Bridges & Tunnels Updates

[seicer]

(continued)

I concluded my travel through Virginia with the discovery of the Crab Run Bridge while traveling westward along US 250 towards West Virginia. The Crab Run span was constructed in 1896 by the West Virginia Bridge Works of Wheeling, West Virginia and carried the Staunton to Petersburg Turnpike in McDowell. The route was a predecessor to US 250, which was constructed in 1927. It was at that time the span was bypassed with a two-lane bridge to the southwest. Eventually, the old alignment was re-designated Virginia Route 645.

The single-span, four-panel pony truss was constructed of railroad and trolley rails, a specification that had been patented by the Lane Bridge Company of Painted Post, New York in 1894. The patent had improved upon a design by Daniel Lane of 1890, which led to stronger connections of the floor and truss beams. The Lane Bridge Company was not the only manufacturer of bridges from rails - other similar truss bridge patents were granted to Jason C. Fenn of Connecticut in 1894 and J.E. Greiner of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O) in 1895. Although similar in the use of materials, the trusses for the other patents were configured differently. Rail truss bridges were used by the B&O as the standard bridge for overhead crossings on country roads in 1895, and were also good for spanning small streams by horse and buggies.

Only two bridges of this type were constructed in Virginia, with the Crab Run span the only such type existing in the state. The manufacturer stamp on the rails read "Cambria 1896," referring to the Cambria Steel Company of Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

In 1994, the bridge closed to vehicular traffic due to structural load restrictions. Guardrails and a new wooden bridge deck were added and the span was reopened to pedestrians. The Crab Run Bridge was determined to be eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, and was listed in 2009. The assessment was reiterated earlier by the Historic Structures Task Group in August 1996, which was confirmed by the Virginia State Historic Preservation Office and the Virginia Department of Transportation Commissioner on October 23, 1997.

Future updates will include travels through West Virginia, Indiana, Texas and South Korea. Enjoy!

[agentsteel53]

excellent set of posts!

To the north, the West Virginia Turnpike had been opened to traffic from Princeton, northeast of Bluefield, to Beckley on September 2, 1954, with the remaining mileage to Charleston opening in November. The two-lane turnpike, nicknamed the "88 Miles of Miracle," was mostly two-lane with provisions for eventual widening. It was not designated Interstate 77 until the modernization of the Turnpike was finished in 1987 that involved widening the turnpike to four-lanes and bypassing a tunnel and bridge with a cut and fill. The total cost was an astronomical $683 million.

this photo is from 1979:



it implies to me that the I-77 designation came in segments as the road was modernized.  anyone know for sure?

the section of road in the photo can be narrowed down by noting the US-60 shield in the background.

[agentsteel53]

The total cost of the new bridge is estimated to be $11.92 million: $1.5 million for engineering, $293,006 for right-of-way and $10,125,777 for construction.

I always wonder how numbers like "293,006" arise.

"well, he'll want 293000 for his land.  and we'll buy him a beer when the papers are signed."

[seicer]

excellent set of posts!

To the north, the West Virginia Turnpike had been opened to traffic from Princeton, northeast of Bluefield, to Beckley on September 2, 1954, with the remaining mileage to Charleston opening in November. The two-lane turnpike, nicknamed the "88 Miles of Miracle," was mostly two-lane with provisions for eventual widening. It was not designated Interstate 77 until the modernization of the Turnpike was finished in 1987 that involved widening the turnpike to four-lanes and bypassing a tunnel and bridge with a cut and fill. The total cost was an astronomical $683 million.

this photo is from 1979:



it implies to me that the I-77 designation came in segments as the road was modernized.  anyone know for sure?

the section of road in the photo can be narrowed down by noting the US-60 shield in the background.

That looks like it is in Charleston, based on the overhead gantry in the background. Sad that those were nearly all removed due to vibrations causing the Corten supports weakening.

I have the opening date list at home (and also @ Wikipedia - wrote that article a long time ago) - and the Charleston south segment to Marmet was completed in 1982 and 1984 in two phases. This 1979 photo @ Gribblenation from Michael Summa shows the "To I-77" signage, which was used in place of "North/South" designations.



It doesn't appear to be all that uniform because the photo you have above is also from Summa in 1979 that shows the "North/South" designation. Note I-64 isn't signed - I don't think it was co-signed at all to Beckley, ending at Charleston because the segment east of Beckley to Sam Black Church did not open until 1988.

That image you posted appears to be at US 60 EB at the trumpet interchange for the old terminus of the Turnpike: http://goo.gl/maps/ckH3h

[Alps]

The total cost of the new bridge is estimated to be $11.92 million: $1.5 million for engineering, $293,006 for right-of-way and $10,125,777 for construction.

I always wonder how numbers like "293,006" arise.

"well, he'll want 293000 for his land.  and we'll buy him a beer when the papers are signed."

It's all idiocy on the part of the estimating engineer. Everything should be rounded to hundreds, preferably thousands. It's strict multiplication of some factor - however many square feet times dollar per SF, except you can't be certain because if they'll report 293,006, they'll probably also be measuring in quarters or thirteenths of a foot or something.

[seicer]

West Virginia's Rural Bridges

Having explored much of West Virginia, I have surprisingly not posted up as many photographs of their bridges and tunnels as I have of other states. With this update, I take on the task of photographing and documenting many of their rural and historic spans.

I begin in the New River valley with the Chesapeake & Ohio (C&O) Piney Creek Subdivision Bridge that spans the New River at Prince. This three-span Parker through truss bridge was constructed by the A&P Roberts Company and Pendoyd Iron Works of Pendoyd, Pennsylvania in 1899 for the C&O's Piney Creek Subdivision. It parallels West Virginia Route 41 and climbs Piney Gorge to a small rail yard at Raleigh.

Adjacent to the railroad span is the Thomas Buford Pugh Memorial Bridge, a two-lane, three-span through-truss that carries West Virginia Route 41 over the New River. The Parker through truss was constructed in 1931.

In September 2011, the bridge weight limit was reduced from 15 tons to 3 tons after a broken structural member was discovered. In addition, a nine-foot vertical clearance was imposed. Official inspections began to held every three months, with various West Virginia Division of Highway (DOH) employees viewing the crack for any movement every few days.

In March 2012, the DOH announced that their preferred option would be to rebuild the bridge on top of the existing piers, which would be cheaper and quicker than building a new bridge at a new location. The new bridge would open in the third quarter of 2013, but would require closing the existing New River span for six to eight months beginning in March 2013. On April 30, the DOH announced that it will construct a replacement span downstream from the existing span, avoiding the need for a 57-mile detour. Construction on the bridge, which would include two-lanes with an eight-foot pedestrian and bike path could take three years, although no start date has been set. The estimated cost is $10.5 million.

It is unfortunate that I must mention the eventual replacement of two aging Bramwell bridges. I covered one of those bridges earlier in the year. But thanks to the West Virginia Division of Highways, aesthetics are being taken into consideration (renderings within the link) and the replacement spans will most likely be trusses painted silver, black or blue depending on the bridge. It looks fantastic.

One of those spans is the Kate Hewltt Bridge that carries Mercer County Route 20/20 over the Bluestone River in Bramwell. Constructed in 1915 by the Virginia Bridge and Iron Company of Roanoke, Virginia, the two span riveted and bolted pony truss was built with stone masonry abutments and a reinforced concrete pier. The preferred alternative calls for a new pony truss to be built in-place.

The other is the Yon-Peraldo Memorial Bridge that carries Mercer County Route 20/5/Bloch Street is nearby. Constructed in 1930 by the Virginia Bridge and Iron Company, the bridge consists of two riveted Warren pony trusses supported on stone masonry abutments and a stone masonry solid pier. The preferred alternative calls for a new two-span truss to be built in-place.

In Bluefield is the Grant Street Bridge that crosses the Norfolk Southern (NS) Railroad Bluefield Yard. The two Warren trusses were completed in 1941 by the Virginia Bridge Company of Roanoke, Virginia  and a rehabilitation project was finished on October 28, 1992 by Platnick Steel and Engineering Company of Bluefield, Virginia.

The bridge affords a great wide vantage point of downtown.

One of my favorite crossings in the state is the Fayette Station Bridge across the New River, connecting the now nonexistent communities of Fayette and South Fayette.

The truss span was contracted out to the Virginia Bridge and Iron Company of Roanoke, Virginia 1in 1889, but the actual builder may have been the Wrought Iron Bridge Company of Canton, Ohio. The bridge replaced a ferry that connected two burgeoning coal-mining communities founded in 1873 along the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad. It was the first vehicular bridge over the New River in Fayette County. The crossing did not become the property of the state until the State Road Commission was formed in 1933.

On March 23, 1978, less than one year after the New River Gorge Bridge (U.S. Route 19) was completed, the Fayette Station Bridge was closed to vehicular traffic due to deteriorating conditions. At the time of its closure, the bridge carried West Virginia State Route 82. Reconstruction of the bridge occurred between 1997 and 1998, and during its refurbishment, the piers were rebuilt and a new bridge deck was installed. Two exterior pedestrian walkways were also constructed.

The Fayette Station Bridge was rededicated on November 8, 1998 as the Tunney Hansaker Bridge and today carries southbound West Virginia Secondary Route 82 over the New.

Of course, it can't be passed up - but the New River Gorge Bridge is immediately adjacent. The now iconic span carries US 19 over the New River northeast of Fayetteville. It is the largest arch bridge in the Western Hemisphere and the second highest crossing in the United States.

During the late 1960s and 1970s, US 19 was widened to four-lanes south of U.S. Route 60 near Summersville to Beckley and Interstates 64 and 77, and rebuilt as a "super-two" highway north to Interstate 79. The upgraded highway, dubbed Corridor L, allowed north-south traffic to efficiently flow through the central highlands of the state without having to travel through Charleston and without having to use the northern half of the West Virginia Turnpike, a toll road, which was two-lanes and overburdened. The first section, the Oak Hill bypass, was completed in 1965. The section south to US 19 in Raleigh County was opened in 1973, and another segment from  Lansing-Edmond Road in Lansing north to the US 60 interchange opened a year later. Further sections north to Interstate 79 were two-lanes and was completed in phases from 1973 to 1978, with a second carriageway added in 1995 to 1996.  At the center of Corridor L, however, was the New River gorge, containing depths of 1,000 feet.

