Truck gets stuck under Columbia-area railroad bridge. It wasn’t the first time.
A prominent Columbia roadway remains partially closed after a commercial garbage truck got stuck under a downtown railroad bridge last week.
The Norfolk Southern railroad company is repairing the damage to a protect beam under a bridge on Whaley Street, near the Assembly Street intersection, that was struck by the private garbage truck.
Columbia Assistant City Manager Clint Shealy said the Norfolk Southern railroad told the city the bridge beam will be replaced within 30 days.
“They do that at their leisure, and we assist with traffic control as needed,” Shealy added.
This isn’t the first time a too-tall truck has gotten stuck trying to pass under the railroad bridge on Whaley Street, which is 12-feet and 2-inches above the road.
In 2018, a Bud Light truck got stuck while trying to pass below the bridge, closing the road at the highly-visible city intersection.
Then in 2021, a moving van trying to fit under the bridge also became stuck.
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“There’s a history there,” Shealy said of trucks getting stuck under the bridge, but he added that it’s not a major concern of the city’s as there have only been a few instances of vehicles getting stuck in recent memory.
The South Carolina Department of Transportation is leading a project that should eventually see the array of railroad tracks around this section of Assembly Street separated from the street, but it’s unclear if that project would have any impact on the current height of the Whaley Street railroad bridge. The State has asked for clarity from the department on that question.
The intersection nearest the bridge is marked by heavy pedestrian traffic, with a city count finding close to 1,000 pedestrians walking through this area each weekday. An estimated 7,200 vehicles a day travel underneath the Whaley Street railroad bridge.
Student housing sits on either side of Assembly Street near the intersection in question, along with a convenience store and a college-centric shopping strip with a Gamecocks merchandise shop and a Papa Johns Pizza.
While not Columbia’s busiest intersection, the area sees a steady flow of traffic throughout the day, as Whaley Street connects multiple roads through the southeastern part of the city.
