And thanks to Chris Bessert for compiling all of this great historical information. Kahn also expressed concern about future lane closures on the bridge. Read: The Z-Bridge: The turbulent history behind Michigans Zilwaukee Bridge. northeast of the city. Moving the old bridge will save more than $1 million, they figure.". Next: Section 4: The Accident onto the bridge, unhooks from the front end of the trailer, hooks to the the bridge. concrete, forming another layer of protection for the steel cables. had also been converted to full freeway with overpasses and interchanges It caused serious damage. If you need help with the Public File, call (313) 222-0566. Six steps were required to bring the tilted 300-foot deck section back to its intened position. cast into each segment. 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 first two of those still serve this route across the current Zilwaukee Bridge today, but U.S. 10 was scaled back to end west of Bay City at around the same time that this bridge was replaced with that one. 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. That report has been reproduced With fuel prices the way they are, every mile extra hurts.. Why is the Zilwaukee Bridge so tall? at the intersecting roads. posted to the USENET newsgroup alt.great-lakes the A truck hauled the segments up one by one on a double-side trailer that allowed the truck to circle around after dropping the load and hitch back up on the other side. The setback took two years and $6 million more unbudgeted dollars. Its a lot of extra time and miles for my truck because were right off I-75, he said. Before she joined the team in 2018 she worked at WILX in Lansing as a digital producer. [3] The Zilwaukee Bridge is approximately 8,000 feet (2,400m) in length and rises 125 feet (38m) at its highest point.[1][2]. Well, hold on -- not exactly. Click here to take a moment and familiarize yourself with our Community Guidelines. 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 . 4: The Accident in The The tractor simply delivers the segment Published: Jan. 16, 2023 at 8:39 AM PST. An epoxy stronger than concrete was used between segments. [5] During 2014, special custom-made jacks were put into place as a stop-gap measure while bearings were replaced.[6]. The previous drawbridge was the only location at which the I-75 stopped between Florida and Michigan. This high-level, segmental concrete bridge spanning the Saginaw River is said to be the perfect example on how not to build a bridge. on this website in its entirety for informational purposes and can be Start your calculations and predictions will three lanes over the Zilwaukee Bridge be enough? The incident added many years to the projected completion of the new bridge. This helps to ensure that the bridge could withstand about twice as much weight as is predicted during peak traffic hours. On December 7, 2012 the Detroit News reported that a $70 million MDOT program would commence the following April to replace 154 bearings, rebuild 4 miles of I-75, replace the Janes Road bridge, and repair the CSX and Wadsworth Road rail bridges in the area. en.wikipedia.org. On precast segmental bridges, the concrete segments must be delivered The current bridge replaced a smaller, bascule bridge (drawbridge) that was built in 1960. Check back here for updates. Crank up the tunes. has progressed down the bridge, all the ducts in the completed span are Traffic heading north each weekend, and south when the weekend is over, will still be able to traverse three lanes on the bridge. 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. following pages reproduce a 1987 report issued by the Michigan However, it is most often known as the source of a giant headache because of a costly and high-profile construction accident that halted work entirely for two years. In 2008, a $3.3 million construction project to replace bridge bearings hit a snag. As the interstate highway system brought increased traffic to the area, a drawbridge was built in 1960. All rights reserved (About Us). consisted of the new four-lane, double-leaf bascule (draw) bridge and a The origin of today's Zilwaukee Bridge can be traced back to the original Workers then epoxy the segments together and run them through with steel tension wires. Ground view shows massive dimensions 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. on the job weigh 160 tons, so the loaded unit can weigh up to 262 tons, Repair work began in the early summer of 1983 and totaled around $6.8 million. The dramatic failure of the Zilwaukee Bridge was successfully repaired by the State of Michigan in 1983. This drawbridge was meant to ease congestion, but made it worse as both vehicle and shipping traffic drastically increased. Now, an average of 21.6 million vehicles cross the bridge per year. In April 2008, work crews replacing bridge bearings unexpectedly drilled into several reinforcing steel bars in the bridge. http://media.mlive.com/saginawnews_impact/photo/zilwaukee-bridge-bbec235072ccfec4.jpg. There were engineering calculations done that said this needs to be here and this load needs to be here and this counterweight needs to be here6 and it simply was not followed, former MDOT Chief Bridge Engineer Matt Chynoweth said. 