Monday, October 31, 2011

Michigan's Bridges: Trellis Bridge at Cranbrook School (1)

August 2003 (42.575 Degrees, -83.245 Degrees) Trellis Bridge
Michigan is a pretty place. It was created by glaciers pushing their way south and melting to form enormous freshwater lakes. The resulting peninsula is filled with rivers, hills, lakes, trees, and brambles.

One of the prettiest areas is around Bloomfield Hills. It was here that publisher George Booth started the Cranbrook Schools just after the First World War. The primary architect was Eliel Saarinen who was influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement (which also influenced Frank Lloyd Wright). Consequently all the structures, even pedestrian bridges built 70 years later, have a craftsman aesthetic.

The Trellis Bridge was designed by Dan Hoffman in 1991 and built in 1993. It's a pedestrian bridge that crosses the Rouge River near the Kingswood School parking lot. It's a single span timber beam bridge supporting a trellis. The trellis was to be covered in ivy or roses, but for some reason that never happened. In this view we can see a simple concrete seat-type abutment, floor beams, and diagonal members that are used to integrate the handrails into the load path.

I like the little 'Vs' atop the trellis that suggest a Japanese roof. We'll take a closer look at this interesting bridge tomorrow.
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Sunday, October 30, 2011

Michigan's Bridges: Bauer Road Bridge at the Historic Bridge Park

August 2011 (42.819 Degrees, -84.720 Degrees) Bauer Road Bridge
The Bauer Road Bridge is the final structure that I photographed at the Historic Bridge Park. There is actually a lovely stone arch bridge supporting the Norfolk Southern Railroad tracks (see Bridge #5 on map below) but I didn't notice it.

The Bauer Bridge was originally built in 1886 (or 1880?) and crossed over the Looking Glass River in rural Clinton County, Michigan. It was built by the Penn Bridge Company of Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. It is a wrought iron, six panel, Pratt pinned through truss according to the Bridge Hunter Website. The bridge is 78.7 ft long, 13.8 ft wide, and has a vertical clearance under the portal brace of 13 ft.

The bridge was left unpainted because the wrought iron is apparently less susceptible to rust, at least according to the Historic Bridge Website. They also mentioned that the bridge was rebuilt at the park with parts from the Tallman Road Bridge, which was located near the Bauer Road Bridge in Clinton County. The website has an interesting discussion of the design of the Bauer Road Bridge, which was more delicate, had smaller members, and carried smaller loads. Many of the details were unusual and the reader is encouraged to go to the Historic Bridge Website to learn more about the construction of one of the oldest truss bridges in Michigan.

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Saturday, October 29, 2011

Michigan's Bridges: 133rd Avenue Bridge at the Historic Bridge Park

August 2011 ( 42.291 Degrees, -85.115 Degrees) 133rd Avenue Bridge
The 133rd Avenue Bridge was originally over the Rabbit River near the town of Hopkins in Allegan County, Michigan.  It's a four-panel half-hip pin-connected Pratt steel truss according to Habbs Haer's Website. The half-hip type of Pratt truss is one that has sloping ends that don't extend for a full panel. This style of truss was briefly popular for the last decade on the 19th century in the U.S.  It is only 64 ft long and 14 ft wide and it was the first bridge brought to the park and restored according to the Bridge Hunter's WebsiteMore information on the history of this bridge can be found on the Michigan DOT Website.
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Friday, October 28, 2011

Michigan's Bridges: Gale Road Bridge at the Historic Bridge Park

August 2011 (42.307 Degrees-85.136 Degrees) Gale Road Bridge
Another through truss bridge in Calhoun County's Historic Bridge Park. The Gale Road Bridge originally crossed the Grand River in rural Ingham County, Michigan. It was built in 1897 by the Lafayette Bridge Company in Indiana. It is a skewed Pratt truss, which apparently is so rare that it is now the last one in Michigan. It is a seven panel bridge, with four laced posts in the middle, then rods, and with diagonal built-up members at the ends. The portal bracing was rebuilt using angles, supported by curlicued braces on the corners, and with a nice sign on top that says, '1897,  Commissioner - Frank A Hoes, Clerk - W. H. Baldwin, Supervisor - C. H. Sibley.
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Thursday, October 27, 2011

