how to avoid zilwaukee bridge

being completed at either end of the new bridge, it was discovered one When the bridge opened for river traffic, it sometimes caused miles-long traffic jams, especially during heavy travel days around the holidays and the start of firearms deer hunting season. Before she joined the team in 2018 she worked at WILX in Lansing as a digital producer. Registration on or use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement, Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement, and Your California Privacy Rights (User Agreement updated 1/1/21. During the six-month shutdown, traffic was rerouted via I-675 through downtown Saginaw and massive back-ups were common. Unfortunately, that wasn't the reality. They weigh between Technology for ost-tensioned, segmental, box girder bridges was developed That structure was supposed to be completed in 1983, but the collapse of a temporary compression block on an expansion joint in 1982 literally derailed the project. Ground view shows massive dimensions In the early-1950s, the Michigan State Highway Department constructed a are 73.5 feet wide and either eight feet or 12 feet long. MDOT's policy requires concrete cracks be repaired if they are larger than Much more on the It caused serious damage. portion of the new route in the Saginaw area was opened to traffic. They range from a few hundred On August 28, the temporary compression blocks started to crush, and a 300-foot-long bridge section sagged five feet on one end and three-and-a-half feet at the other. Neither do we. The state spent $120 million to build the bridge but design problems and long delays left everyone uncertain it would ever get used. According to MDOT records, other proposals included barring river traffic, relocating the freeway and digging a tunnel under the river. Unfortunately, something happened that would change that plan. On some cold days these new sections could not be properly sealed against water infiltration, eventually leading to spalling as the water froze and expanded. The original Moving the old bridge will save more than $1 million, they figure.". In 1960, the new route opened -- and the Zilwaukee Bridge was born. new eastern bypass of Saginaw for through US-23 traffic, It helps prevent water and roadway contaminants Sunshine Skyway Bridge at Tampa, Fla., opened in 1987. where they are to be erected. With fuel prices the way they are, every mile extra hurts.. girder. In 1978, the first shovels went into the ground to build high enough to allow high-speed traffic and freighters through at the same time. 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Yes, the Zilwaukee Bridge of 1960 was a drawbridge. The weight of the launching girder, combined with the truck carrying a It took several hours for tugs to move the ship back into Saginaw Bay. Originally, the bridge seemed like a big improvement, but it ran into problems rather quickly. While a decommissioning of the Zilwaukee bridge is a long way off, the bridge's lifespan is probably in the ballpark of 80 to 100 years, said Gregg Brunner, associate region engineer with the Michigan Department of Transportation. In the 1950s, Michigan expanded its transportation system expanding north from Saginaw and through Zilwaukee. Traffic: Estimated 21,600,000 vehicles per year. Engineers said even after 35 years, its holding up well. The website is for information purposes only and we assume no liability for decisions made as a result of the information provided here. deck of the old drawbridge now rests on the bottom of Lake Huron as a fish After a bridge span is complete and construction When the block was crushed, a 300-foot-long section of bridge deck sagged 5 feet on one end and rose 3-and-a-half feet on the other, according to MDOT records. fabrication of the segments. MDOT Bay City Transportation Service Center Manager Gregg Brunner said The tractor simply delivers the segment When we were kids this thing was massive and scarrrrrryyyyy!! habitat. Back to: Section 2: Background The bridge in question that "collapsed in the 1950s" has to be the Cass Avenue bridge, though re-using this bridge is something I've never heard about before. In an August 22, 1989 article, The They ride electric cars inside to inspect and do repairs. ZILWAUKEE State Sen. Roger N. Kahn has urged the Michigan Department of Transportation to enact new, clear procedures to avoid the use of outdated blueprints that could lead to construction mishaps across the state. Around the time of opening, the Zilwaukee Bridge saw roughly 11.3 million vehicles cross per year, according to MDOT. in the early-1980s which added many millions to the cost and years to the All rights reserved. An epoxy stronger than concrete was used between segments. Investigators said there were five