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. The Zilwaukee Bridge wasnt the only option pitched when thinking about how to stop the traffic jams. part of the I-75/US-10/US-23 freeway. Our concern is if they shut it down for one year in each way, it could have a major impact, Jolin said. Department of Transportation, Zilwaukee Bridge: Needless to say, the draw bridge wasnt exactly working. 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. The . To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member. pieces will fit perfectly when they are placed together on the bridge. http://www.michiganhighways.org/listings/US-010.html. planned at that time, the 1953 bypass would become part of a much bigger An average of more than 6,600 pounds of steel cables holds each segment in place. The first contract totaled $75 million. The Zilwaukee Bridge is a box-and-girder concrete segmental bridge that crosses the Saginaw River in Michigan. 10. It was opened in 1988 and is 8,000 feet (2440 m) long and 125 feet (38 m) at its highest point. The new bearings should last anywhere from 25 to 50 years, or possibly even longer, he said. 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. Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement updated 7/1/2022). They ride electric cars inside to inspect and do repairs. About 15 years after it opened, plans to replace it with a high-level bridge would start gaining steam, according to Michigan Highways. The Zilwaukee Bridge is a high-level, segmental concrete bridge spanning the Saginaw River in the U.S. state of Michigan.The river serves as the boundary between Zilwaukee Township and the city of Zilwaukee at this point, which is approximately 5 miles (8.0 km) north of downtown Saginaw.. We have some major businesses here in town that must have that expressway open.. Many Michigan seniors, like Tom Fleisher of West Bloomfield, remember the signs warning people. The main reason for the accident was that too much weight was placed on a compression block. Department of Transportation. The work was completed in 2015 and was expected extend the life of the bridge until 2087. removed so that river traffic would not be impeded. Bridge Report Aerial Imagery Additional 23/U.S. The project ran from April 2013 through 2015. to meet back up with US-23 (present-day M-13) deck of the old drawbridge now rests on the bottom of Lake Huron as a fish The It was actually a four-lane draw bridge and a freeway beginning at the northern end of the 1953 bypass (at present-day M-13), crossing the bridge and continuing north into Bay City. The state spent $120 million to build the bridge but design problems and. ** FILE **Traffic is stop and go over the Zilwaukee Bridge Sunday afternoon in this July 6, 2003 photo, as the Fourth of July motorists head home. It helps prevent water and roadway contaminants 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.. Each cable is stretched with hydraulic jacks, stressed to nearly 200 tons, The bridge is named after the small city in Saginaw County, Zilwaukee, obviously. inch in diameter. Segmental bridges are in two general categories: precase and cast-in-place. At Zilwaukee, each cable is about the size of a man's wrist. with post-tensioned steel cables to form the deck, or superstructure, of He's been with WDIV since 2013. The each cable is about the size of a man's wrist. Brunner said MDOT will meet with government officials and business owners to review traffic patterns before construction begins. where they are to be erected. You are being asked to avoid the. News never stops. While the most obvious 23/U.S. That way, neither vehicle nor shipping traffic would be impeded by the other. 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. The newly developed concept of interstate highways changed the way that people moved around and brought more commuters through the region on their way from Detroit to the Upper and Lower Peninsula-connecting Mackinac Bridge. 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. 107. These joints have to be kept perfectly immobile during construction, so they are filled with temporary blocks held in place with steel tendons. By 1982, the 52 piers that would support the bridge were finished, and expansion joints were being added. The Zilwaukee Bridge is a massive segmental concrete bridge that carries the I-75 over the Saginaw River in Michigan. There will be about 27,000 miles of eighth-inch wire [4] On October 21, 2008 the bridge opened up to north and southbound traffic once again. with many steel cables to form the decks.]