South Carolina Public Radio
When bridges get their weight limits dropped, emergency crews need to take notice. That’s particularly true with fire companies.
“Our ladder truck weighs nearly 40 tons,” says Brad Hall, assistant director of operations for the Spartanburg Fire Department. “It’s a lot of weight on a bridge like this.”
Actually, it’s now officially too much weight on a bridge like this – the one on Heywood Avenue, spanning Lawson’s Fork Creek– for which the South Carolina Department of Transportation has just reset the weight limit to a maximum of 31 tons for emergency vehicles.
What if there’s a fire on the other side of this bridge? Find another way to get there. SCDOT grants no waivers in an emergency, in large part because they don’t want a second emergency involving a collapsed bridge.
When bridges get their weight limits dropped, emergency crews need to take notice. That’s particularly true with fire companies. “Our ladder truck weighs