To bridge the gorge, the Michael Baker Corporation was given the task by the West Virginia Department of Highways to design a New River crossing for Corridor L. A contract to the American Bridge Division of US Steel was awarded in 1973, with a bid amount of $33,984,000.

Construction began one year later, and a four-tower cable-guiding system was used to help position steel into their respective positions. Originally designed to be a painted arch span, US Steel utilized its then-new Corten weathering steel. Corten steel was a group of steel alloys that obviated the need for paint and would weather into a rust-like appearance after being exposed to the elements for several years. The result was an immediate cost saving of $300,000 and additional savings of $1 million per each time the painted span would need refurbishment. The rust-like appearance also blended better with the natural terrain of the New River gorge.

On October 22, 1977, the New River Gorge Bridge, carrying U.S. Route 19/Corridor L, opened to traffic. Previously, US 19 crossed over New River at Prince, today's West Virginia Route 41. The only other crossings in the vicinity were West Virginia  Route 16 (formerly US 21), and the narrow and dangerous West Virginia County Route 82 via the Fayette Station Bridge. The latter took nearly 45 minutes as the roadway was confined to one-lane in some sections. The new span, in comparison, shortened the crossing to just under one minute.

The construction of the bridge also involved the completion of four-lane US 19 from Lansing-Edmond Road south to the Oak Hill bypass.

Heading south, the Avis Bridge in Hinton formerly carried West Virginia Route 107 over the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad (C&O).

The Avis Bridge had seemingly early hopes. Hinton had incorporated in 1880 and was becoming a boom town along the C&O due to the shipment of coal, the in-town railroad yard and its associated machine shops. Avis, which was founded a decade later, was connected to Hinton via a steep roadway. A primary route out of the towns to the south was through Avis and across the C&O tracks just outside of the yard, a sometimes dangerous and daunting task as crossing the rail line was tempting fate when the tracks were busy. The addition of the steep grade to Avis did not assist in the matter, as it made the movement of freight difficult during the horse and buggy era — and even afterwards when automobiles began to proliferate. By 1922, a traffic count noted 1,110 automobiles, 1,755 pedestrians, 212 trucks, 180 double horse teams, 53 one horse teams, 70 saddle horses and 12 motorcycles used the busy crossing, which was closed for up to four hours a day by trains.

Seeing the need for an overhead crossing to improve safety and to eliminate delays, the C&O offered $75,000 to construct a steel structure if the county and state would purchase the right-of-way. But while the parties were cooperative early on, differences in alignment and grade allowed for the roadway led to lengthy delays. The first meeting between the C&O and the county and state was held in July 1924, but the state and railroad could not come to an agreement on the location or type of bridge. The railroad preferred an alignment that would have given the roadway a 14% grade, something the state was not interested in. Time passed and the grade crossing of the C&O became more dangerous and congested. In August 1927, the C&O presented a plan with an 11% grade and two sharp curves, which was rejected by the city. The city put forth a proposal for a bridge at the end of Park Avenue, but its location was too far from Avis and the C&O was therefore not interested. At a meeting in September, the C&O asked the council to rescind its action in which the railroad was ordered to build a bridge at Avis according to state plans. The council agreed and a committee was formed to find an outside engineer to work out a plan with the C&O for a bridge over the railroad tracks that would comply with the city, state and railroad's demands.

The C&O met again wit the city on February 1, 1928 and agreed to a plan previously submitted by the state. The railroad agreed to give the city $75,000 and would have no input in the bidding or contracting process. The remainder would be handled by Hinton, who felt that $75,000 would be about half of the actual cost of the actual bridge. The new bridge was proposed at the base of Main and Pleasant Streets. When the contracts were advertised, one of the more notable standouts was the Luten Bridge Company of York, Pennsylvania who visited Hinton to pitch their proposal. The span was designed by Daniel B. Luten, a famous artist and engineer who had a bevy of beautifully built spans under his belt. A contract was awarded to Luten's company on August 7 for $75,556. Construction began within ten days employing 16 to 20. A contract for the approaches was also let to Mirable and Defuria of Welch. The engineers for the bridge project were E.N. Blackwood and C.M. Gilson.

Construction progressed rather smoothly except that the base of the piers had to be constructed further into the earth than originally anticipated. With each passing the day, the bridge — a reinforced concrete through arch, took shape. On June 28, 1929, the bridge was completed with one detail that had been left undone — the ornamental lighting. The design by Luten called for ornamental lighting to be installed at the expense of the city. Conduit and wiring for 14 lights were installed, but the city decided that there was sufficient lighting at each end of the span. With finances a bit tight, the city stated that it would come back and install the ornamental lighting at a later date. The opening day was heralded by many. Thousands came to celebrate the new span, and fireworks were lit during the day. A baseball game was held at the C&O baseball park and speeches were delivered at the Hotel McCreery.

But a local businessman, G.K. Dick of Avis, along with other businessmen, sought an injunction to prevent the closure of the Avis Crossing. A temporary restraining order was granted by Judge C.M. Ward on June 28, 1929 with the case scheduled to be heard in April 1930 in Circuit Court. In a written opinion from February 1, 1930, Ward said that the city had the right to close the crossing, but that if Dick and others had suffered damages or injury, the junction would continue until the amount of damages could be determined by a jury. Because of the injunction, the C&O withheld final payment of $40,000 to the city pending the outcome of the trial. The delay cost the city $200 a month.

The jury, after hearing both sides, deliberated for an hour and a half and sided with Dick for $2,000. The case was appealed to the judge but was promptly overturned, leading the city to appeal to the Supreme Court. On July 30, Ward warned that the injunction would be permanent unless the city paid Dick $2,000. On November 25, the Appellate Court of Charleston wrote that the Circuit Court was without jurisdiction to proceed in the case and wrote that "if the property abutted on a street suffers damage from the action of a part of the street, he is ordinarily limited to an action at law for his compensation."  Based on this, the Supreme Court on December 25 vacated the decision by Ward in the Circuit Court.

With that, the at-grade crossing at Avis was closed immediately. The C&O delivered a check in the amount of $40,602.48 on January 23, 1931. The Avis Bridge was in use until 2003 when a new bridge was opened. The ornamental lighting fixtures were never installed.

I wrap up my West Virginia update with a trip to Durbin to photograph the West Virginia Route 250/2 Bridge over the East Fork Greenbrier River.

Enjoy!

[seicer]

Indiana (Part 1)

Solving an Indiana mystery, a plea for restoration and other updates

Several years ago, I came across Cole's Ford Bridge in Harrison County, Indiana and was surprised that this bridge from 1883 was allowed to deteriorate and stand over the Blue River. There was not much to look at or even photograph due to the foliage cover - a wide shot of the trusses and a dead-on photograph was all that I wanted to manage. I didn't want to tempt my fear of heights by walking out onto the old floor beams.

And I just sat on the photographs for two years, not knowing much more about the bridge until I came across an <em>Indiana Department of Historic Preservation & Archaeology</em> page that listed a completion date of 1883 with some photographs of the span when it had wood planking for a bridge deck. But information was hard to come by, and I did not want to make a trip to Leavenworth's library just to investigate a single bridge without arming myself with some more knowledge of the area's history.

I learned that the bridge was once Indiana State Road 22, a primary route that extended from New Albany west to Leavenworth, Fredonia and Princeton. The first survey of the roadway was started in 1827 and a primitive dirt path opened five years later. But travel was slow - especially at the crossing for the Blue River that was nothing more than a ford.

William M. Ellsworth in September 1869 appeared before the county commissioners in Crawford County and presented a petition to construct a bridge over the river near Cole's Ford. Several were appointed in Crawford and neighboring Harrison County to determine if a bridge was needed, and if so, what type. Four locations were proposed:

• William Rothrock's land, requiring a span 120 feet in length, 48 feet high with two abutments at an approximate cost of $5,000.
• David Cole's land, requiring a span of 140 feet or 170 feet in length, 55 feet high with two abutments at an approximate cost of $6,500.
• At a point below Joe Cole's farm, requiring a span of 125 feet in length, 62 feet high with two abutments at an approximate cost of $6,000.
• Zebulum Leavenworth's farm, requiring a span of 120 feet in length with two pillars, 65 feet high with two abutments at an approximate cost of $8,000.

Two others from Harrison County were submitted as well. In a meeting in March 1870, the county agreed that a span at Cole's ford should be built. The new bridge was ordered to be higher than the high water mark of 1832, with a main span length of at least 100 feet and wide enough for two teams of horses to pass. Bids were opened on October 13, and a contract was awarded to the Julius Barbaraux and Company for $9,810, the lowest bidder. A sub-contract for the superstructure was given to the King Bridge Company of Cleveland, Ohio for a wrought iron tubular arch with a main span of 130 feet and a width of 14 feet. The square wrought iron tubular arch was patented by King in 1857, a variant of the bowsting arch that the Wrought Iron Bridge Company of Canton, Ohio had marketed nationwide. The bridge was to be completed prior to October 15, 1871.

The approaches were built of wood in the form of trestlework that was commonly used for railroads. The new bridge was ready for traffic on December 7, 1871.

Unfortunately, a flood of 1883 did considerable amount of damage to Cole's Ford Bridge. One report said that the bridge collapsed. Because of this, bids were opened for repairs or replacement:

• Smith Bridge Company for $4,155.
• King Bridge Company for $4,325.
• Columbus Bridge Company for $4,512.
• Wrought Iron Bridge Company for $4,223.75.
• Mars Bridge Company for $4,100.

The bids were rejected and re-advertised.  This time, lower bids were submitted and a contract was awarded to the Wrought Iron Bridge Company for $2,549. The repaired bridge was to be completed by September 2, 1883. The new bridge consisted of three spans: a pinned Parker through truss with nine panels measuring 165-feet in length and a two span, seven panel pinned Pratt through truss measuring 125.4-feet.