reasons for the failure. In 2008, a $3.3 million construction project to replace bridge bearings hit a snag. text here is reproduced word-for-word from the original report and These features expand or contract with the temperature, giving the bridge the ability to adjust to both the warm Michigan summers and extreme colds of winter without sacrificing structural stability. (MDOT) BAY CITY, Mich - Bay County 911 reports there are two different multi-vehicle accidents on both northbound and southbound I-75 on top of the Zilwaukee Bridge. This balanced group of four after it is opened to traffic. added. A 1960 article in the Lansing State Journal reported about a German-registry lake freighter, carrying 4,300 tons of scrap steel, slamming into the draw bridge after the bridge was jammed in the open position. This important artery allows traffic to move through the area without entering downtown Saginaw. 120 and 160 tons. an outmoded, inadequate drawbridge that caused backups on the freeway every no alterationsgrammatical or otherwisehave been made. It didnt really work, and Zilwaukee did not turn into Milwaukee. http://www.michiganhighways.org/listings/US-010.html. Its purpose, though, was largely as a seal to keep out water and roadway contaminants. Work began on the southbound span first during 2013 and then transitioned over to the northbound bridge during 2014. The Saginaw Township Republican indicated he wants to avoid a repeat of a snafu that forced thousands of motorists to detour from the northbound lanes of the Zilwaukee Bridge for most of 2008. in the completed 1.5-mile-long bridge. added to one end of the completed group, and then a balancing segment is But in 1982, with the bridge about half-built, a major construction accident halted work. northeast of the city. Segments But in the 1980s, the Zilwaukee Bridge controversially turned into Michigans most expensive. It assures thatthe Zilwaukee Bridge - Old. The current eight-lane structure, completed in 1988, is the second such bridge at this location, replacing . This was A report released by MDOT in December 2010 noted the problems with the 2008 project were due to faulty documentation from the bridge's original construction. Another important step is taken to protect steel cables from corrosion. with many steel cables to form the decks.]. The Zilwaukee Bridge is a massive segmental concrete bridge that carries the I-75 over the Saginaw River in Michigan. If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. planned at that time, the 1953 bypass would become part of a much bigger It makes for an imposing sight, and the Zilwaukee Riverfront Park sits nearby. The incident in August 1982 was caused by a large amount of mispositioned weight during the installation of a segment between two piers, according to MDOT. The main strength of the bridge comes from its 4,000 miles of steel tension cables hidden away in the concrete. According to a 1979 article in the Owosso Argus-Press, the City of Bay City considered purchasing the original Zilwaukee Bridge, paying to have it transported downstream on the Saginaw River, and erected to replace the Cass Bridge, which collapsed in the 1950s. be found in Section The previous drawbridge was the only location at which the I-75 stopped between Florida and Michigan. 23 Location Zilwaukee, Saginaw County, Michigan Status Open to traffic History Built 1987 Design Concrete stringer Dimensions (1.5 mi.) In August of 1982, just one year before the bridge was supposed to be completed, one of the temporary compression blocks failed and collapsed. The original bridge routed traffic through the small city of Saginaw. Copyright 2022 by WDIV ClickOnDetroit - All rights reserved. Copyright 2022 by WDIV ClickOnDetroit - All rights reserved. There are more than 4,000 miles of post-tensioned steel cable in the 1.5-mile-long bridge. Each one was closely inspected by a specially As a child, watching the bridge open and close was pretty cool, but when you're an adult, running late for work and stuck in traffic, the magic is kind of lost. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. crossing the bridge and continuing northerly toward Bay City. Almost exactly nine months later, the southbound side of the bridge was opened. A track-mounted crane atop the launching The present structure was designed to relieve traffic congestion along the freeway crossing it, resulting from repeated openings of the draw span for lake freighter traffic serving industrial sites along the river. It was projected to reach completion in 1983 at a cost of $77 million. However, construction ground to a halt in 1982 when a significant accident paralyzed work. the decision came to replace it with a high-level bridge. The original Zilwaukee Bridge as a four-lane draw bridge. The Zilwauke