The bridge is built to carry more than double the heaviest traffic load expected during the worst traffic jams. This was done because the truck and trailer wouldnt have enough space to turn around. originally and prevents water seepage. Periodically flooded roads around the world. 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. 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. to the bridge and held in place while the epoxy is applied and the cables He succumbed to a year-long battle with glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer, in March 2018. Another important step is taken to protect steel cables from corrosion. It The bid for the steel bridge totaled $86.2 million. The original bid for the project was $76.8 million. With the implementation of Interstate Highway System, developed by the Dwight D. Eisenhower administration, the two-lane highway was incorporated into the new highway which ran from Detroit to the Mackinac Bridge. habitat. This drawbridge was meant to ease congestion, but made it worse as both vehicle and shipping traffic drastically increased. Originally anticipated to last a few weeks, the project instead stretched more than six months when construction workers from Midwest Bridge Company of Williamston drilled into one of the bridge's steel tensioning rods. feet in length to the huge I-205 Freeway Bridge, spanning the Columbia On example of a common but not simple auction is when the opponents compete vs. our 1NT Semi-Forcing bid. The Zilwauke Bridge is so high because it must allow boats to past. The largest segments Segments are transported from the fabricating plant to the bridge by a the safety of the Zilwaukee Bridge, then nearing completion. MichiganDOT 6.12K subscribers June 3, 2014 -- This video is the latest in a series of In the Field video reports aimed at sharing innovations, research and new technology. be found in Section Additionally, MDOT performed bridge deck surface repairs and a sealer overlay was applied along with repairs to some of the barriers, lighting systems and other electrial repairs. You are being asked to avoid the. He also authors the Morning Report Newsletter and various other newsletters. Unfortunately, shipping increased fourfold in the early 1960s; and each time the drawbridge opened, cars would back up for miles. 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. The 4-lane highway crossed the Saginaw River as a draw bridge. After a bridge span is complete and construction Almost exactly nine months later, the southbound side of the bridge was opened. Published: Jan. 16, 2023 at 8:39 AM PST. That same year, S.J. Traffic is being rerouted along as follows: Wednesdays - Saturdays are 73.5 feet wide and either eight feet or 12 feet long. consisted of the new four-lane, double-leaf bascule (draw) bridge and a 4: The Accident in The For example, consider drawbridges. While the bridge has performed very well in the years since it has opened Share YOUR roads!We'vemorethan 13.000 roads but we want more! The town's founders called it Zilwaukee to confuse it with the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin in hopes of luring settlers there to work. News never stops. If you can imagine driving Up North, buckled up with the family, very excited to get away from the city and suburbs -- and boom -- the draw bridge is open for a passing freighter along the Saginaw River, and traffic is backed up for miles and miles and miles. "These hand-written plans, drafted around 1980, were used to build the original bridge. Really makes me wonder - if that was a seriously considered plan, what happened? It was only 150 feet wide and several ships ended up clipping the bridge, causing damage and even more traffic issues. added. 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. The original completion date for the Zilwaukee Bridge was November 1983. group to create a solid unit, six segments long. 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. Traffic: Estimated 21,600,000 vehicles per year. back end and drives directly off. The segmental bridge is built from individual concrete pieces, or segments, After the cleanup and investigations and hiring of new contractors, work didn't resume until late 1984. The work was completed in 2015 and was expected extend the life of the bridge until 2087. Saturday, August 20th 2022 Crashes impacting NB and SB 75 on the Zilwaukee Bridge. When we were kids this thing was massive and scarrrrrryyyyy!! During a bearing replacement project, a contractor inadvertently cut through reinforced steel on the bridge, the agency has reported. MDOT Bay City Transportation Service Center Manager Gregg Brunner said en.wikipedia.org. [5] During 2014, special custom-made jacks were put into place as a stop-gap measure while bearings were replaced.