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State and county officials are working with Costco to prevent tractor-trailers from getting stuck under a railroad underpass on Md. Route 75 in Monrovia, as has happened several times in the last couple of weeks.
The trucks are coming from the Costco distribution center, which opened to full capacity two weeks ago, on Baldwin Road next to Adventure Park USA.
The most recent incident occurred at 5:17 a.m. Tuesday, when a tractor-trailer turned right out of the distribution center at the intersection of Baldwin Road to travel south on Route 75, according to Maryland State Police.
Less than a mile down the windy, country road, the truck became lodged under the railroad bridge. The tractor-trailer did minor damage to the underpass, and took hours to clear, according to Maryland State Police Cpl. David Most.
"We've had a thousand of these [traffic jams] in the last week," Most said.
No one has been injured during the incidents, but the crashes have frustrated residents and commuters stuck in the resulting traffic jams, many of whom have called Jennifer Cerrito, manager of the distribution center, to complain.
"It's frustrating for us too," she said.
Cerrito said she does not know how to solve the problem, but thought it would eventually lessen as word spreads between truck drivers.
She said Costco had been distributing fliers about the underpass to drivers at the gate to the distribution center, but she is not sure how effective the fliers have been in preventing the incidents.
She said the truck drivers are not Costco employees, so she is limited in what she could do to prevent them from making the wrong turn on the road.
She said the distribution center does not appear on online map Web sites, such as MapQuest, and until it does some truckers might turn the wrong way. The center is open every day from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m., and truck drivers can arrive on the lot as early as 4 a.m. She said most truck traffic occurs between 6 a.m. and noon.
She said there is an average of 400-500 truck trips to and from the center a day, and the number of traffic jams has been small in comparison.
Cerrito said she spoke with the driver of the truck that got stuck Tuesday morning, and asked him what would have caused him not to make the right turn. He suggested a sign that read "no trucks."
"Maybe we're just over-thinking this," Cerrito said.
The Maryland State Highway Administration has signs advising drivers of the low clearance bridge, and the administration has given Frederick County permission to place an electronic sign on the road directing trucks, according to Kellie Boulware, a spokeswoman for the administration.
Boulware said Wednesday that the State Highway Administration is working with the Maryland State Police, Frederick County, and Costco to determine other ways to deter truck drivers from taking Route 75 to reach the distribution center.
Cerrito said Costco is sympathetic to the frustration of residents and motorists. "It will diminish over time," she said. "But until then, I feel bad for the kid waiting for the bus."
The underpass is part of the Old Main Line of the Baltimore Division, according to a 2005 CSX timetable posted on www.modernrailroading.com.
The bridge's clearance is roughly 12 feet 6 inches, according to the sign warning drivers. The underpass is wide enough to accommodate two lanes of traffic. A spokesman for CSX did not return a call seeking comment on the status of the bridge by The Gazette's Wednesday deadline.
E-mail Christian Brown at chbrown@gazette.net.