Bridge is so high because it must allow boats to past. Each cable is stretched with hydraulic jacks, stressed to nearly 200 tons, Create your account. I am requesting a rigorous examination of the lane traffic and am seeking alternative plans that might help keep two-way traffic open during the construction process.. You are being asked to avoid the area. The immediate response to the accident was to halt construction and investigate the extent of the damage. bascule bridge was permanently closed on that datebut only to automobile The segments are erected by a massive piece of machinery called a launching Zilwaukee Bridge: From the Beginning. Rated 5 / 5. BAY CITY, Mich. (WNEM) - The Bay Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced it is permanently changing its routes to avoid tolls on Liberty Bridge and . of firmly tensioned steel cables. Do you know anyspectacular road?Click here to send us all the info, and we'll publish it! The entire segment instantly sank five feet lower than the section they were attempting to attach it to. My concern is (if) there are other examples out there of marked drawings that are incomplete. The Zilwaukee Bridge is one of the few, if not the only, bridge in Michigan that doesn't use salt to de-ice the roadway, an MDOT official said. copyright 2003-2023 Study.com. Construction on the new Zilwaukee Bridge began in 1979. This process is repeated until the entire span is closed. According to a story Because it would be virtually impossible When two adjacent Already way over budget and long behind schedule, Chynoweth said fixing the mess took an engineering effort on a scale with designing a whole new bridge. We had to wait in line. Most roads are bridges are simple structures, he said. Only one side of the bridge is open at a time, and traffic is shifted on Tuesday and Saturday, based on peak times. While that may not sound like a lot, it's a big deal when talking about tons and tons of concrete and steel. We want your experiences too! can be pulled from either end. A three-week project turned into six months, and crews ended up discovering that more than 30 of the new bearings werent properly designed and would not fit. How to Survive and Journey through the Nanisivik Highway, The Ultimate Guide to Traveling the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway, Tuktoyaktuk Winter Road was closed permanently on April 2017, Dalton Highway is the loneliest road on Earth, Slettnes lighthouse: the road to the end of Europe, How to Stay Safe on Dangerous Roads: Preparing Your Car for Bad Weather Driving. During a bearing replacement project, a contractor inadvertently cut through reinforced steel on the bridge, the agency has reported. The northbound portion of the bridge was finally opened to traffic on December 23, 1987, just in time for Christmas. He has a BA in Philosophy from UC Santa Barbara, and an MA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from CEVRO Institute, Prague, Czech Republic. highway running from Detroit to the Mackinac Bridge. Read about the Zilwaukee Bridge collapse in 1982 and its reconstruction. This high-level, segmental concrete bridge spanning the Saginaw River is said to be the perfect example on how not to build a bridge. The history of the Zilwaukee Bridge is one of adaptation over time, as the little town of Zilwaukee started to grow. (AP Photo/Michael Hollenbeck/The Saginaw News. Many of the original stainless steel and teflon bearings have been replaced with a plastic material. The issue of one-way traffic is of great concern to local businesses and local government, he wrote in the letter to Steudle. It also lubricates the segment faces The bridge was only 150 feet wide and several ships actually hit Department of Transportation. construction in the United States and Canada. pieces will fit perfectly when they are placed together on the bridge. However, the size of interstate traffic was simply not appropriate for a small citynor did many drivers want to slow down on their way north to rural areas or south to Detroit. Now, the bridge is very busy. 107. At its peak, the bridge is 125 feet above water level. Traffic began using the Zilwaukee Bridge again on October 1, 2008. Located in Zilwaukee, in Saginaw County in the U.S. state of Michigan, the Zilwaukee Bridge is one of the most spectacular bridges in the world. However, due to the accident and its subsequent repair work, construction auto transporter trucks weighing 40 tons each. Each is formed by 12 strands Michigan Highways > In Depth: The Zilwaukee Bridge, Page Contents: History The Replacement & Accident Ongoing Maintenance Zilwaukee Zilwaukee Bridge: From the Beginning, The A bit of a boring one, the Zilwaukee Bridge carries I-75 and US-23 over the Saginaw River and connects Zilwaukee with Zilwaukee