Michigan's Bridges: 20 Mile Road Bridge at the Historic Bridge Park

August 2011 (42.290 Degrees, -85.114 Degrees) 20 Mile Road Bridge
The next bridge is a little five panel Pratt truss. On Habs Haers Website there are some nice photos of the bridge when it spanned the St. Joseph River on Twenty Mile Road in Tekonsha, Calhoun County. Now it carries Bridge Park Trail over Dickinson Creek. I wonder what is a bridge's significance once it's removed from its home? This bridge was full of purpose but it seems less important sitting renovated and then abandoned in this park.
According to the Historic Bridges Website, it's a 64 ft long by 15.4 ft wide riveted pony truss that was built in 1906. Pratt trusses typically have pinned connections, but as can be seen above, all the members are riveted to plates. The website said it was unusual to see a riveted highway bridge, but at the beginning of the 20th century I think most bridges were riveted. I worked on the East Bay Bridge after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and watched workers replacing thousands of rivets with high strength bolts.
I like the laced guard rails attached to the sides of the truss. I also like how the diagonal members meet in the center panel to form an 'X.'

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Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Michigan's Bridges: Charlotte Highway Bridge at the Historic Bridge Park (4)


August 2011 (42.291 Degrees, -85.115 Degrees) Charlotte Highway Bridge
The Charlotte Highway Bridge has a cracked sign on the lower portal brace that reads 1886, Buckeye Bridge Works, H.P. Hepburn, Engineer and Contractor, Cleveland, Ohio. The sign has floral decorations stamped around the date. The Bridge Hunter Website has an interesting essay on portal braces.

This bridge also has a new black railing which doesn't quite match the bridge but somewhat matches its style. The bridge was made out of wrought iron. It is 177.8 ft long, 14.4 ft wide, and has 14.1 ft of vertical clearance above the deck.

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Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Michigan's Bridges: Charlotte Highway Bridge at the Historic Bridge Park (3)

August 2011 (42.291 Degrees, -85.115 Degrees) Charlotte Highway Bridge
The Charlotte Highway Bridge was removed from its stone abutments in 2001 according to the Calhoun County Road Commission Website. In 2005, new floor beams were manufactured and in 2006, the existing steel girders, wood deck, and truss members were reassembled onto them. By the beginning of 2007 cranes had lifted up the completed truss bridge onto its new abutments over the park entrance.

The Historic Bridge Website has hundreds of photos of the truss in pieces, stamped to identify each element, painted bright red, reassembled, and placed over the park entrance.

A park for old bridges was the idea of Dennis Randolph, who was the managing director of the Calhoun County Road Commission. Apparently, he designated a county park to be the home for some of the many old bridges that he saw being demolished and sold as scrap metal. The park was proof that given a chance, contemporary craftsman can take an old bridge in poor condition and reassemble it better than new.
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Monday, October 24, 2011

Michigan's Bridges: Charlotte Highway Bridge at the Historic Bridge Park (2)

August 2011 (42.291 Degrees, -85.115 Degrees) Charlotte Highway Bridge
According to the Blair History Website a Pratt truss has parallel top and bottom chords and diagonal members in tension pointing down towards the middle of the span. A Howe truss is just the opposite with diagonal members in compression pointing towards the supports. A Whipple truss (patented in 1847 by Squire Whipple) is a variant of the Pratt truss with the diagonal elements crossing one or more vertical members (the diagonal members are usually plates or rods). The Charlotte Highway Bridge is a Whipple truss. The Windsor Bridges over the River Avon in England that we studied on March 6, 2010 are bowstring Whipple trusses.

According the website, the Whipple truss was stiffer and stronger than the Pratt, which made them popular with the railroad companies, until they were supplanted by further variants of the truss design. The Pratt truss was used for spans up to 250 ft in length and the Whipple trusses on the 1883 Blair Crossing Railroad Bridge were 330 ft long. 
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Sunday, October 23, 2011

Michigan's Bridges: Charlotte Highway Bridge at the Historic Bridge Park

August 2011 (42.291 Degrees, -85.115 Degrees) Charlotte Highway Bridge
I was excited to be traveling to the Historic Bridge Park in Calhoun County, Michigan. After all, how many parks are dedicated to bridges? However, I was disappointed after driving for several hours to find the park was closed. Apparently, there had been an oil spill in the Kalamazoo River and the park was closed while the guilty party (Enbridge) cleaned up their mess.