In 1923, the Corydon-Leavenworth-English segment of roadway was designated State Road No. 22, which stretched across the southern tier of Indiana.

A historic flood in the spring of 1937 devastated nearby Leavenworth. That flood, which consumed towns from stretching from Leavenworth to Mt. Vernon, caused some drastic changes. After the flood, more than $700,000 in federal money was expended to mitigate damage, and of that, $130,000 was used to move Leavenworth out of the floodplain. The new town was dedicated on December 16, 1938 by Col. F.C. Harrington, Governor Clifford Townsend and others. As part of the project, a new State Road No. 22, then numbered Indiana Route 62 was constructed east of the town to Corydon due to the Blue River crossing, and to offer a more gentle and modern route east.

As of 1984, the bridge was abandoned and its bridge deck removed by 1987 due to structural deterioration. The span is being studied for restoration into a pedestrian path for hikers, horseback riders and bicyclists for O'Bannon Woods State Park  as part of the American Discovery Trail. The trail, which exists within the state park and nearby Harrison-Crawford State Forest, will eventually stretch from the Illinois border to the Ohio border. The estimated cost is $250,000, and one donor has already pledged $100,000 towards the effort.

Indiana has a good record for rehabilitating existing spans. The Bells Branch Road Bridge is located on Bells Branch Road over Laughery Creek between Dearborn and Ohio counties. Constructed in 1916, the Pratt through truss bridge was completed by the Oregonia Bridge Company of Lebanon, Ohio.

In December 2007, a request for proposal (RFP) for a letter of interest was announced for the rehabilitation of Bells Branch Road Bridge. The RFP estimated the construction cost would be $510,000, with work to include repairing deficiencies in truss members, bridge railings, bering plates and abutments, the replacement of the bridge deck and the repainting of the span. Work began on the rehabilitation project in 2009.

Nearby was the Cave Hill Arch Bridge that carries Cave Hill Road over Laughery Creek in Ripley County. The closed-spandrel arch was constructed in the early 1910s.

Close by on the same road is a fantastic riveted Parker through truss over Laughery Creek.

Part 2 is below.

[seicer]

Indiana (Part 2)

Onward to some covered crossings. Busching Covered Bridge is located on County Route 20 South/East Perry Street east of Versailles. The one-lane covered Howe through truss spans Laughery Creek and was constructed in 1885 by Thomas A. Hardman. Hardman was locally famous for rebuilding many of the covered bridges in Ripley and Dearborn counties that were destroyed during the Civil War by Confederate John Hunt Morgan. The covered bridge was bypassed in 1929 with a closed-spandrel arch. It was rehabilitated in 2005 by CLR Construction of Indiana, with work that included replacing lower chord members, replacing several diagonal bracing components and all of the steel rods that hold the upper and lower chords together with tension. A new standing seam roof was also installed.

James Covered Bridge is located West County Road 625S in Jennings County and crosses Graham Creek. It is named for Thomas S. James who owned the adjacent property and mill. The bridge is also commonly referred to as the Kissing Bridge, as the names of several of James' children and those that they courted are scribed on the wood inside the truss.

On March 26, 1887, John F. Hayden, Eli Wells and James McManaman, all county commissioners, ordered that a bridge be built at James Ford in Lovett Township. Early on, Robert Carson filed suit to have the bridge built at Carson Ford, a mile upstream, but the lawsuit was filed too late and was quickly dismissed. The James Covered Bridge was proposed to be 130 feet long with a main span of 122 feet and that it be a covered Howe truss with wrought iron tie rods and cast iron angle blocks. In reality, the bridge was built 140 feet long with a main span length of 124 feet.

Construction began shortly by Barron & Hole after and abutments one foot thick and built of native limestone were laid, followed by the erection of the Howetruss which took five to six weeks to finish. Wood was furnished by the James Saw Mill.

In December 2007, a request for proposal (RFP) for a letter of interest was announced for the rehabilitation of James Covered Bridge. The RFP estimated the construction cost would be $403,200.

The Tobias Bridge carries County Route 1350 West over Big Creek in Jefferson County. The pin-connected Whipple through truss was constructed in 1885 by the Indianapolis Bridge Company of Indianapolis.

The bridge is located on the former Lexington-Saluda Highway and was a former through route. In 1884, M.J. Tobias and his neighbors had convinced the Jefferson County Commissioners to construct a bridge over Big Creek. Tobias had donated the stone for the abutment. James Walker was hired to construct the substructure who unfortunately discovered quicksand below the bed of Big Creek. After consultations with an engineer, he petitioned to perform additional wet excavation of the creek down to solid rock at a rate of $1 per cubic yard. Over 1,000 cubic yards of limestone was brought in for the task.

The Indianapolis Bridge Company shipped the superstructure in pieces and had it transferred to nearby Deputy by rail. It was divided into 13 panels 12-feet in length, and although in total they weighed 58,000 pounds, it only took two weeks to reassemble the bridge.

By the 2000s, the bridge had deteriorated and its weight limit was only a mere three tons. The bridge was slated for demolition and replacement until County Engineer Jim Olson was notified. He conferred with Greencastle preservationist James Cooper and J.A. Barker of Bloomington to develop a cost estimate for rehabilitation of the bridge. The Tobias Bridge, despite its low weight limit, had a good stone foundation and original ironwork. When the cost estimates came in below expectations, it was decided that the span would be restored instead of demolished.

On October 23, 2004, the rehabilitated Tobias Bridge was unveiled. The 110-year-old crossing was restored for $900,000, or half the cost of a new concrete bridge, with the project designed by J.A. Barker Engineering and actual reconstruction work performed by Gohman Construction Company of Sellersburg. Work included increasing the load capacity of the span and to repair bent or bowed verticals. The decision was made to install additional plates on the outside of each vertical connected with high strength button head bolts that resemble the original hot rivets, to heat strengthen out-of-plane members, welding the lattice railings to modern tubular railings for safety, repairing ornamental portal braces and cleaning and painting the bridge.

I end with a plea for restoration. The Cedar Grove Bridge crosses the Whitewater River in Cedar Grove and formerly carried Indiana Route 1. The historic span could be demolished by the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) in 2014 if no reuse plans are set in place. Because of its age and the rarity of the type of bridge, it is eligible to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the National Register of Historic Bridges.

The two-span, riveted Camelback through truss was constructed in 1914 by the Indiana Bridge Company of Muncie at a cost of $18,975. It replaced an earlier span that was demolished by the 1913 flood. The 386-foot long bridge was divided into two spans each 182 feet in length, with a single pier consisting of two concrete or rubble filled steel caissons ringed with sheet piling.

In 1978, Indiana Route 1 was rerouted onto a new alignment that bypassed Cedar Grove Bridge and an alignment that hugged the Whitewater River that was the source of frequent slips and repairs. The Cedar Grove Bridge closed to all traffic in 1999 due to structural deterioration. INDOT offered the bridge to Franklin County, but it was not interested in assuming future responsibility for the span.

On June 16, 2011, INDOT submitted an application to the Division of Historical Preservation and Archaeology (DHPA), proposing to demolish the Cedar Grove Bridge via a controlled demolition with detonation. Because of its eligibility to be listed on two national historic registers, DHPA must review and approve of the demolition request. Because of a lack of notice regarding the application, an impromptu meeting was held between Indiana Landmarks, INDOT and Franklin County Citizens for Historic Preservation, along with other residents.

On August 26, 2011, James Barker of J.A. Barker Engineering inspected the truss span on behalf of Indiana Landmarks. He found that the bridge railing was inadequate, the decking in poor condition, portal bracing damaged by truck impact, the lower chord rusting near the bearing seats, a rusted lower lateral bracing and rusted floor beams.

Barker suggested three alternatives for the work:

• Alternative 1: Assuming "sweat equity" by local citizens, the donation of services, or reduced-cost services along with fundraising with no assistance from the county or INDOT. This alternative would involve the most-needed repairs, such as repairing bridge railing and augmenting it with wooden or steel rails for pedestrians, removing the lower lateral bracing, repairing the bridge deck, not repairing the floor beams or wing walls and using the Thermarust system to coat the bearing seat areas and the lower chord.
• Alternative 2: Assuming some funding from INDOT and the transfer of ownership to a local entity. This alternative would involve repairing bridge railing and augmenting it with tubular steel, repairing the portal knee braces, replacing the lower lateral bracing, removing the top layer of boards on the deck due to the new lower lateral bracing, and not repairing the floor beams or wing walls. It also involves using the Thermarust system to coat the bearing seat areas and the lower chord.
• Alternative 3: A complete rehabilitation project with park amenities, assuming INDOT transfers ownership to a local entity and that the entity obtains federal aid funding - typically 20% local, 80% federal. This alternative would involve repairing bridge railing and augmenting it with tubular steel, replacing the bridge deck, strengthening or replacing the floor beams, repairing the portal knee braces, replacing the lower lateral bracing, replacing the lower lateral bracing, repairing the northern wing wall and painting the entire bridge.

According to engineer James Barker who inspected the bridge shortly after the group began meeting, the span is in acceptable to good condition for pedestrian use, and that rehabilitating the span would cost approximately $600,000 for a new wooden bridge deck, cleaning and repainting.

On February 2, 2012, INDOT resubmitted the application for demolition to DHPA. The agency said that while the bridge was eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion C, the bridge was not in vehicular use and was not evaluated for Select or Non-Select status. The DHPA staff did agree that the bridge was historic. But because the proposed demolition was 100% state funded, INDOT was not seeking a federal Section 106 review.

In October, INDOT offered Franklin County a deal. The state would pay the county $1.5 million over three years, with the first payment of $500,000 remitted in April 2013. In exchange, the county would assume maintenance of old Indiana Route 1. The money would be used to replace Duck Creek Bridge No. 10 and to maintain old Indiana Route 1.