. Five sets of casting forms inside the building After eight years of construction, the northbound lanes of the Zilwaukee Bridge were opened Dec. 23, 1987. directly on the bridge superstructure. 120 and 160 tons. long flatbed truck and trailer. All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. SAGINAW, Mich. - Friday marks 35 years since the Michigan Department of Transportation opened the Zilwaukee Bridge. The original completion date for the Zilwaukee Bridge was November 1983. built in western Europe and have been found to be generally more economical In 1960, the new route opened -- and the Zilwaukee Bridge was born. mate on the structure, a process called "match-casting." Unfortunately, that wasn't the reality. Create an account to start this course today. girder. 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. 21.6M vehicles cross each year. 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. Its purpose, though, was largely as a seal to keep out water and roadway contaminants. And they did this to try and trick new settlers, like immigrants, into thinking it was actually Milwaukee. 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. and another is attached to the opposite side. The mayor said he also is concerned about emergency responders having easy access to the city. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. It was projected to reach completion in 1983 at a cost of $77 million. Copyright 2022 by WDIV ClickOnDetroit - All rights reserved. It is the cables that hold all the segments in compression. It didnt really work, and Zilwaukee did not turn into Milwaukee. The Zilwaukee Bridge along Interstate 75 over the Saginaw River. Bridge in Zilwaukee and Zilwaukee Township, Michigan, "Z-Bridge screw up remains under investigation", "$70M construction project planned for Zilwaukee Bridge in April", "In the Field Report - "The Zilwaukee Bridge project", "Why Bridges Have Failed Throughout History", "The Z-Bridge: The Turbulent History Behind Michigan's Zilwaukee Bridge", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zilwaukee_Bridge&oldid=1120452718, Buildings and structures in Saginaw County, Michigan, Transportation in Saginaw County, Michigan, Bridges of the United States Numbered Highway System, Short description is different from Wikidata, Infobox mapframe without OSM relation ID on Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 7 November 2022, at 02:38. The segment of freeway utilizing the Zilwaukee Bridge is part of I-75 and US23. The original Zilwaukee Bridge ended up causing more traffic than it eased, due to the fact that commuters in both directions had to stop whenever the drawbridge opened. auto transporter trucks weighing 40 tons each. The Saginaw News article also details an instance where Michigan State Police raised the bridge to stop a fleeing criminal on I-75. The project is expected to last through January 2015. The accident delayed construction for over 2 years.Pic: http://media.mlive.com/saginawnews_impact/photo/zilwaukee-bridge-bbec235072ccfec4.jpg. Bridge "bearings" are pads under the bridge deck that transfer loads to the piers while allowing for some movement. Officials confirmed Tulpehocken Forge Road is closed and they're asking people to avoid the area. The compound gets rid of the ice without any worry of corrosion to the bridge. When we open 1-Major and show a hand with a long suit, the opponents often find a way to get in the way. (MDOT/Michigan Highways). 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. Today, the Zilwaukee Bridge is the major artery connecting the north of Michigan to Detroit. Really makes me wonder - if that was a seriously considered plan, what happened? in a specially built facility and then transported to the construction Traffic shifted between I-75/US-23 and I-675 twice weekly to ensure three lanes were open in the direction of peak travel. from leaking into the bridge itself. Top top it off, shipping traffic actually quadrupled in the years after Each is formed by 12 strands In an August 22, 1989 article, The Authorities chose the lower-cost option. 1,700 tons. The Zilwaukee Bridge is a high-level, segmental concrete bridge spanning the Saginaw River in the U.S. state of Michigan. After an extensive investigation, five separate factors were identified, but the main issue was that too much construction weight was placed on the joint while the deck was being built. Chris has a master's degree in history and teaches at the University of Northern Colorado. The State Journal story from Nov. 11, 1960. We had to wait in line. BAY CITY, Mich. (WNEM) - The Bay Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced it is permanently changing its routes to avoid tolls on Liberty Bridge and . My concern is (if) there are other examples out there of marked drawings that are incomplete. Copyright 2023 ClickOnDetroit.com is managed by Graham Digital and published by Graham Media Group, a division of Graham Holdings. The building and opening of the Zilwaukee Bridge: Yet, five years later than expected, on Dec. 23, 1987, the first vehicles crossed the northbound side. bridge was opened to traffic on Monday, September 19, 1988. 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. And it wasnt just the cars that suffered. However, construction of the new segmental concrete bridge ran into trouble in 1982 when an expansion joint was overloaded, crushing the temporary expansion block. 10. Great Lakes freighter traffic would force it to open about three times a day. .004 inches (about the thickness of a human hair). One place where this really became an issue was in the town of Zilwaukee, Michigan in the US. 2/24/2018 Aleana W. It's a iconic MI bridge. major holiday weekends and during the fall hunting season. in an MDOT-produced publication from the early-1990s: The as well. 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. During construction, the expansion joints were held in place by compression blocks that prevented them from moving until the box-girder deck was completed. spans are complete, the last segment is cast in place to join the spans. In the early-1950s, the Michigan State Highway Department constructed a While the need for a replacement of the original structure became acute soon after it was completed,[3] the construction of the current structure was also plagued with difficulties. In order to provide you with the best online experience this website uses cookies. Construction efforts hit a major setback in August 1982, when, among other, less-significant causes, mispositioned weight crushed a temporary block placed in an expansion joint. The cause, according to Michigan Highways, was construction loads at that location were too heavy. Mark Brush was Michigan Radios Digital Media Director. We lifted and tilted and jacked it into place. This balanced group of four it was issued prior to the completion of the bridge and is worded accordingly. Sometimes, the back-ups exceeded 30 miles and several hours in length. The bridge was built segment by segment, working from one end of the river toward the other side. Kayla is a Web Producer for ClickOnDetroit. of concrete was installed on the bridge and the northbound lanes of the I-75/US-23 freeway Back to: Table of Contents, Michigan 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. added to one end of the completed group, and then a balancing segment is Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. There will be about 27,000 miles of eighth-inch wire in the completed 1.5-mile-long bridge. plant at the bridge site. Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement updated 7/1/2022). Only one side of the bridge is open at a time, and traffic is shifted on Tuesday and Saturday, based on peak times. With regard to the bridge itself, 154 bearings installed during the bridge's construction in the 1980s were replaced with new ones made of "a high-density plastic material" according to MDOT's Engineer of Bridge Field Services Matthew J. Chynoweth. Copyright 2022 by WDIV ClickOnDetroit - All rights reserved. High pressure injection or pillar. For the first three years, everything went according to plan, and all of the piers were constructed on schedule. But in the 1980s, the Zilwaukee Bridge controversially turned into Michigans most expensive. The effect caused one side of the 300-foot-long section of bridge deck to sag and the other to rise. Segments beginning at the existing route (Dixie Hwy) in Bridgeport, continuing northerly 0:00 / 1:50 The history, design and construction of the Zilwaukee Bridge 30 Years Later MLive 423K subscribers Subscribe 20 3.5K views 5 years ago Saturday, Dec. 23 2017 will mark the 30th. New bearings of "high-density plastic material" will give the bridge a much longer life: The bridge project, along with other nearby bridge and highway projects, are expected to cost $70 million. More than $ 1 million, they figure. `` and expansion joints were being added they figure... That would support the bridge was opened to traffic on Monday, 19... Per year vehicle nor shipping traffic drastically increased turbulent history behind Michigans bridge. Each cable is about the size of a man & # x27 ; re asking people avoid! Moving the old bridge will save more than $ 1 million, they figure ``. 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