Truck that hit Glenn Highway bridge was following permit, prompting overpass height review

The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities is reviewing the heights of all the bridges on the Glenn Highway after a semi hit a highway overpass last month, triggering costly emergency repairs.

The driver behind the wheel of the semi was required by a state permit to go beneath the bridge rather than around it.

The state oversized-load permit instructed the truck’s driver to “use extreme caution” but go under the Artillery Road overpass at the South Eagle River interchange.

That’s just what the truck’s driver, 50-year-old Jeffery Fairbanks, says he did.

“I’ve hauled oversized before. You cannot stray from the path,” said Fairbanks, the owner of Sterling-based FBX Equipment and Services. “I was in the lead and I followed the path.”

The cost of repairing the bridge, damaged over the highway’s northbound lanes, is estimated at $500,000 to $1 million, according to a bid invitation the state issued this week.

The bridge is the same one that was struck in March 2018 by a truck hauling a load too tall to fit on the southbound side of the Glenn, triggering colossal traffic jams.

Investigation underway

State transportation officials say they are reviewing the incident, the height of the truck’s load and the measurements of the highway’s overpass clearances with the department’s Division of Measurement Standards and Commercial Vehicle Compliance.

“DOT is concerned and we are conducting an internal investigation,” department spokeswoman Shannon McCarthy said Thursday. “We are doing an immediate check of all the bridges on the Glenn Highway to confirm their height to make certain that (the division) has up-to-date information.”

A statement the agency issued notes the permit was based on the trucking company’s representation of the load height and that a permit manual states that “it is the responsibility of the party transporting an over-height load to conduct a route survey prior to travel.”

It wasn’t immediately clear what such a survey involves.

As an emergency measure, the statement said, the transportation department has marked the northbound side of the damaged bridge with a sign labeling its height as 16 feet, 1 inch — even though that’s not the actual height of the bridge — “to provide extra clearance to prevent further damage to the bridge as we await repairs.”

‘Everybody wants to blame the driver’

Fairbanks said Wednesday that he and another driver came through Anchorage from Kenai on Sept. 28 with no problems until they got to the overpass.

His permit allowed a load height of up to 17 feet. His load, consisting of modules bound for the North Slope, was 16 feet, 11 inches, he said.

The permit required that they take a winding route through Anchorage to avoid traffic lights and go around — rather than under — six other Glenn Highway bridges, including those at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson and Hiland Road.

Transportation officials were not able to answer questions about why the permit didn’t call for the drivers to similarly go around the overpass that was struck by the load.

At the South Eagle River bridge, Fairbanks said, he approached the overpass in fairly heavy traffic at no more than 45 mph, as required by the permit, and then slowed down to about 25 as he got close.

That’s when the load clipped the overpass, damaging a girder, as the truck passed beneath it. The other truck was able to barely clear the bridge by moving into a different lane. The modules he carried weren’t damaged when they hit the bridge, Fairbanks said. Other drivers got them to the Slope.

That’s where the permit came into the picture, he said: A police officer on scene verified the information that showed the trucks were required to travel under the overpass.

The driver has not been cited, Anchorage Police Department spokeswoman Renee Oistad said Wednesday.

Fairbanks, who has held a Class A license to drive trucks for almost 30 years, was clear on what his load measured.

“Everybody wants to blame the driver,” he said. “When it comes to an oversized, there is a permit. And the permit said to go underneath that bridge.”

Repairs starting soon

Now the state transportation department is looking for a contractor to handle the emergency repairs, which are expected to wrap up by the end of November. Bids are due by Oct. 19.

It’s not yet clear when the work will start, officials say, though they expect it to begin this month. The bidding and girder replacement project are being carried out under a compressed timeline.

“We are looking to get that done as soon as possible,” said Justin Shelby, the transportation department’s central region administrative operations manager.

Shelby said the agency is hoping the bid comes in at the lower range of an engineer’s estimate of $500,000 to $1 million, but high materials costs and other issues could complicate that.

The damage from the 2018 strike prompted authorities to close the southbound highway at the bridge and create a detour, which led to major traffic jams and a commuting nightmare dubbed “Bridgepocalypse.”

The damage this time is far less severe and the limited extent of the repairs shouldn’t produce the same traffic headaches, Shelby said this week.

“It is also looking like the schedule for the repair is going to be quite a bit less impactful than Bridgepocalypse,” he said.