Unfortunately, the town of Cedar Grove did not show interest in owning the Cedar Grove Bridge, however, the Whitewater Canal Trail (WCT) has expressed interest in owning the crossing as part of a hiking and cycling trail. In return, the county asked that the WCT be able to post a 50-year bond for bridge maintenance and demonstrate proof of insurance.

The demolition of the bridge would cost $195,000, however the county said that demolition costs would only be about $100,000 if the piers were left in place. If a plan is not worked out, bids for demolition could be announced in December 2013.

Thank you for reading!

[seicer]

Texas (Part 1)

Texas' hill country bridges - covering Austin and more

In the fall of 2010, I was afforded the opportunity to travel to the hill country of Texas where I was not only able to photograph and document the rapid urbanization of Austin, but explore the countryside. For a week, I cycled throughout the entire region, over its many winding roads, Colorado River crossings, urban canyons - and rented a vehicle for one day to travel westward to visit three endangered crossings. Below is a summary of those highlights beginning with Austin.

The South Congress Avenue Bridge spans Lady Bird Lake. It is the fourth iteration of a bridge at that site, and is home to the largest summer colony of Mexican free-tailed bats in the world.

Prior to a fixed bridge, three ferries operated across the Colorado River in Austin: Grumbles' on Barton Creek, Stone's on Waller Creek and Swisher's at Congress Avenue. The first bridge to cross the Colorado was a tolled pontoon bridge at Brazos Street that was completed in 1869. It was destroyed in a flood just eleven months later and the three ferries resumed operations. But the death of Elizabeth Boyd Swisher in 1875 ended one of the three ferries. A permanent, tolled wooden bridge was completed in that year.

The Swishers' owned significant acreage south of the Colorado River for their family farm along the San Antonio Road. Two years after the wooden bridge was completed, the family subdivided 23 acres of their farm for development. Acknowledging the potential for growth in the southern reaches of Austin, Swisher allocated an 120-foot right-of-way through the center of the 23 acres, with the new roadway laid out in a direct line with Congress Avenue on the north side of the river. In 1883, a 120-foot span of the wooden bridge collapsed under the weight of a herd of cattle. Seeing the need for a stronger crossing, the wooden bridge was replaced with an iron crossing constructed by the King Bridge Company of Cleveland, Ohio that was opened on January 22, 1884 at a cost of $74,000. The span, all privately funded and designed by C.Q. Horton, was high enough to allow for the highest stage of flooding along the Colorado. It was also the first bridge across the Colorado that was not tolled. The Travis County Road and Bridge Company and the city of Austin purchased the bridge on June 18, 1886.

But by 1891, the Travis County Road and Bridge Company refused to accept future maintenance responsibility of the crossing, and negotiated an agreement with the city for it to take over the bridge's operation. The city completed repairs in 1892 and 1897 — the latter which required reflooring the bridge, a task that took until 1901 to complete. The iron truss was repainted a year later.

In 1907, a group of southern Austin businessmen began discussions on replacing the iron bridge due to frequent congestion on the narrow crossing. Plans for a new concrete arch bridge was formalized and a bond was issued in the following year. During construction, the old iron truss was shifted onto temporary piers while the new bridge was built in its place. The new crossing, which included a 50-foot wide span with two interurban railway tracks and overhanging sidewalks, was completed on April 3, 1910 at a cost of $208,950.10. Sections of the old iron bridge were reused in 1915 and 1922 to rebuild the Moore's Crossing Bridge over Onion Creek - which still stands to this day.

In 1956, the South Congress Avenue Bridge's roadway was widened to four lanes to accommodate more automobile traffic. It was widened and rehabilitated again in 1980. Today, the bridge is home to the world's largest urban bat colony consisting of Mexican free-tailed bats. The bats, numbering between 750,000 and 1.5 million, reside under the bridge deck in gaps between the concrete components. The bats are migratory, spending the summers in Austin and winters in Mexico. At dusk, the bats emerge and fly across Lady Bird Lake towards the east for food. The daily ritual attracts as many as 100,000 tourists annually, resulting in an economic impact of $7.9 million per year.

Below: From my hotel room.

Below: Via kayak.

Below: At dusk, showing the massive amounts of bats that flood out of the bridge.

The South Lamar Boulevard Bridge also spans Lady Bird Lake and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Constructed from 1940 to 1942, the bridge was the second permanent bridge to cross the Colorado River and featured six open spandrel concrete arches. Significant growth in Austin, especially south of the Colorado River, resulted in the South Lamar Boulevard Bridge becoming overburdened. It featured ten-foot traffic lanes and narrow sidewalks, and no provisions for cyclists. The bridge's location between downtown and a revitalizing Seaholm District, and the ever-growing park system to the south led the city to press for a bond issue.

In the early 1990s, the city secured $950,000 in matching federal funds to widen the South Lamar Boulevard Bridge as part of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA). In 1995, the city signed a contract with HDR Engineering to study the project alternatives. All six options included various widening projects for South Lamar Boulevard Bridge. Meetings were held with the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), the Texas Historical Commission, the city and others.

Early on, the Texas Historical Commission indicated that it did not want the existing South Lamar Boulevard Bridge altered as it was a historic structure. Attendees of public meetings regarding the bridge project also indicated that adding more lanes to the span was also not an acceptable solution. In March 1998, the city council directed HDR to explore the option of designing a separate pedestrian and bicycle bridge across the Colorado River. Many felt that such a span would not solve the ongoing woes of the South Lamar Boulevard Bridge, but the city believed that it would create a safer crossing for pedestrians and cyclists.

A workshop with key stakeholders was held in May 1998 and fifteen concepts were developed that included cable-stayed, arch and beam bridges, and the relocation of an existing, historical truss bridge. One of the more innovative concepts presented was the "Double Curve"  concept that was developed by Chas Tonetti, Tere O'Connell, Jamie Wise, Rush McNair and Chris Hutson. Their concept was based around the "paths of travel."  The architect stated that the bridge would have no straight lines and that it would be shaped around an hourglass, which resulted in a curved span with helical ramps and curved connectors.

Four finalized concepts were shown to the city council in September 1998 and the "Double Curve"  was selected as the preferred span with only six months left before the matching ISTEA funding would expire.

The site plan for the bridge included,

* Unit A: The southwest ramp, a two-span continuous unit ranging from 86′to 120′constructed of horizontally-curved composite plate girders. with a width of 23′.
* Unit B and C: The southeast ramp, a two-span continuous unit constructed of a 48′ span of composite rolled beams and 111′span of composite plate girders, with a width of 23′.
* Unit D: The central three-span continuous steel plate girder units 114′each, with a variable width of 31.3′to 42′.
* Unit E: A triangular unit with a northeast ramp consisting of a single span unit 104′long and 21′ wide; a single span unit 109′ long and 26′ wide; a single span unit 49′ long and 18′ wide, all constructed of composite plate girders or composite rolled beams.
* Unit F: The northwest ramp, a four-span continuous steel plate girder with two composite steel girders.
* Unit G: A continuation of the northwest ramp, a nine-span, conventionally-reinforced concrete slab and T-beam unit. The combination of Units F and G resulted in a free flow crossing over West Cesar Chavez Street.

The construction contract was bid twice. The first round included four bidders who were all heavy bridge construction contractors and all exceeded the maximum budget for the project. That forced the city to eliminate Units F and G, the northwest ramp, from consideration from initial construction and the bids were released for the second time. Only two bidders put in estimates and a contract was awarded to Jay-Reese Contractors of Austin in April 2000.

Groundbreaking occurred on May 15, 2000 and the bridge was completed ahead of schedule on June 16, 2001. A grand opening celebration was held that included hundreds of runners. The bridge was named the James D. Pfluger Pedestrian and Bicycle Bridge in honor of the Agustin architect who conceived the trail system on both sides of Town Lake.

Construction began on March 15, 2010 on Units F and G which had been eliminated in the initial bidding process. The project involved the closure of West Cesar Chavez Street in order to build the overpass in one weekend. The 207′ extension was completed in February 4, 2011 at a cost of $3.5 million. Minor work continued until March 1. The extension featured Brazillian hardwood railing called Ipe Ironwood, 32 directional lights and landscaping.

An extension of the bike path north under the Union Pacific Railroad is under the planning stages. Work on the underpass has been estimated to cost $900,000 for engineering and $4.5 million for construction. The underpass is designed to be 15 feet wide and several yards long, but the project will involve the relocation of several hundred feet of railroad track. As part of the project, the city has proposed a bridge over West 2nd Street.

Nearby is the South 1st Street Bridge that was constructed in 1951. The span was last rehabilitated in 1992.

Part 2 is below.

[seicer]

Texas (Part 2)

The Missouri Pacific Railroad bridge over the Colorado was constructed in 1936.

The first crossing of the bridge was the International — Great Northern Railroad (IGN) that existed from Hearne to Longview. It was extended to Rockdale in 1874 and south Austin on December 28, 1876. The first bridge over the Colorado River was a wrought-iron double intersection Pratt through truss built on limestone piers that was completed in 1881. Jay Gould acquired control of the IGN and the company was leased to the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Company (MK&T, Katy) for a period of 99 years beginning on June 1, 1881. The lease was cancelled on March 2, 1888 and the line remained the IG&N until May 1, 1901 when it became a part of the Calvert, Waco & Brazos Valley Railroad (CW&B).

The Colorado River bridge was partially replaced in 1904 when the superstructure was removed and replaced with the current plate girder superstructure. The work shortened the original span length with the addition of new concrete piers.

The CW&B was put into receivership in 1908 and a new company, the International & Great Northern Railway Company (I&GN) purchased the foreclosed company in 1911. This lasted until 1922 when a new company was chartered — the International — Great Northern Railroad Company (IGN).(1) The new IGN became a part of Missouri Pacific (MP) in January 1925 when the MP sought out the railroad after it was nearly taken over by a rival — the St. Louis — San Francisco Railway. The IGN and MP were independent operations until March 1, 1956 when the the IGN was sold to the MP. In 1981, the MP was merged with the Union Pacific Railroad.

Nearby is the Katy Railroad trestle and the Lance Armstrong Bikeway across Shoal Creek in downtown.

The Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad also known as the Katy, constructed a mainline branch to Austin that opened on July 14, 1904. It split from the Katy main at Granger, proceeding southwest to Austin and San Antonio. In 1925, the Shoal Creek timber trestle was reconstructed. The new bridge featured eleven spans with walkways on the north and south sides of the crossing.

In July 1964, the Katy lost a contract to a trucking firm to carry mail for the U.S. Postal Service. That resulted in the discontinuation of passenger service — which carried mail, from Dallas to San Antonio. In 1976, the Katy was abandoned from Georgetown south to Pershing at the junction with Austin Western Railroad, and the line through downtown Austin was disused some time after 1988.

The Lance Armstrong Bikeway, a major east-west cycling route, was first proposed in 1999 by local cycling advocate Eric Anderson. It was recommended by the Urban Transportation Commission, the Planning Commission, the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization and the Environmental Board in July. On October 26, 2000, the city council approved an advanced funding agreement with the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) for the Austin Crosstown Bikeway, and was awarded $3,203,163 in federal funds from the Statewide Transportation Enhancements Program funds. Planning began in December. The federal funds provided 62% of the construction cost, with the city paying the remainder.

On July 27, 2006, the city authorized an endorsement agreement with Lance Armstrong for the bikeway to be named the Lance Armstrong Bikeway. Construction on the bike path began in June 2007.

Today, the South 3rd Street Bike Path carries the Lance Armstrong Bikeway. The UP west of the Austin Convention Center to Tower 205 by the Colorado River Bridge has been dismantled, although there are plans to rebuild the line for passenger service. The Shoal Creek trestle was rated structurally deficient and is scheduled to be rebuilt with a 44-foot span for two light rail tracks that would also carry two automobile lanes and a pedestrian path. Preliminary engineering plans began in January 2010.

One of my long cycling journeys took me to the hill country west of central Austin. I biked Texas Loop 360, also known as the Capital of Texas Highway, across Lake Austin and the Colorado River. The Pennybacker Bridge is named for Percy Pennybacker who designed bridges for the Texas Highway Department and who was a pioneer in the technology of welded structures.

Construction on the bridge began in late 1979 when the contract was let to Clearwater Constructors of Denver, Colorado. The erection of the steel was completed by Bristol Steel of Bristol, Virginia and was complete by July 1982. The bridge utilized U.S. Steel's Corten steel which produces a weathered rust finish to blend in with the surrounding terrain and rock outcroppings. Over 600 million tons of steel was used in the bridge, and 3,400 short tons of concrete was used in the bridge deck. The four-lane crossing was dedicated on November 29, 1982 by Austin mayor Carole McClellan and opened to traffic on December 3 at a cost of $10 million. It was the second bridge of its type in the world at the time of its completion. The Pennybacker Bridge received the 1984 Federal Highway Administration's Excellence in Highway Design award and in 1992, the Austin members of the Consulting Engineers Council of Texas selected the bridge as the most innovative example of Austin architecture.

I completed a 75 mile loop through the hill country, which was much more rugged than I had imagined. Along the way, I came across a low water crossing over the Colorado for Texas Ranch to Market Road 620 that was constructed in 1938. The concrete tee-beam bridge was bypassed in 1942.

In 1936, Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) and the United States Bureau of Reclamation chose a site 20 miles upstream from Austin for a primary flood control dam for the river. The construction contract was awarded to the Brown & Root company and a groundbreaking ceremony was held on February 19, 1937 in the wild and remote ranch lands of central Texas. By January 1941, the generators went into operation at the hydroelectric plant that was a part of the project and the dam was finished in May 1942. This included the relocation of Texas Ranch to Market Road 620 to the top of the dam. In 1995, the Mansfield Dam crossing was bypassed with a four-lane alignment to the south. After September 11, 2001, all traffic was restricted on the dam; it is now open only to service vehicles.

The 1995 bypass.

l rented out a Jeep and headed west. Along the way, I came across the Lick Creek Ranch Bridge on Texas Route 71 at Lick Creek Ranch that crosses the Pedernales River. The lengthy deck truss was constructed in 1949 as a two-lane roadway. In 1986, Texas Route 71 was widened to four-lanes and the bridge was widened with an accompanying conventional girder crossing.

I also came upon the historic Buchanan Dam Bridge on former Texas Route 29 that crosses the Colorado River between Burnet and Llano counties.

Initial planning for the Colorado River bridge came in 1929 when the Texas Highway Department (THD) was studying various routes for Texas Route 29 in the Buchanan Dam region. The dam's construction was not yet underway, but the THD understood that the existing roadway would be underwater by 1937. Bids were released in November 1936 and a contract was awarded to the Austin Bridge Company of Dallas for $182,000 and construction began on February 4, 1937. THD chose to use four 200-foot riveted Parker through trusses built by the Pittsburgh-Des Moines Steel Company of Des Moines, Iowa that rested  on solid, reinforced concrete piers and eleven I-beam girder approach spans fabricated by the North Texas Iron & Steel Company of Fort Worth that were placed on concrete bents. The railings were custom designed and were built of steel channel rails attached to curved-top posts. The posts were built from steel railroad cross ties that were modified by cutting, bending and welding them to form a curved top.

Construction was completed on September 30, 45 days ahead of schedule and at a cost of $188,000. The federal contribution via BPR was $94,000. The crossing was dedicated on October 16 as part of the dedication ceremony for the Buchanan and Inks dams. It included an address by U.S. Public Works Administrator Harold L. Ickes and Texas Highway Commissioner Robert Lee Bobbitt.

The Colorado River bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 10, 1996 and was bypassed in 2003 with a 1,530-foot steel girder crossing. Currently, the crossing is open to pedestrians. It remains one of four highway trusses with lenticular nosing that survive in the state.

Part 3 is below.

[seicer]

Texas (Part 3)

The Marble Falls Bridge over the Colorado River carries US 281 and was constructed in 1936. A bridge was first constructed at this location in 1891 but was destroyed in a flood in June 1935. A ferry operated across the river until the cantilever deck truss was constructed in 1936.

Planning for a replacement span over the Colorado was first discussed in 2005 when the Texas Department of Transportation began communications with the city of Marble Hills. In November 2009, funding for the $30.1 million project was secured and ground was broken on October 25, 2010 for the Marble Falls Bridge replacement project, and construction began in November. The Marble Falls Bridge replacements were designed by FINLEY Engineering Group for Archer-Western Contractors of Arlington.

The new bridges, one for southbound traffic and the other for northbound, will be a three-span variable depth cast-in-place segmental bridge with spans of 274-feet, 410-feet and 274-feet with a deck width of 47-feet. The box depth will vary from 23-feet at the interior piers to 6-foot, 6-inches at the end spans with variable superelevation of up to 5.5%. It is being constructed using the balanced cantilever construction method with the end spans constructed on falsework and consist of 5,000 cubic yards of concrete with a weight of 11,000 tons.

The deck will support a 10-foot outside shoulder, a 3-foot inside shoulder, a six-foot sidewalk, a one-foot barrier from the sidewalk to the travel lanes and two one-foot outside rails.

The first bridge is scheduled to be finished in the fall of 2012 as part of phase one. In phase two, the old bridge will be cut apart and removed and replaced by an identical span that was constructed in the first phase, which is projected to be completed by 2014. The estimated project cost is $28.6 million.

I ended the trip with a visit to two rural abandoned bridges. The Joppa Road Bridge is located on Joppa Road (CR 272) in Burnet County. The span, also known as the Middle Gabrial Iron Bridge, was constructed in 1911 by the Missouri Valley Bridge & Iron Company of Leavenworth, Kansas. It was bypassed in 2005.

The last bridge was a bit of a shocker to discover. How this span was able to remain standing with any sort of traffic is beyond my belief. The Shady Grove Road Bridge is located on Shady Grove Road (CR 200) in Burnet County. The pin-connected Pratt through truss was constructed in 1907 and bypassed with a new span in 2000.

The piers look fine, right?

With that, I conclude my Texas infrastructure photography for at least the next year. Look for future updates from South Korea and West Virginia later this month and into December!

[seicer]

A Busy Holiday

It has been a busy holiday season at Bridges and Tunnels, involving some exhausting travels through small town Appalachia, work in the rustbelt of northeast Ohio, the rural farmlands of eastern Indiana and the snowy adventures in the highlands of West Virginia.

I began my holiday trips with a visit to several historic spans in Indiana on what was arguably one of the coldest days of the month. The lighting was also weak, buried under a heavy overcast, and it was lightly snowing. There was little snow cover, though. Armed with convenience store coffee, I trekked to my first stop, the Moscow Covered Bridge in Moscow. Constructed in 1886 by Emmet L. Kennedy, the two-span Burr Arch truss over Flatrock River was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. A F3 tornado did considerable damage to the crossing on the evening of June 3, 2008 and was rebuilt in 2010 with new and salvaged materials by Dan Collom & Sons.

The new Moscow Covered Bridge was dedicated on September 25, 2010.









Nearby was the Forsythe Mill Covered Bridge. Constructed in 1888 by Emmet L. Kennedy, the single-span Burr Arch truss is named for Asa Forsythe who owned the Hungerford Mill from 1870 to 1884.





The Norris Ford Covered Bridge was constructed in 1916 by Emmet L. Kennedy, and the one-span Burr Arch truss was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.





Just as old, the Milroy Bridge formerly carried North Railroad Street and IN 3 over the Little Flat Rock River in Milroy. The pinned Pratt through truss was constructed in 1901 by the New Castle Bridge Company of New Castle and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. The abandoned span remains one of three Pratt trusses built by New Castle. The company was merged into the Central States Bridge Company of Indianapolis in 1905.











Below: The bridge deck is in poor structural condition.





I ventured into Appalachia to visit several small towns to document the courthouses and notable downtown structures for my partner site, UrbanUp. I did come across an interesting concrete arch bridge on the University of the Cumberlands campus in Williamsburg, Kentucky. Designed by Manley & Young and constructed by the L.W. Hancock company in 1920, this span was recently rehabilitated.





