I posted this in April 2008:
a plea to the cops in northwest portland
Instead of hanging out by the 7-11 writing speeding tickets, could you please do something about the scrap haulers driving their teetering and shedding loads up Hwy 30, across the St. Johns Bridge and over to Schnitzer?
Case in point, my ruined commute last night:
Some of these guys (and gals), with their jerry-rigged trailers filled with old exhaust manifolds, chain link fencing, and oftentimes entire wrecked vehicles, make Sanford and Son look like UPS.
And this is what I found myself directly behind (and lucky to avoid) last night:
A scrap metal truck tips on the West end of the St. John’s Bridge Wednesday, July 15, 2009, squishing one car and striking a minivan. Traffic was closed in both directions, the drivers of the car and minivan were not injured.
The St. Johns Bridge was completed in 1931; when the bridge is closed due to these minor disasters, your only alternative a 15-mile detour through the worst traffic Portland has to offer. When the bridge was re-painted and re-decked a few years ago, they modified it from two lanes to four (without widening the structure), so there are very slim margins of error and very tight turns for anyone making the sharp left onto the bridge from the Highway 30 side.
So, ODOT and Portland Police Bureau: Given that we’ve had two of these incidents in fourteen months, along with hundreds of minor spills left behind by ragmen hauling their finds to Schnitzer in the back of their rusted-out pickups, now can we get those fucking scrap trucks off the bridge?
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