[6]. in an MDOT-produced publication from the early-1990s: The Then again, there's not much about THIS bridge that I had known prior to when I first visited this website last year. While it may have seemed like a good idea in the late-1950s, soon after The bearingsdesigned to support up to 8 million pounds eachrequire replacement because of normal wear and tear since the bridge's opening in 1987. This high-level, segmental concrete bridge spanning the Saginaw River is said to be the perfect example on how not to build a bridge. However, construction ground to a halt in 1982 when a significant accident paralyzed work. A recent, major update in 2013 through 2015 replaced the original bearing pads at piers and expansion joints., which had a lifespan of around 25 years, Brunner said. In 1975, transit officials decided to build a high-level bridge over the river. This archive footage shows construction at Michigan's Zilwaukee Bridge in 1982 and its official opening in 1987. through downtown as the through route. cast into each segment. Investigators said there were five reasons for the failure. more than six times as much as a fully-loaded standard 18-wheel, 40-ton That way, neither vehicle nor shipping traffic would be impeded by the other. Some believe this Michigan bridge marks the start of Up North. text here is reproduced word-for-word from the original report and But in 1982, with the bridge about half-built, a major construction accident halted work. Nearly having to start over, construction took another 3 years, but in winter of 1987, the northbound lanes of the Zilwaukee Bridge finally opened to the public. .004 inches (about the thickness of a human hair). Investigators found that much of the bridge was sound, but some of the pier columns needed to be reinforced before work could continue. It makes for an imposing sight, and the Zilwaukee Riverfront Park sits nearby. It wasnt until 1987 that the final piece of concrete would be installed, and the northbound lanes of I-75/US-23 were routed over the bridge just before Christmas in 1987. course, for many Michiganders, the Zilwaukee Bridge evokes a response harkening In April 2008, a scheduled $3.3-million construction project to replace bridge bearingsdesigned to support up to 8,000,000 pounds eachwhich allow the bridge to move as much as a foot hit a snag. Repair work began in the early summer of 1983 and totaled around $6.8 million. At Zilwaukee, bridge was opened to traffic on Monday, September 19, 1988. girder picks up the segments from the truck and delivers them to the location 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. Heres an aerial map that shows the location of the draw bridge vs. the new bridge: Construction on the new structure, projected to cost about $77 million without ramps and approaches, started in late 1979. in a specially built facility and then transported to the construction Traffic was shut down for about six months, before reopening in October of 2008. had also been converted to full freeway with overpasses and interchanges Or are you better off taking a different route? construction in the United States and Canada. The compound gets rid of the ice without any worry of corrosion to the bridge. In 1979, construction on the elevated Zilwaukee Bridge, which accommodates both boat and vehicle traffic, began. [Image: The bridge takes shape. A pier footing cracked, presumably due to resulting stress. onto the bridge, unhooks from the front end of the trailer, hooks to the A December 1979 article in the Owosso Argus-Press noted in 1968, a City of Bay City official stated "the bridge even caused a 56-mile long traffic jam.". The bridge wasnt even open for traffic yet at this point. stronger than that usually specified by MDOT for bridge decks. The Zilwaukee Bridge is a high-level bridge carrying I-75 (and U.S. 23) over the Saginaw River at Zilwaukee. In the 1950s, Michigan expanded its transportation system expanding north from Saginaw and through Zilwaukee. By 1982, the 52 piers that would support the bridge were finished, and expansion joints were being added. Crossing the Saginaw River may have been exciting for kids who liked drawbridges, but enough adults became tired of the constant traffic that a new structure was needed. no alterationsgrammatical or otherwisehave been made. We lifted and tilted and jacked it into place. This technology has gained rapid acceptance and has spread to other countries. Top top it off, shipping traffic actually quadrupled in the years after The setback took two years and $6 million more unbudgeted dollars. The Zilwaukee Bridge is a massive segmental concrete bridge that carries the I-75 over the Saginaw River in Michigan. the bridge opened, it also caused problems for traffic on the Saginaw River The bridge was built segment by segment, working from one end of the river toward the other side. In this installment, MDOT. 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. The website is for information purposes only and we assume no liability for decisions made as a result of the information provided here. Related: The story of Metro Detroits Cold War nuclear missile defense system: The original homeland security. two-lane highway bypass on the east side of the City of Saginaw completed Cables in the bridge run through galvanized steel ducts that have been Traffic heading north each weekend, and south when the weekend is over, will still be able to traverse three lanes on the bridge. The concrete segments were built nearby, at a facility constructed for the project. The bridge also features a massive tie-down block that spans 57 x 46 x 5-1/2 feet and weighs about 1,100 tons. 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. It assures thatthe Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement updated 7/1/2022). completion. 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