A new bridge that came up short in Guilford County poses no threat to traffic safety, highway officials said, and Forsyth County's bridges appear unlikely to have incorrect clearance measurements.
The N.C. Department of Transportation recently discovered that a section of a new bridge over eastbound Interstate 40 in Greensboro has a clearance that is 8 inches less than it should be. The error was discovered when officials routinely measured the bridge section after it was built.
Instead of the usual 17 feet of clearance, it has just 16 feet 4 inches. The bridge, when finished in 2012, will carry Bridford Parkway traffic over I-40 near the exit to Guilford College Road.
Mike Mills, a DOT division engineer in Guilford County, said the bridge won't pose a problem because it is still more than the 16-foot minimum height required for an interstate. The bridge has a higher clearance than some others nearby on I-40 at
15 feet 10 inches.
The Bridford Parkway bridge will be raised a couple of inches, with further work scheduled to take place in about two weeks, and then it will be up to the current standard clearance of 16 feet 6 inches, Mills said.
Highway officials still don't know how the bridge came up short of the 17 feet of clearance.
Pat Ivey, a DOT division engineer in Forsyth County, said that bridge clearances are measured any time that roadwork takes place, and during inspections every other year. An inspection is needed after roadwork because new pavement can change the level of clearance.
Ivey said that when a new bridge is installed, it is measured to determine accurate clearance, as was the case in Greensboro. "One thing you do run into occasionally," Ivey said, "is that because our bridge projects are designed so far ahead of time, if we do a resurfacing in between when the bridge is designed and when the bridge is built, you have some differences in there."
Still, that shouldn't have meant an 8-inch difference such as the recent one in Greensboro, he said.
Forsyth County has some bridge clearances of less than 15 feet on sections of Business 40, Ivey said.
Trucks that carry a load that exceeds 13 feet, 6 inches are required to get a state permit to travel, according to the DOT.
wyoung@wsjournal.com
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