Photos
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Side view Photo taken by Jack Schmidt |
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Close-up of truss Photo taken by Jack Schmidt |
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Deck view Photo taken by Jack Schmidt |
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Timesbeach Taken July 2008 from eastbound lanes of I-44. View partially blocked by the freeway median. Photo taken by Kim Harvey |
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Deck view East end of bridge. Stop signs and gates are visible in this picture. They are relics from when the EPA was cleaning up the area. Photo taken by J Lance |
MoDOT want to tear down history
Written by Kim HarveyMoDOT is planning on tearing down this bridge, but local historians are against it.
Facts
- Overview
- Deck truss bridge over Meramec River at Times Beach on Old US 66 in Wildwood
- Location
- Wildwood, St. Louis County, Missouri
- Status
- Closed to all traffic
- Future prospects
- MoDOT plans to demolish bridge when funding is available
- History
- Built 1931; closed to traffic Oct. 29, 2009
- Builder
- - Frazier-Davis Construction Co. (Contractor)
- Design
- Warren deck truss
- Dimensions
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Length of largest span: 131.9 ft.
Total length: 1,008.9 ft.
Deck width: 29.8 ft.
- Recognition
- Posted to the National Register of Historic Places on September 16, 2009
- Also called
- Times Beach Bridge
- Approximate latitude, longitude
- +38.50550, -90.59217 (decimal degrees)
38°30'20" N, 90°35'32" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 15/709955/4264651 (zone/easting/northing)
- Land survey
- T. 44 N., R. 4 E., Sec. 32
- USGS topographic map
- Manchester
- Inventory numbers
- MoDOT J-421 (Missouri Dept. of Transportation bridge number)
MONBI 5387 (Missouri bridge number on the National Bridge Inventory)
NRHP 09000888 (National Register of Historic Places reference number)
BH 22651 (Bridgehunter.com ID) - Inspection (as of 11/2008)
- Deck condition rating: Fair (5 out of 9)
Superstructure condition rating: Serious (3 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating: Serious (3 out of 9)
Appraisal: Structurally deficient
Sufficiency rating: 49.1 (out of 100) - Average daily traffic (as of 2008)
- 2,728
Update Log
- December 1, 2009: Essay added by Kim Harvey
- October 28, 2009: Updated by David Backlin: Closed to all traffic
- March 23, 2009: New photo from J Lance
- March 23, 2009: Updated by Justin Zeid
- July 27, 2008: New photo from Kim Harvey
- April 7, 2006: Posted photos from Jack Schmidt
Sources
- Jack Schmidt - jjturtle [at] earthlink [dot] net
- Kim Harvey
- Justin Zeid
- J Lance - bugo [at] hotmail [dot] com
- Missouri Historic Bridge Inventory
- David Backlin - us71 [at] cox [dot] net
- MoDOT Press Release
Comments
http://www.modot.org/stlouis/major_projects/Route66StateParkBridge.htm
What does MoDOT think? Click link above. The bridge could collapse under its own weight in two or three years. It's not even safe for pedestrians(?).
This article is dated January 17, 2010 and does include photos of the deterioration of the bridge:
http://rwarn17588.wordpress.com/2010/01/17/the-grim-state-of-the-route-66-bridge/
Here is more information about the situation from Joe Sonderman's website about Route 66.
http://www.66postcards.com/index/tbbr.html
This past December, I went to photograph this bridge when I heard that it had been closed. It's so very sad to see the barricades across the portal to the bridge.
This bridge needs help. What the general public do to help save this bridge from demolition?
It seems association with the "Mother Road" isn't even enough to inspire MoDOT to break out of the box and preserve a historic bridge. I find the 10-20 million dollar estimate to repair the bridge to be suspiciously high, especially if the bridge were restored for pedestrian traffic only. I bet a firm with experience in historic bridge preservation could rehab the bridge for less.
Here's the link to the current article about the bridge:
This is really sad!