It caused serious damage. The towns population, as of 2010, was about 1,600. course, for many Michiganders, the Zilwaukee Bridge evokes a response harkening needed to complete the bridge. Department of Transportation issued a report detailing the background of steel cable, and each strand is formed by seven wires about one-eighth of the Zilwaukee Bridge, the details on the accident and the attendant Learn about the Zilwaukee Bridge on the Saginaw River, its history, and its height. The bridge was only 150 feet wide and several ships actually hit being completed at either end of the new bridge, it was discovered one The final bridge would not be completed until 1987-88, but finally, the people of Zilwaukee had a bridge that could handle their growth. He was 49 years old. What we learned from the Z-Bridge makes sense to apply, especially on those bridges, he said. The main reason for the accident was that too much weight was placed on a compression block. from leaking into the bridge itself. Department of Transportation, Zilwaukee Bridge: The segmental bridge is built from individual concrete pieces, or segments, One thing worth noting: Upon the opening of this bridge to traffic, it served a triple concurrency of I-75/U.S. Well, hold on -- not exactly. Along with asking for new procedures so that mistakes are not made due to outdated blueprints, the letter asked the agency to notify the senators office when the procedures are finalized.. 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. As noted above, when the bridge was approximately half-complete, a major Zilwaukee Bridge - Old. inch in diameter. primary purpose of the epoxy is to act as an environmental seal of the The $3.3 million project was further hindered when crews determined that more than 30 new bearings were not designed properly. Construction begins by placing two segments directly atop a bridge pier, Lin International (TYLI) to perform construction engineering services. We had to wait in line. My concern at this time is to make certain this type of construction accident does not occur again, Kahn wrote in a Wednesday letter to MDOT Director Kirk T. Steudle. Idahosa noted that aside helping to reduce to the barest minimum the number of deaths at that portion of the highway, construction of a pedestrian bridge there would also help reduce the number of . This process is repeated until the entire span is closed. in France and Germany in the late 1950s and early 1960s. to meet back up with US-23 (present-day M-13) (AP Photo/Michael Hollenbeck/The Saginaw News. Many have been At the time, the project was the largest pre-cast concrete segmental bridge in the United States, and the largest project the MDOT had ever undertaken. The original Zilwaukee Bridge as a four-lane draw bridge. This balanced group of four Yes, the Zilwaukee Bridge of 1960 was a drawbridge. My concern is (if) there are other examples out there of marked drawings that are incomplete. 23 chapters | beginning at the existing route (Dixie Hwy) in Bridgeport, continuing northerly Increased traffic led to the construction of a four-lane drawbridge that raised to let boats pass in 1960. project later in the decade. Much more on the Next: Section 4: The Accident 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. 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. 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. dangerousroads.org is not responsible for the information contained in these pages. A Saginaw News article reported in 1954 that some German immigrants who would come through New York City would sign agreements to work in Zilwaukee, thinking they were heading to Milwaukee. Photo taken by Douglas Butler in August 2014, License: Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY). Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement updated 7/1/2022). This high-level, segmental concrete bridge spanning the Saginaw River is said to be the perfect example on how not to build a bridge. concrete, forming another layer of protection for the steel cables. The freighter was fine but the bridge suffered substantial damage. The origin of today's Zilwaukee Bridge can be traced back to the original However, construction ground to a halt in 1982 when a significant accident paralyzed work. of firmly tensioned steel cables. Each cable is stretched with hydraulic jacks, stressed to nearly 200 tons, The largest segments Annotated Aerial Image, I-75 and Zilwaukee Bridge Improvements: Construction and Motorist Information, Photography and can roll across these legs when necessary to move to a new position The original One end of the 300-foot span supported by that pillar sagged five feet, while the other end was lifted 3 feet into the air. Many Michigan seniors, like Tom Fleisher of West Bloomfield, remember the signs warning people. had also been converted to full freeway with overpasses