Since no one was around, I went into the park anyway. The first thing I saw upon entering was a bright red through truss, the Charlotte Highway Bridge. According to the Bridge Park Website, it is an eleven panel Whipple through truss bridge that was built in 1886. It's 173 ft long and 14.4 ft wide. In the photo above, we are looking at what they call the fishtail style floor beams. However, they are replicas since the original floor beams were severely rusted and had been replaced.

The Charlotte Highway Bridge was the fifth bridge to be brought to the park. A photo on the Historic Bridges Website shows that the bridge was in bad shape when it first arrived. According to the website it is the only remaining bridge in Michigan that was built by the Buckeye Bridge and Iron Works of Cleveland, Ohio. The bridge was originally over the Grand River in Danby Township, Ionia County according to the Michigan DOT website.
We'll take another look at this interesting bridge tomorrow.
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Saturday, October 22, 2011

Michigan's Bridges: I-94 Kalamazoo River Bridges

August 2011 (42.289 Degrees, -85.114 Degrees) I-94 Kalamazoo River Bridges
Back to the location of the haunched T-girder overcrossings in Calhoun County, but today's bridges carry I-94 over the Kalamazoo River. The bridges were built around the same time as the overcrossings (1960) and they look similar: with the same haunched spans, tall steel bearings, and slightly arched bent caps.

The Kalamazoo River Bridges are two parallel 275 ft long, four span continuous reinforced concrete T girder bridges on four column bents and seat-type abutments. Each bridge is 35.4 ft wide and carries two lanes of traffic and shoulders. The Historic Bridges Website bemoans the replacement of the original barrier rails and gives these bridges a 'historic rating' of only 1. However, they can be easily seen from Calhoun County's Historic Bridge Park, which we'll visit tomorrow.
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Friday, October 21, 2011

Michigan's Bridges: I-94 Gateway Arch Bridges (3)

April 2006 (42.265 Degrees, -83.270 Degrees) Gateway Arch Bridges
Another photo of the Gateway Arch Bridges. Lusas posted an interesting blog about the bridge analysis, which used their software.

The original Gateway Arch is in Saint Louis, Missouri, but I guess this is the gateway arch into Detroit. I mentioned in an earlier post that this type of bridge is often chosen when a long span with good vertical clearance is needed without having to raise the vertical alignment.

I read that the cross-bracing is football-shaped, but I think it looks more like the eyes in Egyptian hieroglyphics.
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Thursday, October 20, 2011

Michigan's Bridges: I-94 Gateway Arch Bridges (2)

April 2006 (42.265 Degrees, -83.270 Degrees) Gateway Arch Bridges
Driving west on I-94 we arrive at the Gateway Arch Bridges, last seen in my blog of February 12, 2009. These simple looking bridges are 246 ft long steel girder spans held up by floor beams hung from 3 ft by 4 ft arch ribs. The ties for the arches are underground. Another nice view of these bridges is provided in the Google Earth photograph below.
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Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Michigan's Bridges: Blue Water Bridges across the St. Clair River (5)

August 2011 (42.999 Degrees, -82.424 Degrees) Blue Water Bridges
One of my first photos of the Blue Water Bridges was early in the morning while driving from Michigan into Ontario.  River crossings need long viaducts to carry them up and over the shipping channel. This photo is similar to the photo of the Cooper River Bridge from June 14, 2010. They both have colorful flares and very long bridge approaches.
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Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Michigan's Bridges: Blue Water Bridges across the St. Clair River (4)

August 2011 (42.999 Degrees, -82.424 Degrees) Blue Water Bridges
Returning into the United States in the afternoon, you can see the long, slow line of cars waiting to go through customs. The eastbound bridge is empty. Perhaps Canada is less concerned about border security?

The asphalt pavement looks like it hasn't been replaced in many years. In California, the placement of asphalt on bridges is discouraged since over time you can end up with a foot of asphalt on a bridge that wasn't designed for it.
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Monday, October 17, 2011

Michigan's Bridges: Blue Water Bridges across the St. Clair River (3)

August 2011 (42.999 Degrees, -82.424 Degrees) Blue Water Bridges
The new tied arch bridge was designed by Modjeski and Masters and Buckland and Taylor and completed in 1997. The tied arch was chosen because it closely resembled the existing bridge while having the advantages of less expense and easier construction.

