New overhead warning systems are coming to a pair bridges in the First State.
The systems are a set of balls and chains measured to the exact height of the bridge and hang from arms over the roadway.
If a vehicle strikes the balls and chains – also called clankers – then it means it won’t fit under the bridge.
A system is already installed on Casho Mill Road in Newark, which had seen more than 70 incidents in 10 years of an oversized vehicle crashing into the bridge.
"We've only had one incident at that bridge, and once we reviewed the video, the clankers did their job. Unfortunately, the driver chose to just ignore the clankers and continue on, and unfortunately, it did not end well with the vehicle striking the bridge," said DelDOT’s director of community relations, C.R. McLeod.
Now, a system will be installed on Telegraph Road at the CSX Railroad Bridge in Wilmington this week and to be ready to go next week.
The second will be placed on South Rehoboth Boulevard in Milford at the Mispillion River Bridge.
"Looking forward to getting these two new systems in place just as another level of safety to hopefully prevent these bridge strikes that when they happen, require the road to be closed down, it's very expensive for the vehicle that's damaged, and it can just really disrupt traffic on these routes," said McLeod.
According to McLeod, DelDOT has used signage and lights with sensors to deter oversized vehicles prior to the clankers.