Township. I was not able to get a photograph of the bridge as as. If youd like to read more in depth about the history of the Zilwaukee Bridge, check out this A-to-Z guide from Michigan Highways. It has 1592 concrete segments that weigh about 160 tons. freeway beginning at the northern end of the 1953 bypass (at present-day M-13), Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement updated 7/1/2022). The tractor and trailer combined weigh 102 tons. Along with asking for new procedures so that mistakes are not made due to outdated blueprints, the letter asked the agency to notify the senators office when the procedures are finalized.. spans are complete, the last segment is cast in place to join the spans. The main reason for the accident was that too much weight was placed on a compression block. concrete, forming another layer of protection for the steel cables. Its a stretch many who live in Metro Detroit are familiar with as a passage for a trip to Northern Michigan, perhaps for Memorial Day or Labor Day. It stands on its own steel legs So a new footing was built over the old footing and that is anchored down into bedrock, Chynoweth said. in the first place. with post-tensioned steel cables to form the deck, or superstructure, of By the end of the next year, the original 1953 US-23 bypass Crews removed some of the concrete material making up the bridge itself and removed the original bearings, then installed the new ones along with an inch of concrete grout. He was 49 years old. are installed. Department of Transportation issued a report detailing the background The original bid for the project was $76.8 million. The northbound lanes of Interstate 75 across the bridge, closed since Feb. 18, 2008, to replace bearings that allow it to expand and contract in changing weather, were due to reopen by the end of March. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. This drawbridge was meant to ease congestion, but made it worse as both vehicle and shipping traffic drastically increased. At Zilwaukee, 1,700 tons. It also damaged the pier underneath. The worst back-ups, of course, occurred during two spans of the bridge simultaneously. More. (MDOT/Michigan Highways). We are working to learn more information. Add onto that the fact that the drawbridge span was pretty narrow, resulting in several ships running into the bridge and getting stuck, and it became pretty obvious that a new bridge was needed. 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. One thing worth noting: Upon the opening of this bridge to traffic, it served a triple concurrency of I-75/U.S. The freighter was fine but the bridge suffered substantial damage. The Zilwaukee Bridge is a high-level, segmental concrete bridge spanning the Saginaw River in the U.S. state of Michigan. Six steps were required to bring the tilted 300-foot deck section back to its intened position. The $3.3 million project was further hindered when crews determined that more than 30 new bearings were not designed properly. 23 chapters | That same year, S.J. MDOT said crews erected a steel reinforcement on the exterior of the bridge to ensure that the structural integrity of the bridge continues to remain sound. It was time to start assembling the concrete segments of the bridge surface. polychorinated biphenyl will cost at least $100,000 and could delay completion The compound gets rid of the ice without any worry of corrosion to the bridge. Periodically flooded roads around the world. By 1975, the state of Michigan was already planning out a replacement bridge to cross the Saginaw River. However, the most significant reason was the overloading of the expansion joint. trained, four-person team to ensure that they met predetermined standards The bid for the steel bridge totaled $86.2 million. in an MDOT-produced publication from the early-1990s: The Crank up the tunes. To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member. $77 million (not counting approaches and ramp work). and constructed is a post-tensioned, segmental, box girder bridge and work posted to the USENET newsgroup alt.great-lakes the Still looking for information "and Bay City officials want to buy it, dismantle it and move it 7 1/2 miles north to replace bridge in city that collapsed in the 1950s. During construction, the expansion joints were held in place by compression blocks that prevented them from moving until the box-girder deck was completed. To ease the commute along this route, a bridge was constructed over the Saginaw River. of high-strength reinforced concrete segments held together by thousands As the interstate highway system brought increased traffic to the area, a drawbridge was built in 1960. following pages reproduce a 1987 report issued by the Michigan The current eight-lane structure, completed in 1988, is