Tied arches are typically brought to the site on floating cranes and set onto the back spans. However, in this case towers were built and supported the main span with cables while it was being assembled.
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Sunday, October 16, 2011

Michigan's Bridges: Blue Water Bridges across the St. Clair River (2)

March 1990 (42.999 Degrees, -82.424 Degrees) Blue Water Bridge
Until 1997, there was only one Blue Water Bridge. It was a two lane river crossing, built in 1938 by Ralph Modjeski and the state of Michigan with a main span of 871 ft.

Bridge projects are interesting examples of the mutual needs of people that result in the agreements, in the money (through government bonds), in the technical resources, the skilled workers, and eventually in an iconic structural design.

The west approach and the river crossing were designed and build in the US while the eastern approach was build by the province of Ontario. This resulted in the second busiest US-Canadian crossing for goods and materials between the two countries. It's really not much different from the little suspension bridges that Walter Yanez builds in Ecuador to help bring prosperity to the poor farmers needing to bring their goods across the rivers in Ecuador.

The figure below is a nice illustration of how to build a cantilever truss bridge. Like a teeter-totter, each cantilever balances on short piers while they are anchored to huge and rather ugly four-legged back piers.
Courtesy of the State of Michigan
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Friday, October 14, 2011

Michigan's Bridges: Blue Water Bridges across the St. Clair River (1)

August 2011 (42.999 Degrees, -82.424 Degrees) Blue Water Bridges
If you continue driving east on I-94, you eventually come to the Michigan-Ontario border and the Blue Water Bridges. Although the two bridges look similar, the newer bridge (in the foreground) is a tied arch while the older bridge is a cantilever truss.

Driving across the new bridge into Canada in the morning was pretty fast but returning on the old bridge in the afternoon took an hour while we waited to go through customs.
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Michigan's Bridges: West Michigan Avenue Overcrossing in Jackson County

August 2011 (42.266 Degrees, -84.620 Degrees) West Michigan Avenue Overcrossing
This is my last photo of a four span bridge across I-94. It seems like they could have gotten away with a two span over crossing but they apparently wanted very gentle embankment slopes, which pushed the abutments too far apart. It looks like there are two 70 ft long center spans and two 35 ft long end spans. The concrete looks more blue than at the previous bridges, perhaps because it was mixed at a different plant. Also, the vertical clearance is very low. I thought 16.5 ft was the minimum vertical clearance over the Interstate. I'm surprised the bridge hasn't been hit.
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Thursday, October 13, 2011

Michigan's Bridges: 27 Mile Road Overcrossing in Calhoun County

August 2011 (42.268 Degrees, -84.776 Degrees) 27 Mile Road Overcrossing
The next bridge is another four span haunched girder bridge, but at a 45 degree skew to the expressway below. This has the effect of making the superstructure longer and deeper. The 27 Mile Road Bridge is 360 ft long instead of the 227 ft length of yesterday's perpendicular bridge. It's because the expressway (which connects Chicago to Detroit) takes a diagonal jog to the right while 27 Mile Road continues its north-south direction (like all the other mile roads).

I like the deeper girders and the better view of the piers that the skew provides.
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Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Michigan's Bridges: 24 Mile Road Overcrossing in Calhoun County

August 2011(42.284 Degrees, -84.847 Degrees) 24 Mile Road Overcrossing
Another four span bridge over I-94. Each of these bridge is slightly different from the others. For instance, this bridge has vertical rods above the barrier rails. Maybe they were used to support the forms for the new barrier railing. There were traffic cones along the highway shoulders, but I didn't see any work being done.

I like the vertical indentations at the ends of the bent caps (facing traffic). Too bad the barrier rail hasn't any details!
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Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Michigan's Bridges: 23 Mile Road Overcrossing in Calhoun County

August 2011 (42.283 Degrees, -84.848) 23 Mile Road Overcrossing
We are now at the 23 Mile Road Overcrossing, which looks almost identical to yesterday's 20 Mile Road Overcrossing. However, the Historic Bridge Website must be fond of this bridge, since they wrote several paragraphs about it. Still, yesterday's bridge got a historic rating of 3 out of 10 while today's bridge only got a 2. 
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