Recovering a struck container from under the Napier Street bridge in Footscray

Trucks getting stuck under the Montague Street bridge is a running Melbourne joke, but there is another bridge that gets hit far more often, and where the risk to the public is far worse – the Napier Street bridge in Footscray. On Sunday 3 March a so-called ‘professional’ driver of a container truck loaded with a single ‘high cube’ 40 foot ISO shipping container bound for the Port of Melbourne tried to make it under the 4.0 metre clearance Napier Street bridge, but ignored the warning signs – striking the bridge and dislodging the container from the truck. The 40 foot container had been dislodged from the trailer, and hanging at a perilous angle, almost ready to fall onto the footpath. Chains and the rear boom on a heavy tow truck was used to drag the container away from the truck, but it fell over in the process, crushing the fence intended to ‘protect’ pedestrians from road vehicles. Eventually after a bit of manoeuvring, the heavy tow truck was able to pull the 40 foot container back upright, allowing a waiting sidelifter truck to pull up alongside and load the container to be taken away.