Closer to my hometown, the Bennetts Mill Covered Bridge is located in Greenup County near KY 7. After a decent, wet snowfall, I braved the slushy and snow covered roads to visit this oft-admired beauty.











That concludes the first update to Bridges & Tunnels for this new year. Stay tuned for some varied spans from South Korea in the next post!

[seicer]

A Cold Cincinnati Sunset

The winter of 2012 and 2013 in Cincinnati has been unusually bitter, with temperatures well below normal for much of December and January. It has also led to more precipitation, thankfully in the form of snow, that has allowed for more varied photographic settings.

But the evening of February 1 was just cold, with a wind chill of below five degrees Fahrenheit due to a strong easterly wind and mercury that did not rise above 20. And yet I sat and waited for the sun to set alongside the rising Ohio River in Newport, Kentucky. There was not a soul walking across the Purple People Bridge, only rush hour traffic dashing across the adjacent Taylor-Southgate Bridge. During the milder months, the Purple People Bridge would be teeming with walkers and cyclists.





Cincinnati's newest skyscraper, Queen City Square, basks in the evening sunlight.



Here is to warmer days!

[seicer]

Sunset Over the Ohio

The sun sets along the Ohio River over the Carl D. Perkins Bridge between South Portsmouth, Kentucky and West Portsmouth, Ohio. The two-lane cantilever bridge was completed in 1988 and is named after Carl Perkins, a former U.S. representative from eastern Kentucky who was first elected in 1948.

[seicer]

A Winter Drive

The winter of 2012 and 2013 has so far not been a disappointment, with more measured snowfalls than average and colder temperatures that has left southern Ohio and northern Kentucky blanketed with wet, sticky accumulation on more than a handful of occasions. Taking advantage of a weekend of snow squalls and mild winds, I packed my camera bag and hopped into my all-wheel-drive Subaru for a spin out into the country.

For a sleepy Saturday, I ventured into Brown County and revisited the Brown Covered Bridge. Constructed in 1878, this Smith covered truss is located north-northeast of New Hope along New Hope-White Oak Station Road. It's not the most photogenic, owing to its less than manicured appearance and the presence of graffiti, but it is standing and in good condition.





To the south is the abandoned New Hope Bridge that once carried US 68 across White Oak Creek in New Hope. Constructed in 1884 by the Lomas Forge and Bridge Works of Cincinnati, Ohio, the Whipple through truss was bypassed in 1960 with a new two-lane alignment. As reiterated in a previous post, the flooring on the bridge is in poor condition and would not be advisable to walk across, so I admired the span from a distance.



I first came across the George Miller Covered Bridge on George Miller Road a few years ago, but I could not locate the photographs to share on this web-site. But upon this revisit, trekking down snow covered roads and through barren fields of white is this Smith through-truss over West Fork of Eagle Creek. It was constructed in 1879 by John Griffith, agent and foreman of the Smith Bridge Company.





The Kirker Covered Bridge is located alongside OH 136 in Adams County. Constructed in 1890, the multiple Kingpost through truss crosses the East Fork Eagle Creek. The span was renovated and reinforced with steel rods in 1950 and when it was bypassed in 1974, the covered bridge was the second-to-last span of its type on the Ohio state highway system.

It is unfortunately not all that photogenic to photograph, given its proximity to the new alignment and the lack of vegetation on the western facade. Perhaps it would be more scenic with leaves on the trees or with fall color.



The North Pole Covered Bridge is more isolated, located along North Pole Road (CR 13) over Eagle Creek in Brown County. Constructed in 1875, the Smith covered through truss was rehabilitated in 1965, but was damaged in flash flooding in 1997. It's isolated location lends to more vandalism for the covered span, including graffiti, but it is otherwise unmarred.



The Higginsport Bridge is located on the former A&amp;P Highway, or US 52, in Higginsport and crosses White Oak Creek. The one-lane Whipple through truss was bypassed in 1943. Due to a flooding Ohio River, the western approach was submerged.



I crossed into Kentucky to cover the minute Valley Pike Covered Bridge along Valley Pike Road north of Fernleaf. Constructed in 1864, this span features a 23-foot kingpost truss design and is the state's shortest covered bridge.







I ended my Saturday jaunt with the Dover Covered Bridge in Dover, west of Maysville. Once carrying KY 3113 across Lees Creek, this span was constructed in 1835 and is one of the oldest remaining covered bridges in the state. It is 61-feet-long and features a double set of queenpost trusses on both sides.





Sunday was a bit colder but equally as beautiful. The further south I traveled, the more snow there was to play with. But due to a late start, I was not able to cover as many covered bridges as I had wanted, and so I began with the Walcott Covered Bridge in Walcott, Kentucky. Constructed in 1824, the covered span was rebuilt in 1881 as a 74-foot king and queenpost truss and remained privately owned until 1953 when it was bypassed. In 1997 and 1998, the bridge was damaged in floods, and was relocated 400 feet east to a new site and reconstructed in 2002.



To the south, in Robertson County, is the Johnson Creek Covered Bridge. Constructed in 1874 with a 131-foot Smith truss, this historic span was in a state of disrepair for several years after flooding caused several support piers to separate from the bridge's foundation. The span began to lean and was closed to all traffic. Work to rehabilitate the bridge began in the summer of 2007 when a "horizontal tower of steel" was guided through the bridge for stabilization, but construction did not begin until after 2008.









The Goddard Covered Bridge is located across Sand Lick Creek and the lattice truss is 90 feet long. The bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 and restored in 2006.





To the south is the Ringos Mill Covered Bridge, an 81-foot multiple King Post truss covered bridge. Funds were appropriated for its construction in 1867, and the span was constructed between 1869 and 1870. It was retired and subsequently bypassed in 1968.





I ended the trip with a drive down to Rowan County to visit a long closed truss that I came upon several years ago while on a routine drive near Morehead. Constructed in 1921 by HIPCO of Ligonier, Indiana, the one-lane bridge carried US 60 and was bypassed in 1948 with a new alignment.









As much as I am thankful for the snowfalls of this winter, the arrival of spring is only 16 days away!

[seicer]

Road Trip to Southern Kentucky

Planning for a trip to the mountains of southeastern Kentucky always involves careful routing to maximize daylight photography opportunities and to maximize the number of bridges and tunnels seen. Deep valleys, winding one-lane roads and detours are almost always a certainty, and traveling from one point to another is never a straight line. My goal for this journey was to photograph four bridges that will be replaced in the near future with new spans, and to explore more of my home state.

My first visit along my 600 mile travel was the Heidelberg Bridge in Heidelberg, which carries Kentucky Route 399 over the Kentucky River. The polygonal Warren through truss was constructed in 1968 and replaced an earlier span at that location.





The Heidelberg Bridge (Riney-B) was located adjacent to the Heidelberg highway span and carried the Richmond, Nicholasville, Irvine & Beattyville Railroad (Riney-B) Sturgeon Creek branch.

The 2.98-mile line was constructed by the Kentucky Coal Development Company from Heidelberg to Ida May via Sturgeon Creek from March 1907 to January 1908. The Riney-B was acquired by the Louisville & Atlantic Railroad on November 1, 1909, only to fall into the hands of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad a year later. The Sturgeon Creek branch provided a connection to the Kentucky, Rockcastle & Cumberland Railroad, but a lack of traffic on the branch caused it to be discontinued on April 13, 1935.

Only the piers remain today.



I had to pass eastward towards Jackson, and Kentucky Route 30 was the most logical route. It was a slow and tortious two-lane road, but it offered some great photographic opportunities of classic Appalachia. The Kentucky Route 30 through truss bridge over the Middle Fork Kentucky River in Breathitt County was constructed in 1935 and is one of the more generic highway spans in the state with little ornamentation. It's still better than an even more generic reinforced concrete span.



After visiting a closed school and photographing the county seats of Booneville and Jackson, I waited for the sun to fall. I came across the Kentucky Route 1812 pony truss bridge over Quicksand Creek near Jackson that was constructed in 1929 and snapped away, hoping for car trails on this full-moon night.



Below: I revisited it the next day for an additional photograph.



Located adjacent to the Quicksand Creek Bridge is the Robinson Road/County Route 1387 through truss over the North Fork Kentucky River. Constructed in the early 1900s, the bridge is scheduled to be replaced with a new 350-foot, two-lane span. Even fewer vehicles used Robinson Road than Kentucky Route 1812, and I waited for over one hour for the perfect shot: car trails that exhibited a car traversing a pothole ridden driving surface.



Below: And in daylight.



I drove further south towards Hazard to complete some additional night photography before finding a hotel. The Combs Bridge carries Kentucky Route 80 over the Kentucky River in Combs and the three-span Parker truss was constructed in 1929. It is slated for replacement.



Below: I revisited it the next day for an additional photograph.



South of Hazard is the Glomawr Bridge carries Kentucky Route 451 over the North Fork Kentucky River in Glomawr. The Parker through truss was constructed in 1927 and is slated for replacement in 2013.

The Transportation Cabinet and Federal Highway Administration is currently soliciting a new owner for the bridge. The program allows government agencies, historic preservation organizations or individuals to reconstruct the bridge if its original characteristics are retained at the new site. Historic organizations and individuals must be approved by the state historic preservation officer to be eligible. The Transportation Cabinet and the Federal Highway Administration will pay the costs of marking parts of the bridge, disassembling it, transporting it to the new site and off-loading it. The recipient is responsible for all other costs, including site preparation, reassembly, replacement of parts suitable for the proposed use, and approaches.



Below: The span looks much better in daylight.







I spent much of the next day traversing the ridges and valleys of Perry and Breathitt counties. I began my morning in Hazard and came across Town Mountain Road Bridge that carries Kentucky Route 451 over the North Fork Kentucky River. The span was completed in 2009 and is named after Mayor William D. Gorman, who led the city from 1978 until his death on October 9, 2010. The structurally massive bridge is aesthetically pleasing, although it has little to no vegetation worth noting around it. A little landscaping would go a long way.





