locals and truckers as The Can Opener.

This architectural dysfunction occurs because approximately 100 years ago at the time of its… erection, so to speak, no building standards regarding vertical clearance were in place. So the bridge stands a mere 11 feet 8 inches above the road, more than 2 feet below current minimum clearance standards, making it dangerously low for modern trucks to pass safely beneath without a cacophonous and melodramatic shave off the top.

Why don’t they just fix it? Raise the bridge? Lower the road? Why is such a clear safety hazard allowed to continue existing? It seems Norfolk Southern Railroad owns the trestle and is much more concerned with keeping the trains running uninterrupted than dealing with someone else’s safe passage. Their solution was to install a crash bar. There – problem solved.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation is responsible for care and maintenance of the road; however, they’re in a bit of a quandary. Nestled beneath the pavement is a 100-year-old sewer main. ‘Nuff said.

The city of Durham has made valiant efforts to warn truckers. Well in advance of the bridge they have installed pretty yellow signs and sensors that trip sparkly flashing lights when too-tall trucks pass by. They have also posted a 25 MPH speed limit… all of which many truckers promptly ignore.

And so it goes that this bridge continues to lie quietly in wait for approaching big rigs and their “asleep at the wheel” drivers who choose, for whatever reason, to test the validity of the warnings and the laws of physics. Fortunately, to date there have been no serious human injuries. However the bridge claims, on average, one vehicular victim each month.

The bane of truck drivers passing through Durham will soon be no more, however. The city of Durham’s transportation department announced that the bridge would be closed for several weeks from late-October to early-November 2019 to be raised.

Update as of December 2019: The city of Durham raised the clearance of the bridge eight inches in November, but this slight lift still recently trimmed the top of a truck.