New Canaan will petition the state to put some warning tape around the Metro-North Railroad overpass on Route 106/Old Stamford Road so that it’s more visible to truckers who continually drive their too-tall vehicles into it.
Despite existing signage, truckers regularly drive into the railroad overpass on Route 106 between Weed Street and Lapham Road. New Canaan will petition ConnDOT to put warning objects on the bridge itself. Credit: Michael Dinan
The town already has a system in place to warn those truckers about the overpass and its maximum height. As a truck approaches from either side, if it’s too tall it triggers flashers that say “Low Bridge Ahead.”
And New Canaan can also—on its own—paint “Low Bridge” in the street.
Even with all New Canaan has done, “We still get trucks stuck in the bridge, so we said OK what else can we do,” said Tiger Mann, senior engineer for New Canaan and assistant director of the Department of Public Works.
TIger Mann, New Canaan's senior engineer and assistant director of the Public Works Department. Credit: Michael Dinan
Any alteration to the bridge itself must be made by the Connecticut Department of Transportation. One idea is to do what Fairfield has done in a similar situation with a railroad bridge, he said. Namely, the DOT put reflective black-and-yellow object markers on the bridge, as well as a type of warning tape around the bridge itself “so that then you could see it lit up at night and see the outline.”
“Right now it’s rust-colored you can’t see it that well,” Mann said.
Here’s the area we’re talking about: