MUNSTER | A town garbage truck hit an overpass at Broadmoor and Manor avenues Wednesday morning, displacing a steel beam on the shuttered railroad trestle.
The truck was traveling westbound on Broadmoor when the top clipped the bottom of a steel beam on the trestle just before 9 a.m., according to Town Engineer Jim Mandon.
Crews pulled the garbage truck out from under the bridge and began working to replace the beam, which was hanging down about 6 inches below the posted clearance of 11 feet.
The driver of the truck, who did not reveal his name, said he did not understand how he hit the bridge when he travels underneath it regularly for his route. The driver said the accident sheered off the hydraulic mechanisms on the top of the garbage truck.
No one was injured in the incident.
Bessie Hasabis, who lives in a nearby apartment building on Frederick Avenue, said the accident marks one of many in the past month involving trucks getting stuck under the bridge.
"I'm surprised they don't take it down," Hasabis said of the bridge. "It's too low."
Mandon said the town wants to take the bridge down, but is being held back by the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District, which runs the South Shore commuter rail line.
The tracks and bridges from 45th Avenue through Hammond fall under the jurisdiction of Munster, Hammond and NICTD, Mandon said.
"We asked some time ago if we could remove the beams across here until a decision is made about when of if they would expand the (South Shore) line, but NICTD wouldn't let us," Mandon said. "It's labeled as 11-feet, but it is an impediment for traffic here. Trucks higher than that have to detour over to Ridge Road."
John Parsons, spokesman for NICTD, said bridge experts for the commuter transportation line were not available for comment on the issue Wednesday.
The accident drew much attention in the quiet residential neighborhood, with children riding their bikes and parents pushing babies in strollers to the scene to watch town crews working on the bridge.
Broadmoor was closed for over an hour between Frederick and Manor avenues while town crews replaced the beam.
