State transportation officials are warning drivers of oversized trucks to find alternate routes so they don’t become the next transport rig stuck in the busy Sumner Tunnel.

An increasing number of trucks are finding problems while navigating through the Sumner over the past month despite a $160-million project that has closed the tunnel periodically since April 2022, including last summer’s eight-week long shutdown.

A tractor trailer that entered the tunnel early Thursday morning got trapped while trying to pass through, causing backups and gridlock on the streets of East Boston. The incident is the latest in a recent series of tunnel jams.

Highway crews with the state Department of Transportation are working to implement variable-message signs ahead of the Sumner which will “broadcast alternate routes to truckers looking to access I-93 northbound and southbound,” a department spokesman told the Herald Saturday.

“Additionally, new low clearance signage will be posted ahead of entrance portals, and chains will be retrofitted on existing signs to warn drivers of the tunnel clearance,” the spokesman added.

State Rep. Adrian Madaro, from Eastie, is calling for more action to be taken so truck drivers can stop “storrowing” in the Sumner. Getting storrowed has long been a motto in Greater Boston for when a truck hits a low bridge or overpass on Storrow Drive and Soldiers Field Road in Boston and Memorial Drive in Cambridge.

In an post on X Thursday, Madaro said MassDOT has told him that it plans to investigate “how mobile wayfinding apps, like Waze or Google Maps, can help truck drivers make better navigation decisions.”

“I’m also advocating for the state to consider all possible options to hold drivers accountable for continually ignoring height warnings,” he added. “It is abundantly clear that the current system is not working.”

A driver of an oversized truck on March 26 ignored the clearance signage indicating that vehicles must be smaller than 12 feet by 6 feet in order to get through the tunnel smoothly. Video showed the truck’s roof scraping along the top of the tunnel that shot debris down to the roadway and forced drivers to take “evasive action,” WCVB reported.

A similar scene unfolded on April 5.

Last summer’s work included MassDOT installing massive arches that aimed to strengthen the structure’s worn out ceiling and enhance its ventilation. Work also included removing nearly 4,000 linear feet of ceiling panels and upgrading the lighting, communications and life safety systems of the tunnel.

This summer’s work will focus on replacing two inches of road with new concrete and asphalt, shuttering the tunnel in July and August, mirroring last year’s schedule.

Once fully complete, officials have said they don’t anticipate the tunnel needing another major rehab for at least the next 50 years.

State Sen. Lydia Edwards, representing Eastie, said she’s been in contact with Transportation Secretary Monica Tibbits-Nutt “to urge implementation of signage, starting at the Starbucks location on Route 1A in Orient Heights, through the Airport ramps, to warn all drivers and avoid further traffic jams that impeded travel.”

“East Boston drivers have only two ways into Downtown Boston: the Sumner and the Ted Williams Tunnels,” she said in a post on X. “I am aware that in April, several trucks have become stuck in the Sumner Tunnel due to its low ceilings and to a lack of signage warning truck drivers to only drive through the Ted Williams Tunnel.”

Oversized trucks are finding problems while navigating through the Sumner Tunnel over the past month despite a $160 million project that has closed the tunnel periodically since April 2022. (Stuart Cahill/Boston Herald)
East Boston state Rep. Adrian Madaro (Herald file)