Louisville, Kentucky has no shortage of character, but one particular stretch of road near the University of Louisville has spent decades developing a reputation that the city never quite asked for. The railroad overpass where Third Street meets Eastern Parkway has become something of a local institution, though not for any reason a civil engineer would celebrate. Locals call it the “can opener,” and the name fits.
The structure clears just 11.8 feet on one side and exactly 12 feet on the other, both well short of the roughly 13.6 feet that a standard semi-truck stands tall. The result, repeated with almost comedic regularity, is a truck that goes in one height and comes out another.
The can opener has long operated on a modest but steady diet of inattentive or GPS-trusting truck drivers who missed the warning signs. Flashing lights and signage have stood guard at the overpass for years, and still, trucks continue to get wedged and damaged each year…