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A semi truck got stuck trying to get onto Edmonton’s High Level Bridge Tuesday morning.

The truck is lodged under the west entrance of the bridge.

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Edmonton Police Services are advising motorists to avoid the west entrance, though the bridge is still accessible southbound on 109 Street.

The bridge, which has a relatively low clearance of 3.2 metres, frequently sees trucks get stuck on entryways. It is unfortunately difficult to abort an entry onto the bridge if the driver of the truck driver misses early warning signs showing the height restrictions on the bridge.

Additionally, the lanes on the HLB are uncommonly narrow, making it difficult for wide vehicles to make their way across the bridge.

The bridge was initially designed by the Canadian Pacific Railroad which ran trains across the top of the bridge (accounting for the bridge’s relatively low clearance). When the bridge was initially built in 1912, the train track, not the motorway, was its most important feature.

CP stopped running trains across the bridge in 1989, and now the upper track is used exclusively for a historic streetcar (the only such street car in Edmonton) which runs across the bridge in the Summer.

Trains running on Edmonton’s LRT line cross on a smaller, lower bridge that runs parallel to the High Level.