the second such bridge at this location, replacing a four-lane bascule bridge constructed in 1960. The solution was ingenious: pipes filled with refrigerant were inserted into the bedrock and then frozen to create a firm foundation for the bridge. it was issued prior to the completion of the bridge and is worded accordingly. the bridge was completed and the back-ups on the freeway reached three two-lane highway bypass on the east side of the City of Saginaw completed Cast-in-place bridge segments are cast in traveling forms placed Zilwaukee Bridge: From the Beginning, Michigan In 1979, construction started on a new, elevated bridge that ships could simply pass underneath. But the state has about half a dozen spans, such as the Blue Water, Zug Island and Mackinac bridges, where it could apply lessons learned from the Zilwaukee Bridge mishap, he said. The segmental bridge is built from individual concrete pieces, or segments, On Saturday, the bridge has three southbound lanes, while northbound traffic. Posted July 9, 2019, by Melissa Brand-Welch, National Bridge Inventory 2021: (Nearby Bridges), Bridgehunter.com: Historic Bridges of the United States, http://bridgehunter.com/mi/saginaw/saginaw-river/, July 9, 2019: New photo from Melissa Brand-Welch, November 13, 2018: New photo from Douglas Butler, October 6, 2018: New photos from Douglas Butler, August 6, 2014: New Street View added by Douglas Butler. of the new bridge as segments are erected one against another and are post-tensioned He's been with WDIV since 2013. The total launching girder apparatus weighs T-shirts and other items emblazoned with an image of a broken Zilwaukee Bridge and the word "Oops were available at local gas stations, according to residents. Groves and Sons Company was the low bidder on a contract to complete the remaining bridge, and they engaged T.Y. Instead, a chemical compound called calcium magnesium acetate is used as an alternative. of the Zilwaukee Bridge, the details on the accident and the attendant needed to complete the bridge. more than six times as much as a fully-loaded standard 18-wheel, 40-ton In order to provide you with the best online experience this website uses cookies. 195 lessons. The original completion date for the Zilwaukee Bridge was November 1983. Read: The Z-Bridge: The turbulent history behind Michigans Zilwaukee Bridge. It was opened in 1988 and is 8,000 feet (2440 m) long and 125 feet (38 m) at its highest point. filled with cement grout under high pressure. Department of Transportation, Zilwaukee Bridge: It was thought that this would accommodate both boat and vehicle traffic. Kahn also expressed concern about future lane closures on the bridge. called tendons, to form a solid unit. The compound gets rid of the ice without any worry of corrosion to the bridge. After the completion of the new bridge, the Zilwaukee Bridge experienced a stretch of mostly peace for cars and freighters alike. The cause, according to Michigan Highways, was construction loads at that location were too heavy. The work was completed in 2015 and was expected extend the life of the bridge until 2087. "These hand-written plans, drafted around 1980, were used to build the original bridge. directly on the bridge superstructure. of Jason Hill: Zilwaukee Gallery, Michigan in Pictures: The Zilwaukee Bridge, Zilwaukee accident, what caused it and what was done to remedy the situation can completion. He succumbed to a year-long battle with glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer, in March 2018. cannot effectively be injected or sealed. Its like a teacher waved a magic wand and did the work for me. On Tuesday, September 22, 1987 the final 117-ton piece In a recent e-mail to staffers, Kahn said he was concerned that this is a potential recurring construction mistake, recurring unnecessary costs and delays, and potentially dangerous at projects statewide. To use information contained on this site is to do so at your own risk. Adam has taught history, government, and economics to students in grades 6-12 for five years. The 1982 accident completely stopped construction. The construction of the structure was plagued with difficulties: when it was approximately half-complete, a major construction accident halted all work in August 1982. There were discussions about abandoning the project completely. If not replaced, the normal shifting movements of the bridge would cause additional damage, thus reducing its lifespan. course, for many Michiganders, the Zilwaukee Bridge evokes a response harkening Later during construction of new on- and off-ramps in the M-13 interchange on the bridge approach, workers uncovered an uncharted landfill containing PCB-contaminated waste, necessitating an environmental cleanup.

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