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GLENVILLE — The Maple Avenue bridge in Glenville was struck again Sunday, for the second time in less than a week, officials said.
The Maple Avenue railroad bridge is about a half mile from the notorious Glenridge Road bridge that has been struck repeatedly and been the focus of an effort to increase warnings for approaching traffic.
In Sunday’s Maple Avenue incident, a yellow box truck was traveling northbound at around 2 p.m. when it got stuck under the 10-foot bridge. The road was closed for at least a few hours, Glenville Town Supervisor Chris Koetzle said.
“There is no way that anyone with the ability to judge space would try to get a truck that size under there,” Koetzle said. “It’s only 10-feet tall. I really don’t know what more can be done at this point. People have got to start paying attention to what they’re doing.”
The driver for Superman Moving and Storage Express LLC, an Idaho-based company, was delivering packages in the area when his GPS directed him down Maple Avenue, Koetzle said.
“The driver was cited for vehicle and safety violations, and town code failure to obey a low bridge sign,” Koetzle said.
While the Maple Avenue bridge is not the Glenville bridge most known for collisions, it has become the recipient of a growing number of hits recently. In addition to being struck Sunday afternoon, and last Thursday morning, the Maple Avenue bridge was also hit once each in May, June and July.
The nearby Glenridge Road bridge had new safety measures installed earlier this month. There are several more low-clearance signs, flashing lights, a turn-around area for large vehicles, and a newly-installed laser detection system to alert drivers if their vehicle will not fit under the bridge with a 10-foot, 11-inch clearance.
While a truck did strike the Glenridge Road bridge once each in June, July and August, it has only been hit once — last Wednesday — since the new laser system was installed.
“We had not seen that bridge [Maple Avenue] get hit that much by big trucks before,” Koetzle said. “We’ve seen a lot of pickup trucks break off a mirror or something, but nothing like this. So I am wondering if this [the new safety measures at the Glenridge Road bridge] is now creating a problem.”
The road beneath the Maple Avenue bridge is a Schenectady County-owned road, according to Koetzle. He said his next step is to call the county and see what it can do to potentially increase or improve the signage near the Maple Avenue bridge.
“It’s happening with great frequency over there, and this shouldn’t be happening at all,” Koetzle said. “The county will have the same issue here as DOT did with the other bridge, to either close the road to large trucks or up the signage.”
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