Alert system removed after trucks ignore it

By Lynn Thompson
Times Snohomish County bureau

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A laser-activated highway warning system designed to detour tall trucks around an Interstate 5 bridge-construction project was dismantled yesterday because too many drivers ignored the warnings.

The state Department of Transportation (DOT) said 40 percent of the drivers of overheight trucks failed to heed mandatory detour signs on southbound I-5 south of Everett despite the use of an elaborate array of lasers, flashing lights, alarm bells and State Patrol enforcement.

"Basically, drivers were ignoring the signs," said Jamie Holter, DOT spokeswoman.

DOT introduced the laser-activated system last month and predicted the innovative technology would be more effective than traditional detour signs. Trucks over 14 feet, 2 inches tripped an infrared beam aimed across the freeway, which in turn activated electronic exit signs and an audible alarm.

The pilot project was intended to protect workers erecting temporary scaffolding above the freeway, where a high-occupancy vehicle ramp is being built from the Ash Way Park & Ride lot near 164th Street Southwest.

Trucks that wouldn't fit beneath the 14-foot-6-inch scaffolding were required to exit at 128th Street Southwest and take a five-mile detour around the construction site.

But during a trial enforcement period last month the State Patrol stopped 90 overheight trucks in five days for failing to leave the freeway at 128th Street, said Trooper Lance Ramsay.

Drivers told officers they either didn't see the warning signs or didn't realize their rig was too tall, Ramsay said.

One driver received a criminal citation for an unrelated infraction while the remaining violators were given verbal warnings, he said.

Because an overheight vehicle could strike the bridge scaffolding, the State Patrol and DOT decided the warning system wasn't working.

A standard tractor-trailer is 12 feet tall.

DOT now plans to build the scaffolding two feet higher above the freeway than originally planned and to lower it onto support piers with jacks when the bridge deck is finished. The agency had hoped to begin bridge construction Jan. 26. Construction is now scheduled to resume in two to three weeks while engineers redesign plans for some of the scaffolding and position the jacks.

Jim Tutton, vice president of the Washington Trucking Associations, which represents 1,100 companies operating about 25,000 trucks, said his organization sent out two e-mails to members in the past three weeks alerting them to the height restrictions.

DOT also distributed fliers at truck weigh stations and at Canadian border crossings.

But Tutton said many trucks are driven by independent operators and many others are from out-of-state and their drivers may not have received the advisory. He said the trucking association received no complaints from its members about the mandatory detour.

Barry Brecto, a Federal Highway Administration bridge engineer based in Olympia, said he found it "hard to believe" that truck drivers didn't know the height of their loads.

"Drivers are licensed and subject to drug tests and regular inspections. I don't know why some truck drivers are not obtaining proper permits for their loads and following the law," he said.

Lynn Thompson: 425-745-7807 or lthompson@seattletimes.com

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