EAST NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — If you've driven into Shelby Park from Riverside Drive, you will no doubt have encountered a bridge known for accepting large box trucks as roadway snacks.

The bridge, located where Riverside Drive splits Huntleigh Drive and Shelby Park Drive, has signage posting its 9-foot-10-inch height clearance, but some trucks fail to notice or think they can squeeze under on their drives.

Usually, however, the trucks end up stuck underneath the bridge—sometimes for hours.

Caryn Burkholder lives near the bridge and has seen her fair share of trucks get themselves wedged underneath the bridge since she bought her home in 2018.

"I would say at least once a month a truck gets stuck underneath," she told News 2. "It's a varying degree of they hit it and are able to back out to they get really wedged under there and they get stuck for hours and hours."

The longest she's seen a truck get stuck underneath the railroad bridge is about four or five hours, she told News 2, but generally what the drivers of the trucks do is they improvise an escape route.

"Generally what they do, I think, is they let air out of their tires, and then that lowers them enough that they're able to either...drive through, or I've seen a big, giant tow truck come and get them. But sometimes people seem to not be able to figure out how to do it, and I'm not sure if they're just too wedged or they're not letting out enough air, or what the problem is. Sometimes people take it really fast and they get really far in and wedged in before they stop; others barely scrape it, notice it and back out," Burkholder said.

She's even seen one truck get the entire top of its box get ripped off "like a can-opener."

The majority of the box trucks that end up stuck under the bridge tend to be ones for moving, but Burkholder said she's also seen company trucks end up eaten by the bridge.

The bridge has height clearance signs on either side of it warning drivers of the maximum height, but Burkholder said they may not be enough to keep the bridge from munching another mover.

"There's definitely height signs on both sides of the bridge, but clearly that's not doing enough," Buckholder told News 2.

She and her other neighbors have also taken to joking about how many days have passed since the last truck ended up stuck underneath it.

"It seems like there has to be something more obvious," she said of any other kind of warning for the bridge.

She's even taken to warning trucks headed for the underpass before they get there while she's out walking her dog.

"I've flagged them down and said, 'Don't do it!'" she added. "In general, then you tell people, and they know that people will get stuck under there, they'll stop and turn around."

Another one of her neighbors has also always walked down to whatever driver ends up munched by the bridge to instruct them on how to get themselves unstuck.

"He's become the neighborhood helper," she said.

Occasionally, Buckholder said, she's seen officials from the railroad come by to check on the bridge, but that likely has more to do with checking the integrity of the bridge rather than seeing how to prevent trucks from getting stuck underneath it. There is also a police officer who comes by "occasionally," when someone is really stuck, but Buckholder said the majority of drivers manage to work out how to dislodge their trucks from the bridge.

"I think some kind of more obvious signage is needed," she told News 2. "I'm not sure you can stop everyone from making the decision to go for it, but if there's a sign that's a little more dramatic than just the height that shows what happens, I think it can help."

Not only would better signage help those looking to travel under the bridge, Burkholder said it could also benefit those visiting the park.

"It's become such a cut-through for the neighborhood, that some people drive really fast or really dangerously, it's good for people to remember its main purpose is a park, and there's tons of wildlife like deer and everything around, so slow down a little bit," she said.

Luckily, those trucks haven't seemed to affect the sturdiness of the bridge itself—it only seems to impact the drivers.

"It's going to give you a really bad day if you get yourself stuck under there," she told News 2.

News Source : https://www.wkrn.com/news/local-news/middle-tn-neighborhood-news/east-nashville-railroad-bridge-keeps-munching-large-trucks/