Time has shown that raising the railroad bridge at Olive Road is about as likely as trucks not hitting it.
But the battered structure won’t be causing problems during the Masters Tournament.
The latest crash was March 3, when the driver of a U-Haul truck misjudged the 10-foot, 6-inch clearance and became wedged under the bridge.
The bridge itself was not damaged, but the two sets of railroad tracks on top had to be realigned.
That’s been done, but the bridge won’t reopen until at least after the golf tournament, “so no one gets injured or damages their vehicle during Masters Week,” Augusta Traffic Engineer John Ussery said.
The tournament is scheduled to end April 9.
CSX officials did not respond to multiple requests for information about the bridge.
Olive Road bridge a problem for decades
In the age of social media, the Olive Road bridge has assumed a life of its own, capturing imaginations now chronicled in multiple Facebook pages and TikTok videos.
There have been complaints about the bridge at least since the 1950s, when a bus carrying Richmond Academy football players became wedged under it.
The passage used to be lower. Until 1985, it was only nine feet. During that decade, the Georgia Department of Transportation did a study on building a 40-foot overpass, but later gave up on the plans.
From the mid-90s to the mid-2000s, city officials reported approximately 50 collisions, including with a city garbage truck and several moving vans.
In 2006, an Augusta woman driving a U-Haul box truck dislodged a metal girder. It fell on passing motorist Isaiah Dominique Lewis, killing him.
The truck’s driver, Pamela Brown, served about six months in jail for vehicular homicide, but has continued to rack up traffic offenses.
She’s currently awaiting trail for driving on a suspended license, weaving, not wearing a seatbelt and having an open container of alcohol, according to court records.
Lewis’ family members had sued Brown, U-Haul and CSX. U-Haul eventually settled for $80,000.
CSX isn’t on record of making any type of settlement, and in 2011 the court dismissed the complaint.
Bridge fix a challenge for locals
By 2013, Augusta Traffic Engineering estimated as many as 5,000 vehicles passed under the vehicles daily. About 82% of drivers who hit the bridge were local, city officials said.
The explanation routinely given by city officials is that raising the bridge is up to the railroad, which can’t insert a sudden incline and would have to raise the entire length of tracks.
The city, meanwhile, can’t lower the road because of a high water table in the area, they say.
In 2019 after seven trucks hit the bridge, city officials attempted a major fix. They installed low speed humps and flashing stop signs on either side and directed trucks not to use the route.
But since then, the bridge has been hit several times by moving trucks and a bucket truck. In December, a truck pulling a tall trailer again knocked down a support beam. No one was injured.
