Will our dealer survive

[AKwelder]

Local cat dealer, NC Machinery, had a truck driver leave the boom up on an excavator this winter,  but he made it under the bridge. 

https://dot.alaska.gov/nreg/mitchellbridgestrike/#main_content

 

there is talk that they will be held responsible for the cost of the repairs , and that could be expensive 

 

[Dirt_Floor_Poor]

They’ll probably settle for whatever the insurance policy limit is even if that’s not enough to cover it. Which, if you’re in the trucking business the policy limit better be a large number. 

[AKwelder]

5 minutes ago, Dirt_Floor_Poor said:

They’ll probably settle for whatever the insurance policy limit is even if that’s not enough to cover it. Which, if you’re in the trucking business the policy limit better be a large number. 

Hope your right. The dealer being a large multi state corporation isn’t going to help them much. 

[Big Bud guy]

That is not first time that has happened.  My dealer had one of their truckers ram an air drill into an overpass.  I know a farmer who ran an excavator into an overpass.  He didn't lose the farm.  Had insurance 

[AKwelder]

It appears they took out the entire bottom cord of the cement beams on about 6 of the beams. Maybe it’s repairable. 

[E160BHM]

Bridge strikes are not that uncommon.  It seems that the smaller machines like a plumber’s backhoe loader that someone forgot to lower the stick or a small excavator loaded with the stick vertical. Usually totals the machine. 
We had a M318 come into the yard that had been loaded at an auction in Kansas and hit the bridge on US 65 under I80.  It was a brokered load hauled by a “guy with a step deck” who loaded it with the stick vertical just like it had been parked in the yard.  Again the machine was totalled.
IRRC the bridge was no more that 14’ 6”” and had many battle scars.

[brewcrew]

Tape measures are cheap.

[midnightman]

1 minute ago, brewcrew said:

Tape measures are cheap.

Unfortunately educating people to use them seems to be more expensive.😆

[Big Bud guy]

52 minutes ago, midnightman said:

Unfortunately educating people to use them seems to be more expensive.😆

The farmer I mentioned in my previous post rented an excavator from the local JD construction dealer.  Upon leaving the dealer he went down the highway to the nearest truck stop to fuel up.  He pulled up to the pumps and the arm cleared the awning.  On the other side of the pumps was a reefer truck.  So he looked at the reefer and the excavator arm and both looked pretty similar in height so he thought he was good to go………..He wasn’t.

[Cattech]

I've seen our DOT patch beams that had been hit but the damage wasn't as bad and usually only the outer beam. The bottoms of those I beams is under tension, not compression, so if the pre-stressed cables are not damaged, they shouldn't have lost much in integrity. 

While expensive, for a company of that size, even if they have to replace the whole bridge, the bill probably won't exceed their insurance deductible. 

[m.c.farmerboy]

16 hours ago, AKwelder said:

Local cat dealer, NC Machinery, had a truck driver leave the boom up on an excavator this winter,  but he made it under the bridge. 

https://dot.alaska.gov/nreg/mitchellbridgestrike/#main_content

 

there is talk that they will be held responsible for the cost of the repairs , and that could be expensive 

 

That happens more often than you would think I would think they would have insurance for that but I have seen some owner operators go under from that. I have seen it here in Maine 5 or 6 times on I-95

[Dave Shepard]

I hired a roll back to move my Kubota backhoe. I told him it was 9'-6" with the boom pinned up. When I got to the jobsite the boom was down, the pin was in three pieces, and he was white as a sheet. Apparently the front of the truck cane off the ground when he hit the bridge. No damage to the bridge.