Truck knocks out beltway overpass

Heather Rawlyk and Lynn Doan

Friday, Aug. 13, 2004 | 10:49 a.m.

A bridge under construction over the Las Vegas Beltway partially collapsed Thursday afternoon when an oversized flatbed truck, towing a bulldozer, struck support beams along the bottom of the overpass as it drove through.

Jeff Hurbace was driving the Valley Trucking Inc. truck northbound on the beltway at about 2:20 p.m. when he approached the Alta Drive overpass, currently under construction in the northwest part of the valley, according to Les Henley, deputy director of the Clark County Department of Public Works.

Hurbace miscalculated the height of the 15-foot 4-inch overpass and drove the truck through, Henley said. The truck was towing a Caterpillar D10 bulldozer, which on the flatbed reached 15 feet 11 inches, he said.

The roof of the bulldozer ripped down three, 20-ton steel support beams, several sheets of metal siding and rows of plywood, causing part of the bridge to collapse, Henley said.

The heavy debris fell on top of the truck and scattered throughout northbound lanes of the beltway, he said. Hurbace was not injured but his truck sustained minor damages, Henley said.

"The driver is fine and none of the debris even hit him or the part of the truck he was seated in," Henley said. "Any other normal sized cars driving in that path would not have been as lucky."

The driver of the flatbed's pilot car -- a white truck with two flashing orange warning lights and "oversized load" sign on its roof that is used to warn drivers of the oversized truck ahead -- was following Hurbace on the beltway during the crash, Henley said.

Hurbace said it was "a miracle" that the pilot car was not following close enough to have been "caught in the middle" of the collapsing bridge.

"If he had been driving just that much faster, he would have been hit," Hurbace said. "He would have been hit hard. As for me, I barely even felt it."

Henley said he was relieved that no other drivers were near the flatbed when it hit the overpass.

"It's incredibly fortunate that no one was right there behind or next to the truck, with all the plywood and steel beams coming down like that," Henley said. "It is just amazing that no one was injured."

A group of construction workers had just taken a break and discontinued work on the bridge two minutes before the accident, Henley said.

"Now that's truly a lucky situation," he said. "You can only imagine what could have happened if they were still on there. This could have been ugly."

Henley said the Department of Public Works did not anticipate accidents like this with the construction of the overpass "because it's well above the legal height that a truck can be on the beltway."

"The legal height for a truck is 13 feet 6 inches, so this overpass is really almost 2 feet higher than that," he said. "This is why folks issue permits for oversized vehicles. When you get a permit, someone routes the vehicle to prevent this kind of situation.

"This guy didn't have a permit and wasn't supposed to be driving his truck through here," he said.

The Nevada Highway Patrol originally said Hurbace would be cited for not having an oversized-vehicle permit, but later changed that decision after learning the beltway is owned by the county.

"The county does not issue permits for these parts of the roads," NHP Trooper Jeff Snow said.

Snow said that while Hurbace was cited for equipment violations, the accident itself was not his fault.

"There was no sign, and there was no way for him to know how high it was," Snow said. "He probably should have slowed down, but besides that, there was nothing he could do."

Henley said the overpass is tall enough to not require a sign posting the height.

"An overpass 14 feet 6 inches or lower is required to post a sign," he said. "This overpass is nearly 1 foot higher than that. The lack of a sign did not cause this accident. A permit should definitely be required of someone driving a truck that high and wide. A permit could have prevented this."

Danny Lowe, safety supervisor for the construction company that managed the truck, said the oversized vehicle had a blanket permit, which allows it on public highways. Lowe pointed out that if the bridge had a height marker posted, the driver would have been informed that the truck was too tall to drive underneath the bridge.

Bobby Shelton, a spokesman for the county's public works department, said construction crews were forced to cancel their plans to pour part of the bridge deck Thursday night because of the accident. He said damage to the bridge had not yet been estimated Thursday evening, but Henley guessed damages to cost $50,000 to $100,000 for labor and materials.

Lowe said the company would negotiate who would pay for the damage.

Shelton said the crash would delay the opening of the bridge for one to three weeks. The bridge was originally scheduled for completion at the end of October, he said, but residents who have been anticipating the bridge's opening in October will now have to wait a little longer.

Fordeliza Dixon, 52, and her daughter Karen, 15, live just west of Alta Drive and the beltway. Because the overpass is not complete, Karen said, she and her mother are forced to drive to Charleston Boulevard to cross the beltway daily.

"We were kind of anticipating the bridge opening because everyday my mom goes to work on the other side," Karen said. "I'm trying to get to school faster."

Karen is a sophomore at Palo Verde High School.

Lanes northbound on the beltway were shut down until about 5:30 p.m. Thursday, causing traffic delays. Henley said construction crews would spend the night repairing damages and there would be one lane moving in each direction on the beltway "as usual with the construction."