Further south is the North Fork Kentucky River Bridge for old Kentucky Route 15 in Jeff that was constructed in 1926 by the Atlantic Bridge Company of Greensboro, North Carolina. It was bypassed in 1969 with a new alignment.



The Louisville & Nashville Railroad (L&N) surveyed a route from Jackson south to the headwaters of the Kentucky River's North Fork to access rich coal veins of the eastern part of the state. A report on the survey was submitted on May 19, 1903 by Major R.H. Elliott of Birmingham, Alabama. No action was taken on the report until 1909 when the L&N acquired the Lexington & Eastern Railroad, which extended from Lexington to Jackson. An engineer, J.E. Willoughby, was sent out to locate a line from Jackson south into the coal fields, an attorney followed soon after acquiring right-of-way.

By October 1910, 80% of the right-of-way was secure and by January 1, 1911, construction had commenced on much of the alignment. The L&N spent $5.7 million to construct 101 miles of track from Dumont near Jackson to McRoberts along the North Fork Kentucky River, requiring 16 bridges.

The Jeff Railroad Bridge was constructed in Jeff by the Virginia Bridge and Iron Company in c. 1910 - c. 1911.











Further north along the same railroad is the Lothair Railroad Bridge that was constructed by the same company in the same timeframe just south of Hazard. A pedestrian suspension bridge paralleled the railroad but it has long since collapsed.





Immediately north of the bridge is the Lothair Tunnel.



The Campbell Tunnels are located near near Napfor north of Hazard, and were constructed circa 1911.



Even more remote is the Line Tunnel located near Barwick between Breathitt and Perry counties, and was constructed circa 1911.



The Kentucky Union Railway (KU) was a railroad that extended for 95 miles from Lexington to Jackson. The company was incorporated in 1872 to reach coal and timber resources in the southeastern reaches of the state. Construction did not begin on a rail line until 1886 when 14.7 miles of railroad was completed from Kentucky Union (later the L&N) Junction east of Winchester and Clay City. The line was extended west to Lexington in 1890 and southeast to Jackson in 1891 for a total of 92 miles. The route included six tunnels and 20 bridges.

The O&K Tunnel is located 1.37 miles north of Jackson at O&K Junction and was constructed in 1891. The Ohio & Kentucky Railway (O&K) diverged from the tunnel and traveled northward.



The North Fork Kentucky River Bridge is located north of Jackson, and carries Kentucky Route 3193 over the North Fork Kentucky River. The bridge was constructed in 1910 as part of the O&K, which once extended from O&K Junction 1.37 miles northwest of Jackson to the Licking River in Morgan County. The railroad was abandoned in 1933 and parts of the rail bed were converted into a roadway.









I hope you enjoyed this trip down into the hills of southeast Kentucky!

[seicer]

Bridges of the Kanawha and New River Valleys

Over the past several months, I have spent a considerable amount of time criss-crossing West Virginia, primarily focusing in the Kanawha and New River valleys, to photograph waterfalls, early spring foliage and coal camps. But along the way, I revisited some of my favorite bridges and captured some new ones.

One of my favorite is the New River Gorge Bridge that carries US 19 over the New River. It is the largest arch bridge in the Western Hamisphere and the second highest crossing in the United States. The now-iconic bridge was immortalized when it was depicted on the West Virginia state quarter and on the state's welcome signage.

Below: The New River Gorge Bridge bathed in early morning sunlight.

In the shadows of the New River Gorge Bridge is the Fayette Station Bridge. The Fayette Station Bridge crosses New River, connecting the now non-existant communities of Fayette and South Fayette. The truss span was contracted out to the Virginia Bridge and Iron Company of Roanoke, Virginia 1in 1889, but the actual builder may have been the Wrought Iron Bridge Company of Canton, Ohio. It was the first vehicular bridge over the New in the county.

In March 1978, less than one year after the New River Gorge Bridge was completed, the Fayette Station Bridge was closed to vehicular traffic due to deteriorating conditions. Reconstruction of the bridge occurred between 1997 and 1998, and during its refurbishment, the piers were rebuilt and a new bridge deck was installed. Two exterior pedestrian walkways were also constructed. The Fayette Station Bridge was rededicated on November 8, 1998 as the Tunney Hansaker Bridge and today carries southbound West Virginia Secondary Route 82.

Below: I have previously covered the span, but opted to drive down around midnight for this eerie photograph.

Much further downstream is the Kanawha Falls Bridge, a long, narrow and old, my favorite characteristics of any bridge. Crossing the Kanawha River downstream of Kanawha Falls, the green hued bridge was constructed in 1929 for the Kanawha Falls Bridge Company, and connects US 60 to Boonesborough. The tolled facility resulted in the termination of the Kanawha Falls ferry that had been in operation for 125 years.

The bridge was purchased by the West Virginia Department of Highways in 1977, renovated in 1979 and partially renovated in 1999. The Kanawha Falls Bridge consists of three Pennsylvania through trusses, 265-feet, 400-feet and 265-feet in length, and a riveted deck girder span at 55 feet in length.

Studies began in the 2000s on either replacement or rehabilitation of the Kanawha Falls Bridge due to structural deterioration. In 2012, a decision was made to rehabilitate the existing bridge in the current location at a cost of around $15 million.

Nearby is a Virginian Railroad overpass is located on West Virginia Route 61, and was constructed originally for the Virginian Railroad in 1930. The steel stringer overpass is now used by Norfolk Southern.

The RJ Corman Bridge spans the New River at Thurmond. The New River Bridge Company, owned by the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad (C&O) director A.A. Low, began construction of a triple-span iron truss upon stone piers in 1888. The crossing was finished two years later and deeded to the C&O for one dollar. By late 1893, what became the Loup Creek branch was completed to Glen Jean, and to Macdonald by January 1894.

In 1915, a new polygonal Warren through truss was constructed on the north end of the span, where new concrete piers replaced the stone piers. A new automobile lane was attached. Additional improvements to the automobile lane was completed in 1951. After a mine closed at Siltex in the 1980s, the Loup Creek branch was closed to traffic until the line was rehabilitated in 1994  to serve a Georgia Pacific facility and Austin Powder at Packs Branch. In 2006, further work was completed for a new coal run originating from Pax. The branch is now operated by R.J. Corman.

Nearby at Nuttallburg, a former coal mining complex and town, was the Nuttallburg Bridge that once spanned the New River. The pedestrian bridge was constructed by the Roebling Bridge Company in 1899 and abandoned by the 1960s.

West Virginia has many miles of fantastic rail-to-trails, or railroads that have been abandoned and converted into recreational corridors. Most of the trails are not paved, and many contain impressive bridges and tunnels that make any trip exciting. And quite a few of them have remnants of their coal mining past remaining, whether it is abandoned mine portals or discarded equipment.

One of those is the former Chesapeake & Ohio Hawk's Nest Subdivision, which is now a rail-to-trail. Constructed in 1875 and abandoned in 1972, this branch contains one significant bridge over Mill Creek. The original was a wooden truss, which was replaced in 1891 with a heavier span and later a plate girder.

Another is the Nicholas, Fayette & Greenbrier Railway (NF&G), a paper railroad that was named after the three counties it served. The ICC created the NF&G in 1929 to resolve claims by the C&O and the New York Central (NYC) to serve newly developing mines in the Sewall seam in the remote areas north of the New River and along the Meadow River. Between Swiss and Nallen was 28 miles of virgin timber and mining opportunities. The newly formed railroad constructed a single track line between the two towns, which included two tunnels and two trestles, between 1929 and 1931. Profiled is the Koontz Bridge and 3,164-foot Koontz Tunnel.

The facilities were last used in 1996 and are part of a rail-to-trail in the Gauley River National Recreation Area.

Enjoy these long-needed updates to the Mountain State!

[kphoger]

I just want to say, sir, that a great many of your photos (all of them?) easily qualify for the "Best of..." thread.

[xcellntbuy]

Incredible photography.  Museum quality.

[seicer]

About a month ago, I passed through Toledo, Ohio and spent some quality time along the banks of the Maumee River and around downtown. The first span I came across was the Washington Street Bridge that crosses Swan Creek, formerly the Miami and Erie Canal. It was designed in August 1919 and constructed in 1920 by the Toledo Bridge and Crane Company as a Scherzer Rolling Lift bridge sourced from the Scherzer Rolling Lift Bridge Company of Chicago Illinois. It connected downtown to the railroad dock yards on the Middlegrounds, which also included train stations, warehouses and hotels.

The canal had peak traffic in the 1850s and was closed to through traffic in 1921. A portion of the canal, from the Maumee River headwaters, was used for local shipping and small boat traffic until 1947 and the Washington Street lift was taken out of service.

Below: The following are photographed by Robert Benton for the Historic American Engineering Record.

In 1995, in order to accommodate Owens-Corning Fiberglass World Headquarters and an increase in traffic, engineers opted to remove the superstructure from the foundation. A new concrete pile foundation and steel girder bridge was installed, and the original superstructure, with a fake counterweight, was fitted on top. Owens Corning's new headquarters on the former Middlegrounds complex in September 1996.

In January 2012, the Deputy Mayor Tom Crothers announced that it was seeking to remove the truss, claiming that it was an eyesore and costly to maintain. Crothers added that it "detracted" from the Owens Corning. Crothers claimed that he was acting on behalf of Owens Corning and that the move was about a downtown corporation wanting to remove the eyesore, but Owens Corning disclaimed that. The company responded stating that the city had neglected maintenance of the bridge, and that Owens Corning had requested the city provided a regularly scheduled maintenance program.

The bridge was similar to one on Monroe Street that was constructed in 1907 and scrapped in 1995.

The Anthony Wayne Bridge carries Ohio State Routes 2, 51 and 65 over the Maumee River. It is the last suspension bridge on the Ohio state highway network after the Fort Steuben Bridge was demolished on February 22, 2012. The span is named after General Anthony Wayne, a United States Army officer and statesman who had mounted an assault on the Indian confederacy at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in modern-day Maumee. It was a decisive victory for United States forces, ending the war and eventually leading to a treaty that gave most of what is now Ohio to the United States.

