Mispillion River Bridge

The Delaware Department of Transportation will be installing an overheight bridge system in Milford at the Mispillion River Bridge on South Rehoboth Boulevard.

MILFORD, Del. - The Delaware Department of Transportation will be installing an overheight bridge system in Milford. According to DelDOT, 'clankers' will be installed at the Mispillion River Bridge on South Rehoboth Boulevard.

'Clankers' are an overheight warning system designed to deter overheight trucks from striking the bridge, by audibly warning them. The 'clankers' are boat buoys, a unique system that engineers who worked with DelDOT came up with.

'Clankers'

According to DelDOT, this comes after the bridge has been struck seven times in the past several years, causing significant repairs and a six month closure. The Mispillion Bridge reopened in Aug. 2023.

The 'clankers' also come after a low-clearance train bridge in Newark had been struck roughly 70 times in ten years. The system was implemented there in 2022.

DelDOT official, C.R. McLeod, says "Despite numerous signs and flashing lights, we just weren't having success in really stopping that bridge from being struck."

After that, McLeod says DelDOT worked with engineers to come up with something more "in your face."

"In the two years since it's been installed, we have not had any bridge strikes that were not prevented by the clankers," said McLeod. 

That's despite one truck that still chose to go through the bridge after hitting the clankers, according to McLeod.

DelDOT says they are preparing to install the system in Wilmington as well. 

McLeod says the Mispillion River Bridge in Milford is a very unique and historic bridge and that the 'clanker' system "will help us to protect and preserve this bridge going forward and save, not only the department a lot of time and money, but ultimately the drivers who are damaging vehicles and causing a whole host of other issues."

DelDOT says they hope the system will be in place by the end of the year.

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Emma Aken joined CoastTV News in July of 2024. She graduated from Penn State University in May of 2024 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business. While at Penn State, she was involved in Penn State Network News, where she grew even more passionate about the news industry. She also studied abroad in Florence, Italy.

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