and interchanges The river serves as the boundary between Zilwaukee Township and the city of Zilwaukee at this point, which is approximately 5 miles (8.0km) north of downtown Saginaw. They weigh between Rod Meloni is an Emmy Award-winning Business Editor on Local 4 News and a Certified Financial Planner Professional. directly on the bridge superstructure. All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. are installed. The state spent $120 million to build the bridge but design problems and long delays left everyone uncertain it would ever get used. Once repairs were made, a new contractor was hired to complete the bridge once the initial contractor (Stevin Construction) and the state agreed to terminate their contract in exchange for both sides dropping their lawsuits over the accident. The northbound portion of the bridge was finally opened to traffic on December 23, 1987, just in time for Christmas. Investigators said there were five reasons for the failure. 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. "These hand-written plans, drafted around 1980, were used to build the original bridge. The Zilwaukee Bridge is a box-and-girder concrete segmental bridge that crosses the Saginaw River in Michigan. Five sets of casting forms inside the building Click here to take a moment and familiarize yourself with our Community Guidelines. 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. since the bridges construction in the 1980s, the agency has used The tractor and trailer combined weigh 102 tons. The Zilwaukee Bridge along Interstate 75 over the Saginaw River. Saturday, August 20th 2022 Crashes impacting NB and SB 75 on the Zilwaukee Bridge. This helps to ensure that the bridge could withstand about twice as much weight as is predicted during peak traffic hours. posted to the USENET newsgroup alt.great-lakes the The grout cures to become plant at the bridge site. When we open 1-Major and show a hand with a long suit, the opponents often find a way to get in the way. Though some have speculated that the bridge was glued together, theyre not entirely far off. At Zilwaukee, these jobs are accomplished by two specially Well, hold on -- not exactly. While there was a bridge in 1953, the area gained importance as a thoroughfare with the completion of the interstate highway system during the 1950s. the Saginaw River at Zilwaukee. The incident added many years to the projected completion of the new bridge. and one set outside were specially tailored to cast the 1,592 segments Sunshine Skyway Bridge at Tampa, Fla., opened in 1987. That way, neither vehicle nor shipping traffic would be impeded by the other. The bridge carries the I-75 / US 23 road. The original Zilwaukee Bridge as a four-lane draw bridge. The segment of freeway utilizing the Zilwaukee Bridge is part of I-75 and US23. This was done because the truck and trailer wouldnt have enough space to turn around. The new bearings should last anywhere from 25 to 50 years, or possibly even longer, he said. originally and prevents water seepage. The issue of one-way traffic is of great concern to local businesses and local government, he wrote in the letter to Steudle. Final position was attained on March 23, 1984, completing a challenging engineering and construction task and using some unusual and innovative methods in the process. Published: Jan. 16, 2023 at 8:39 AM PST. But the $3.3 million project hit some road blocks in March, forcing motorists to steer around the bridge for at least another two months. bascule bridge was permanently closed on that datebut only to automobile Almost exactly nine months later, the southbound side of the bridge was opened. where they are to be erected. 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. During the six-month shutdown, traffic was rerouted via I-675 through downtown Saginaw and massive back-ups were common. MDOT closed the northbound lanes months longer than planned as a precaution and installed a steel brace on the outside of the massive concrete span that carries Interstate 75 traffic over the Saginaw River. In August of 1982, just one year before the bridge was supposed to be completed, one of the temporary compression blocks failed and collapsed. It 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. northeast of the city. feet in length to the huge I-205 Freeway Bridge, spanning the Columbia act as a continuous bridge. While no Saginaw River crossing seems to have been concrete segment onto the bridge, is the equivalent of 49 fully-loaded They ride electric cars inside to inspect and do repairs. Of The . There will be about 27,000 miles of eighth-inch wire Thanks to the new bridge, it is easy to get over the Saginaw. the bridge, causing damage and additional tie-ups on the freeway as well. 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. 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