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federal highway ... US 460
I remember driving across this bridge as a child when our family went to New Harmony (way before I-64 existed). I do remember my mom commenting on what a dilapidated bridge it was and us kids thought it was weird there was a toll bridge in the middle of nowhere.My thoughts are that if this bridge was built in 1930, deemed structurally unsound by both INDOT and IDOT in 1955 (!!) and survived to take traffic with only marginal maintenance until 2008, it has done its job fairly well. It only took over 100 years before the PD&E Bridge up river at Grayville collapsed during a flood. My guess is that scour will cause one of the cement pylons to settle and one of the spans will either topple or lean over. And that will be the end of it. I am surprised that hasn't occurred already with such low maintenance.
Quote from: edwaleni on September 17, 2016, 05:37:56 PMI remember driving across this bridge as a child when our family went to New Harmony (way before I-64 existed). I do remember my mom commenting on what a dilapidated bridge it was and us kids thought it was weird there was a toll bridge in the middle of nowhere.My thoughts are that if this bridge was built in 1930, deemed structurally unsound by both INDOT and IDOT in 1955 (!!) and survived to take traffic with only marginal maintenance until 2008, it has done its job fairly well. It only took over 100 years before the PD&E Bridge up river at Grayville collapsed during a flood. My guess is that scour will cause one of the cement pylons to settle and one of the spans will either topple or lean over. And that will be the end of it. I am surprised that hasn't occurred already with such low maintenance.not to be an ass, but it's CONCRETE, cement is an ingredient.
IMO, the toll booth would likely be torn down anyway if the old bridge is ever rebuilt, along with demolishing the bridge's approaches and constructing new ones in their place.That's what IDOT did when they rebuilt the McKinley bridge across the Mississippi River from St Louis. Except for the bridge's 3 main truss spans, the approaches and deck were torn down and replaced.Though considering the trend of completely replacing old bridges in IL, I wouldn't be surprised if the entire New Harmony span is torn down and replaced with a brand new mostly concrete bridge. That's if a new bridge is built at all considering that both IL and IN would have to cooperate with the planning and funding for a new bridge.
Quote from: Lyon Wonder on September 28, 2016, 07:08:49 PMIMO, the toll booth would likely be torn down anyway if the old bridge is ever rebuilt, along with demolishing the bridge's approaches and constructing new ones in their place.That's what IDOT did when they rebuilt the McKinley bridge across the Mississippi River from St Louis. Except for the bridge's 3 main truss spans, the approaches and deck were torn down and replaced.Though considering the trend of completely replacing old bridges in IL, I wouldn't be surprised if the entire New Harmony span is torn down and replaced with a brand new mostly concrete bridge. That's if a new bridge is built at all considering that both IL and IN would have to cooperate with the planning and funding for a new bridge. Back in the 1990's the Sullivan-Hutsonville Bridge was taken down and replaced with a concrete bridge. It too was a former toll bridge, but the toll booth had been removed years prior to it coming down.https://bridgehunter.com/il/crawford/hutsonville/
There's really no need to open that bridge back up. I-64 is close enough to provide a suitable detour.
Quote from: hbelkins on June 12, 2021, 11:01:41 PMThere's really no need to open that bridge back up. I-64 is close enough to provide a suitable detour.I would rather have it as an alternative in case I-64 ends up closed due to an incident - it looks like a shorter detour route than the detour up through Mt. Carmel.
This bridge was posted to the National Register of Historic Places back in 2007; it would take an act of God to get this bridge removed and replaced. In fact, I've had dealings with the Section 106 historical mitigation process and don't think that even God could get this bridge removed and replaced. It is really in very poor physical and structural condition. It's going to take a lot of money (far more than it's worth IMO) to even return this bridge to a minimal service level for passenger vehicles and light truck traffic.No reasonable person should assume that this bridge could ever, ever serve as a replacement for the I-64 bridges. Just trying to divert all that traffic through the town of New Harmony alone would be unsustainable for any extended period of time.edwaleni was correct in the earlier post regarding the transfer of ownership. However, this ownership is only to these two private authorities. To my knowledge, neither INDOT nor IDOT have stepped forward to take the overall lead over responsibility for future inspections or maintenance. In fact, INDOT specifically shut down State Route 66 at the bridge and has no intention at present to extend it over this bridge. Furthermore on the Illinois side, IDOT completely shut down and barricaded the nearest three bridges on State Road 14 approaching this bridge, effectively shutting down that segment of that state route.IMO, it's going to be a long, long time before this bridge is ever re-opened. At best, I think this might get opened to pedestrian and bicycle use.
If structural deterioration of the New Harmony Bridge gets to the point where it is immediate danger of collapse, someone will demolish it regardless of its historical status, as it will become an emergency situation and the rules for historical preservation go out the window at that point.
Quote from: abqtraveler on June 18, 2021, 04:39:27 PMIf structural deterioration of the New Harmony Bridge gets to the point where it is immediate danger of collapse, someone will demolish it regardless of its historical status, as it will become an emergency situation and the rules for historical preservation go out the window at that point. True, I have removed two bridges eligible for the National Register in my career, one of them was even on Old Route 66 and had elevated significance. After advertising it for a responsible party to assume ownership and relocate it, if there are no takers, a photographer from Omaha will come out and take dozens of pictures for the National Archive, and then the contractor will remove it and sell it for scrap. The one complication here is that neither INDOT nor IDOT, who are experts in the process of removing historically significant bridges, has ownership. Also, there is no imminent danger to river navigation because (IIRC) barges don't go this far up the Wabash.
no one would ever use this as an alternative to 64
