The incident

On Sunday 3 March a so-called ‘professional’ driver of a container truck loaded with a single ‘high cube’ 40 foot ISO shipping container bound for the Port of Melbourne tried to make it under the 4.0 metre clearance Napier Street bridge, but ignored the warning signs – striking the bridge and dislodging the container from the truck.

By the time I came past trains were already running again following an inspection of the bridge, and Victoria Police were in attendance – not hard, given their police station is next door!

The damage

The 40 foot container had been dislodged from the trailer, and hanging at a perilous angle, almost ready to fall onto the footpath.

The bridge protection beam taking the hit rather than the bridge.

The impact speed must have been high, as the bridge warning lights had been dislodged.

And the steel container deformed.

An impact mark from the bridge protection beam visible to one side.

Dislodged container twistlocks on the ground below.

A hole in the fresh asphalt where the container fell to the ground.

Recovery time

The truck operator called up mobile crane to assist with the recovery operation.

But it wasn’t needed – a heavy tow truck was used to drag the container away from the truck.

Chains and the rear boom used to lift up the rear of the container.

Which then topped over sideways.

Crushing the fence intended to ‘protect’ pedestrians from road vehicles.

I don’t think that was how they intended the recovery to go!

At least the semi-trailer was now free.

But in need of repair – the rear container twistlocks bent out of position.

Another crack

After a bit of maneuvering, the heavy tow truck was able to pull the 40 foot container back upright.

And then pull it clear of the bridge.

Allowing a waiting sidelifter truck to pull up alongside.

Lift the damaged container onto the sidelift trailer.

And take it away.

Allowing the eastbound lanes to be reopened.

All up the recovery effort took an hour to complete.

So why is the Napier Street bridge worse?

The Montague Street might be notorious for bridge strikes in Melbourne.

But the bulk of impacts in South Melbourne are just weekend warriors on car licences driving rental trucks when moving house – not ‘professional’ drivers with a heavy vehicle licence – and a four tonne steel shipping containers falling off a truck is far more dangerous to other motorists than the body of a pantech truck getting a little beat up.

In addition the statistics don’t lie – the the Napier Street bridge was struck 37 times by heavy vehicles between 2018 and 2022, while the Montague Street bridge was only hit once in 2021.

One possible solution – the Port Rail Shuttle project, paused back in 2015, but ready to start operation ‘soon’.

Footnote

And a bit of a laugh – a petition to “Paint Footscray’s Napier Street Bridge With Scary Shark Teeth“.

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Farewell to Metcard

The Metcard ticketing system in Melbourne was switched off on 29 December 2012.

Myki having taken over.

But the machines still advertised descoped features, like short term tickets.

And printed out credit card receipts that included the full name of the card holder, nine digits of their credit card and the card’s expiry date.

January 2013 saw that vulnerability fixed, but the “print a receipt even if I don’t want one” bug wasn’t addressed until June 2019.

Trams go ding ding

A decade ago passengers at the Toorak Road terminus of route 58 had to play frogger between four lanes of traffic.

It took until 2015 for VicRoads to cave in and allow Yarra Trams to build a safer tram stop, at a cost of $3.8 million.

Meanwhile at Domain Interchange intending tram passengers just had a few shelters in the middle of St Kilda Road.

It was replaced in 2013 by a four track, four platform tram stop, which was itself demolished in 2018 to make way for the new Anzac station as part of the Metro Tunnel project.

Trams heading along Queens Bridge also used to get stuck behind queued cars.

This was eventually fixed in 2015, when the shared bus and tram lane along Queensbridge Street was extended the short distance over the bridge to Flinders Street.

Route 75 trams used to travel from Flinders Street along Spencer Street to the Remand Centre.

A few months later the southbound tram stop at Spencer and Bourke Street was closed due to a “increased safety risk to passengers and pedestrians“, and in 2014 the city terminus for route 75 was moved to Docklands.

W class trams on the free City Circle service used to be painted maroon, to distinguish them from the green W class trams used on regular tram services.

A distinction no longer needed – W class trams were withdrawn from route 30 and 78 in December 2014, and the introduction of the Free Tram Zone in 2015 meant every trams in the CBD was free. The remaining W class trams are now painted green, following the W8 class tram modernisation project.

On my lunch break I often saw the Colonial Tramcar Restaurant making it’s way around the Melbourne CBD.

But they no longer run – withdrawn by Yarra Trams in 2018 due to concerns they didn’t meet modern crash safety standards.

But the one thing that hasn’t changed – trams covered with advertising for the Australian Open.

The 2023 iteration of this tradition is already on the tracks.

Old clunkers on the bus network

A decade ago high floor buses still popped up on bus routes across Melbourne.

Thankfully that is a thing of the past, but on the tram network not so much – we have squandered multiple opportunities to acquire low floor trams, with the 2032 deadline for an accessible network unlikely to be achieved.

Closed for the weekend?

Closing a railway station on the weekend sounds stupid, but we used to do that at Flagstaff station.

A situation not fixed until 2015.

Reworking Footscray for Regional Rail Link

2013 saw work on Regional Rail Link kick off at Footscray station.

Land cleared ready for the extra two platforms to be built at the station.

But they were also demolishing a footbridge only completed two year earlier.

Thanks to the bridge being too short to span the additional tracks.

Fail to plan, plan to fail.

Trucks versus low bridges

In January 2013 an over height truck took out the tramway overhead at the intersection of King and Collins Street, stranding trams throughout the Melbourne CBD.

Mechanics having to push trams by hand.

So they could get their recovery truck into position, and push the trams to a section of track still with power.

The Craigieburn line couldn’t get a break either, with a truck striking the low bridge on Racecourse Road at Newmarket station, and cooking itself on the live tramway overhead.

Some things never change.

Footnote – something a little different

January 2013 was also the tail end of my month long rail trip across Europe.

Where I travelled 8,898 kilometres six countries, ten cities, three rail gauges and 15 rail operators.

Along the way I also transited via Qatar.

And missed my connection back to Australia, giving me an unplanned 24 hour stopover in Doha.

The end result – my spin off blog Euro Gunzel – An Australian railfan in Europe.

Footnote

Here you can find the rest of my ‘photos from ten years ago‘ series.

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