Wichita, Sedgwick County, KS

BNSF Railway Bridge over East Waterman Street (Wichita)

Clearance 12'0"

Clearance: 12'0" · The Wichita Eagle (Carrie Rengers, 2025-11-12): signs "clearly marking 12 feet, zero inches".
Carried: BNSF Railway — Arkansas City Subdivision (former AT&SF)
Crosses: East Waterman Street, near Commerce Street
Location: Wichita, Sedgwick County, KS

Verified location (satellite + source imagery). Open full map → · Google Map Link

Documented incidents

Incident records here

Fatalities

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Injuries (confirmed counts)

Mitigation history: Wichita’s "truck-killing bridge" — a 12′0″ BNSF span over East Waterman Street in the downtown warehouse district. The city has installed large flashing lights and signs marking the height limit, and says it has raised concerns with the railway; trucks keep hitting it anyway. BNSF must stop trains and inspect the span after every strike. No agency keeps a public count: a neighbouring business owner, Bruce Rowley, has documented the crashes himself for more than a decade — first as a tally in his office window, later on a website (since taken down) — and still photographs them. BNSF did not respond to the Wichita Eagle’s requests for comment.

KS · c. 2015 – 2025

No agency publishes a strike count for the 12′0″ BNSF bridge over East Waterman Street. The record exists because Bruce Rowley, who works nearby, decided to keep one — a tally in his office window, then a website, then a decade of photographs of wrecked trucks. The city says it has installed large flashing lights and signs and has raised concerns with the railway; BNSF, which must stop trains and inspect the span after each hit, did not respond to the Eagle’s requests for comment. Rowley does not let drivers off either: "At some point . . . it has to come down to drivers and truck owners." His decade-long tally is a local illustration of the national finding that bridge strikes are systematically undercounted.

Bruce Rowley (neighbouring business owner), via Carrie Rengers / The Wichita Eagle needs review
The Wichita Eagle · 2025-11-12

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Incident history

Struck repeatedly for over a decade — no official count exists Recurring strikes
The Wichita Eagle reports the bridge "has wrecked countless trucks." No agency publishes a strike count; the only running tally is the one a neighbouring business owner has kept for more than ten years. We record no number rather than invent one.

Vehicle: Box trucks, concrete mixers and other commercial vehicles · Cause: Repeated over-height strikes on a 12′0″ railroad bridge in downtown Wichita

Sources: The Wichita Eagle (Carrie Rengers) (archived) · Yahoo News (syndicated Wichita Eagle column)
September 10, 2025 Clearance strike
A truck became stuck under the Waterman Street bridge. KWCH noted the sight "is not an uncommon one in the area where drivers fail to observe the traffic sign."

Vehicle: Truck · Cause: Driver failed to observe the posted 12′0″ clearance

Sources: KWCH 12 (archived)
August 23, 2024 Clearance strike
A concrete truck wedged under the bridge around 10 a.m. Wichita Fire reported that "the force of the impact had broken the large mixer loose from the truck and sheared off all the motor mounts." Extraction took roughly 90 minutes.

Vehicle: Concrete mixer truck · About 90 minutes to extract the truck · Cause: Over-height concrete mixer struck the 12′0″ BNSF bridge

Sources: KWCH 12 (archived)