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Road maintenance vehicles carrying an overbridge to avoid traffic obstruction

Shubhankar Kulkarni

Shubhankar Kulkarni Oct 06, 2021

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The problem: Road maintenance vehicles that clean the roads or water the plants on the side are slow and may obstruct the traffic.

The idea: Such vehicles carry overbridges on top so that other vehicles can overtake them from above. These overbridges would be made of some kind of metal and are extendable like the ladder on a firetruck. The bridge would be located on the top of the vehicle and when in use, it could be drawn out. One end of the bridge will land on the road in front of the maintenance vehicle and the other one behind it. These ends act like ramps for other vehicles to climb up and down. So, another car approaching from behind could climb up the bridge and land in front of the road maintenance vehicle. This would be especially helpful on highways where changing lanes is not easy.

What other kinds of vehicles can you think this would be useful for? I have seen such a bridge-like appendages on cars in adventure sports (watch the video from 00:52) but not in use otherwise.

3

Creative contributions

Modular temporary overpass bridges that span over road obstruction sites

Darko Savic

Darko Savic Oct 08, 2021

Lego-like modular overpass bridges made of steel. Each unit fits on a container truck and clicks into place with other pieces. All the pieces are brought to the road obstruction site on standard container trucks. They are then hoisted into place with a mobile crane.

The on and off ramps should be long enough for the climb angle to remain comfortably shallow. Access to the construction site is made from the side of the road. Height limit barriers prevents heavy trucks from using the overpass. A steel fence prevents clumsy drivers from falling off the overpass.

Just as I finished describing the idea I found this:

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Shubhankar Kulkarni

Shubhankar Kulkarni3 years ago

Great! Alternatively, the pieces that you mentioned can be flown to the obstruction site using drones. Each drone will carry a piece and place it in position. The drones will be controlled remotely. This will reduce the time taken to set the bridge up. Also, if there is traffic, the trailers carrying the pieces would take more time to reach the obstruction site. Police will hold off the traffic until the bridge is in place.

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Mobile deployable overpass bridges over construction sites

Darko Savic

Darko Savic Oct 06, 2021

Instead of closing the roads during roadworks, we could have deployable overpass bridges similar to those used by the military.

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Shubhankar Kulkarni

Shubhankar Kulkarni3 years ago

Great! A mobile bridge could be temporarily used for any possible obstacle on the road - a crime scene, an accident, road depressions, oil spills, etc. They could even connect a road to a parallel road if there are no tall buildings between the two. This can be useful for better traffic mobilization even when there is no unusual event like an accident.

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Povilas S

Povilas S3 years ago

Shubhankar Kulkarni On second thought - perhaps such bridges are not used in those circumstances now, because the construction of a temporary bridge might be more complicated than simply closing the road and using a bypass. To construct a bridge that can withstand the impact of many cars driving through it in an on-demand location is likely not an easy task. 

The bridge build over a car visible in an extreme sports video that you linked is lightweight, but the small cars driving through it are lightweight too, they weigh maybe 1/10 of what an ordinary car would weigh. 

The military bridges that are shown in the video weigh 7 tons and heavy military machinery is required to carry and deploy them. Such machinery is very slow-moving and would require many hours to get to some remote place on the highway. Of course, those military bridges can then withstand heavy military vehicles, so a lighter bridge would do for ordinary cars, but nevertheless, there's perhaps a practical reason why this method is not used in the described circumstances.

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Shubhankar Kulkarni

Shubhankar Kulkarni3 years ago

Povilas S You are probably right. From the sports car video, it was evident that although the small cars were lightweight, the car carrying the bridge was also small. In the idea I propose, the car will be replaced with a trailer or a firetruck-like vehicle, which is huge. Both the vehicles carrying the bridge and those driving on the bridge will be proportionately bigger. The bridge will be proportionately sturdier. It will definitely increase the time of getting the bride structure in place but not as much as the military vehicles. This is because the military vehicles are always at one end of the bridge. The bridge needs to travel to the other end of the obstacle automatically. Also, since the bridge will be used to carry military vehicles, which are heavier than regular ones, the bridge needs to be sturdier than the one that I propose, eventually increasing the weight of the bridge, and hence, the time taken to get the bridge in place. Therefore, both preparation time and bridge weight will be considerably lesser.

Here is an example of the ramp I had imagined (https://in.pinterest.com/pin/166070304987403861/). Such a ramp will take not even 2 minutes to be drawn out. Instead of the ramp only below the wheels, I think it should be a continuous strip so that the drivers can easily climb up and down the ramp on a moving truck.

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Mobile interlinking temporary overpass bridges

Darko Savic

Darko Savic Oct 08, 2021

If we merge several concepts together:
deployable bridges as used by the army
modular overpass that is brought to the site on container trucks
Shubhankar's drawing (header image of this idea)
We get:

Two mobile overpass deploying trucks that each form an on/off ramp on the outer side while interlinking an overpass between them. The trucks have several deployable legs that make the entire construction sturdy. Such a mobile overpass spans a construction/repair site on the road so that the traffic can continue over it.

Two such trucks cover one lane of the road. 4 of them make an overpass over two lanes. There is no width limit. Just keep adding pairs of trucks. It shouldn't take more than a few minutes for a pair of trucks to deploy an overpass.

Shubhankar's original idea assumes that the maintenance truck IS the obstruction that needs to be spanned. Adding a 2nd truck makes room for a construction site between the two of them. 

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Spook Louw

Spook Louw3 years ago

Another benefit of both Darko Savic's contributions is that both modular and interlinking bridges would be more adjustable for length and curves. Having the bridge on one vehicle might be the most mobile, but even if the bridge can extend, it would be limited. Setting up a temporary bridge using some of the other methods has endless space for variation.

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General comments

jnikola

jnikola3 years ago

The idea is great and deals with an existing problem, but how would you ensure that any car can pass the bridge without danger of falling, flipping, or flying if approached at high speeds? The bridge should be at least 2 meters tall and at least 1.8 meters wide (https://www.nimblefins.co.uk/cheap-car-insurance/average-car-dimensions). Would you use a fence?

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Shubhankar Kulkarni

Shubhankar Kulkarni3 years ago

Juran The cars approaching the vehicle will have to reduce their speed, that is for sure. What the idea prevents is for them to have to change lanes or slowly trail behind the maintenance vehicle. May be the head of the bridge (or the ramp) will have a flashing sign suggesting an optimum speed for the approaching vehicles. Also, yes, we need collapsible fences that will prevent the cars from falling off at their speed on the ramp. The curves of the ramp would be well-adjusted to prevent cars from flipping or hitting their bumper on the road. The breadth of the ramp will be almost equal to that of the maintenance vehicle, which is broader than any car.

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jnikola

jnikola3 years ago

Shubhankar Kulkarni Okay, I like your answer. And what about driving along the curvy road? That would be a big problem for a vehicle long enough to have a "cross ramp".

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Shubhankar Kulkarni

Shubhankar Kulkarni3 years ago

Juran What do you mean by a "cross ramp"? The curves on any road take into account the torque at the speed of the vehicles. So curves on highways should not be a problem. The bridged vehicle cannot be used in the city, since there are crossroads, and turning in such places with the ramp drawn would be an issue. Also, the vehicle cannot be used on roads with irregular bends like those on mountainous roads. But it should work fine on regular highways.

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jnikola

jnikola3 years ago

Shubhankar Kulkarni Agreed.

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