The firm Waddell &amp; Hardesty, with the aid of Moisseiff and architect Cass Gilbert, designed the 3,215-foot suspension and it was constructed in 1931 for $2.6 million. It was notable for featuring the first notable plate girder spans in the United States at 9.8-feet deep.

The span was last rehabilitated in 1961 and received major repairs in 1997-98 when its concrete deck was resurfaced, some suspender cables were replaced and its main suspension cables were wrapped with a weatherproofing material.

The Ohio Department of Transportation has proposed to rehabilitate the Anthony Wayne Bridge in 2013 as part of a three-year, $50 million overhaul. ODOT has proposed replacing the first approach spans on either side of the suspension bridge with new two-span structures, replacing the deck, corrosion removal on the steel girders, cable repairs and painting. The approach spans are Warren deck trusses and are fracture critical, which ODOT has proposed replacing with girders. A contract was awarded to the E.S. Wagner Company of Oregon for $28.7 million. The bridge will be closed to traffic for 19 months from spring 2014 through 2015.

The Craig Memorial Bridge carries Ohio State Route 65 over the Maumee River in Toledo, Ohio.

After the Cherry Street Bridge was destroyed in the flood of 1883, the city towed remnants of the bridge downstream, constructed two new spans and created the Ash-Consaul Bridge. It was demolished in 1957 for the Craig Memorial Bridge, part of Ohio State Route 120. The first section of a relocated Ohio State Route 120 was opened between U.S. Route 20 and Ohio State Route 51 in 1955 and extended north to Summit Street in Toledo two years later, which required the completion of a Maumee River crossing. By 1959, the highway was completed to Michigan as the Toledo-Detroit Expressway and signed as Ohio State Route 120 south of and US 24A north of Summit Street.

In 1958, Ohio requested that Interstate 77 be designated for the Toledo-Detroit Expressway. Interstate 77 would have veered westward from Cleveland and overlapped with Interstate 90 to Toledo, using the Toledo-Detroit Expressway to Detroit. It would have then veered westward to Port Huron, Michigan. By August, Ohio requested that Interstate 77 be truncated to Cleveland and that Interstate 280 be applied to the new expressway, and that Michigan's portion of former Interstate 77 be designated Interstate 75E. It was approved in November by AASHO.

Interstate 280 was not brought up to freeway standards south of East Toledo until 1990 and contained seven at-grade intersections. But the drawbridge and its network of ramps on both ends was an obstacle. By 1996, the drawbridge opened on average 900 times a year for ship traffic, with an average delay of seven minutes but had decreased to 266 openings by 2007. It's ramp configurations were treacherous; it featured a three-leg northbound exit to Summit and Huron streets, but the Huron ramp was closed shortly after due to a rash of accidents. During the mid-1990s, the northbound Summit to southbound Craig ramp was closed after a safety wall built during bridge renovations caused such poor sight distances that motorists using the ramp could not see traffic that they had to merge into. In addition, all of the ramps were too short for traffic to merge onto the interstate.

In 2007. the Craig Memorial Bridge closed to all traffic for reconstruction into a local roadway as part of the Glass City Skyway project. The project involved the creation of a bike path separate from automobile traffic, the installation of fiberglass decking instead of a steel grid for the bike path, the removal of the Interstate 280 ramps and the filling in of the Interstate 280 trench through North Toledo with 815,000 cubic yards of earth 20-feet deep. It was reopened to traffic on December 15, 2009, although work remained to convert the remainder of what used to be Interstate 280 and its network of ramps into public parks. Several projects wrapped up in the fall of 2010, including additional landscaping and the construction of connecting bike paths.

The total project cost was $21.3 million.

The Glass City Skyway carries Interstate 280 over the Maumee River and was the Ohio Department of Transportation's (ODOT) biggest single construction project in history and replaced the Craig Memorial Bridge.

Planning for a new Maumee River crossing to replace the drawbridge began in 1988, when a Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Governments report noted that the Craig Memorial Bridge needed to be replaced or bypassed. Federal funds for preliminary planning came through in 1991, but it was not until 1998 that ODOT's Transportation Review Advisory Council allocated $200 million in state and federal funds towards the project.

ODOT recommended that a bridge be built alongside existing Interstate 280 for cost. During a series of public meetings, ODOT project planners and HNTB/Parsons Brinckerhoff showcased potential designs for the new bridge, including a box-girder, truss, suspension and cable-stayed designs. A tunnel option had been eliminated due to its cost. The box-girder and truss alternatives were dismissed and public opinion favored the cable-stayed for being the most distinctive. Later meetings revealed that most attendees preferred a single, center pylon with stays radiating down to the deck, glass panels inlaid in the center tower with internal lighting and stainless steel sheathing on the cables. The public also voiced support for the planting of native shrubs and grasses onto the new Interstate 280 right-of-way, bike paths and new park space.

Naming the bridge was fairly easy, as most opted for either Veterans' Memorial Bridge and Glass City Skyway during a survey in 2001.(3)(4) The decision, which rested with the state, involved a merger of the two into Veterans Glass City Skyway.

Groundbreaking ceremonies for the Skyway was held on May 11, 2001 and bids were opened for the project on January 15, 2002. The $220 million contract with Fru-Con Construction of Ballwin, Miccouri was awarded in March.

Within three months of the construction letting, Fru-Con began drilling foundation shafts for the new bridge piers and started work on a cofferdam in the Maumee River for the main pylon. The company also ordered two gantry-truss cranes from an Italian manufacturer. By July 2003, the Skyway was 45% complete and assembly of the East Toledo approach viaduct had begun. The project was 405 days ahead of schedule and was so far ahead that Fru-Con and ODOT announced an agreement to complete work by Labor Day, 2005.

The bridge was fabricated at a yard on Front Street over a two year timeframe. Reinforced concrete was used throughout the Skyway, and all materials, 3,008 deck segments and 42, 85-ton delta frames, were pre-built at the yard. The first delta frame, cast on August 29, 2002, comprised of a epoxy-covered steel reinforcing frame. The frame took 90 minutes to fill and a month to cure. The main pylon was poured in stages from 32-feet below the riverbed to 403.25-feet above the river.

On February 16, 2004, one of two yellow gantry truss cranes that were used to assemble the spans peeled away from its moorings and crashed 60 feet to the ground that killed four ironworkers and injured four others. It was found that shortcuts were undertaken in anchoring the crane's rear legs during the procedure of extending it for repositioning. A concrete quality problem was discovered shortly after that required Fru-Con to remove and replace 184 cubic yards of the pylon that had no effect on the project's schedule. ODOT also discovered that the plastic coating on many stay-cable strands were cracked, which comprised their longevity but not their strength, leading to most coatings being replaced.

To resume construction, Fru-Con modified the lone intact truss without the self-contained repositioning system. The company then sourced two other trusses; one was similar to that which had collapsed while the other was an underslung truss that supported spans from below during assembly.

On October 23, a positioning leg fell from the other truss as it was being moved into place. The incident, which injured no one, was blamed on a mis-wired control switch. Work on the main span was stopped for eight months while the contractor revised its construction plan and to procure new equipment.

The last of the 3,045 concrete segments for the new bridge was poured on April 1, 2005 shortly after 9:15 AM. On October 17, the main tower was "topped off" that included a small ceremony. The topping off included the lifting of a 13.5-foot-tall inverted concrete "V" that was hoisted 400 feet by crane to the top of the pylon. Another milestone was achieved on July 13, 2006 when the first sheathing for the stay cables was erected. The stainless steel sheathing, which took 15 minutes to install, was the first step in constructing 20 sets of stable cables. The threading of 119 strands of cables for the sheathing were completed the following day.

Interstate 280 was closed between the Greenbelt Parkway and Summit Street from October 18, 2005 until November 2006 while the North Toledo approach viaduct was constructed over the existing highway. The interstate was not scheduled to be closed but incidents with the cranes led the plan to be scuttled. But the delays were so great that ODOT agreed to waive a $20,000-per-day late-completion penalty until March 2, 2007. The state had been docking Fru-Con $10,000 per day since May 28, 2006 for the continued closing of Interstate 280, a penalty that exceeded $1.7 million by the time the freeway reopened.

The final two precast bridge segments were installed on December 20, 2006 and the closure pour was conducted on February 16, 2007. The pour, which joined the main span over the Maumee with the North Toledo viaduct approach, was conducted on the crane collapse's third anniversary.

Another construction incident occurred on April 19 when a work platform attached to the bridge's side detached and fell 82 feet to the ground, killing a carpenter who was working on the platform. Fru-Con was fined $405,000 by OSHA for violations associated with the collapses, and the contractor paid out $11.25 million in settlements with the affected families.

A dedication ceremony was held on June 23, 2007 at 10:30 AM, which was followed by a four-mile road race and walk at noon and a motorized parade led by veterans' groups that crossed the northbound lanes at 12:30 PM. Most of bridge was opened to automobile traffic on Sunday. Initially, two of its three lanes in each direction were opened and the remainder were opened later in the year after the defective stay-cable strands were replaced. Construction of a memorial for the five workers who died during erection of the Skyway began in October 2010 after a design was finalized in early 2006. The centerpiece involved the fabrication of a kinetic sculpture atop four pillars with two 24-foot arms that spin in the wind in a small plaza in Tribue Park.

The Skyway project was completed for $237 million and involved a number of firsts and records. The bridge included the world's thickest stay cables at 70% over what was previously used in the United States, the first use of stainless steel cable sheathing and the first pylon with 176 internally lit, inlaid glass panels that feature 13,824 light-emitting diodes in 384 fixtures. The lights are expected to last 22 years before needing replacement, and the stay cables have a lifespan of 100 years. The cradle system to house the cables, which allowed each strand to be replaced individually and act independently, was honored with the Pankow Award from the Civil Engineering Forum for Innovation and the NOVA Award from the Construction Innovation Forum. Over 2.2 million man-hours was required for the project.

The Glass City Skyway is this author's most favorite highway bridge in the state of Ohio.