Q&A: Where can I find accurate information about clearance

• Wednesday, 11 June 2008
• Dan Foley
• 0 Comments

Q: My old boat, an Impala, allegedly cut off power to a village, due to taking out overhead lines. It wasn't over the max height for the road, but due to the non-flat topography of the road, the end of the mast must have been rather higher at one point. Is there anywhere I can get accurate information from about clearance?

A: Bridges and powerlines are the main problems when towing high objects. The best advice is to think like a trucker for whom these are everyday concerns. The AA produce a Trucker’s Atlas and there is also an Ordnance Survey Atlas which marks bridges with less than 16'3" safe clearance.

Databases of low bridges can be downloaded (for a fee) to in-car sat-nav systems such as TomTom. One such supplier is www.hgvsolutions.com. This is a good solution if you’re doing lots of driving with high loads.

The Highways Department of the county or counties you will be passing through should, theoretically, also be able to offer advice.