It also lubricates the segment faces While the bridge has performed very well in the years since it has opened Posted December 22, 2019, by Mike Kerkau (mjkerkau [at] gmail [dot] com) One thing worth noting: Upon the opening of this bridge to traffic, it served a triple concurrency of I-75/U.S. 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. it joins. has progressed down the bridge, all the ducts in the completed span are This story is a bit of legend, but its mostly accepted by local historians. Thus, the new bridge is The situation with old plans has been around for years, he said. the opening of the (original) Zilwaukee Bridge in 1960 it became clear During the six-month shutdown, traffic was rerouted via I-675 through downtown Saginaw and massive back-ups were common. That same article noted the City could save $10-30 million by buying the then-18-year-old structure than building a brand-new one, although it would have had to get Coast Guard approval, since it would have violated the maximum required channel with of 150 feet. of firmly tensioned steel cables. As more and more ships traversed the Saginaw River, the bridge had to be opened more frequently, stopping vehicle traffic. plant at the bridge site. The original Aerial map of Zilwaukee Bridges by Chris Bessert/Michigan Highways. The first two of those still serve this route across the current Zilwaukee Bridge today, but U.S. 10 was scaled back to end . directly on the bridge superstructure. The Department followed rigid procedures for quality control during the the span for more than a year. These joints have to be kept perfectly immobile during construction, so they are filled with temporary blocks held in place with steel tendons. Before she joined the team in 2018 she worked at WILX in Lansing as a digital producer. While the most obvious There were discussions about abandoning the project completely. A Saginaw News article from 1967 details another freighters crash into the bridge, causing traffic to be re-routed for a few days. Now, an average of 21.6 million vehicles cross the bridge per year. 2/24/2018 Aleana W. It's a iconic MI bridge. The final bridge would not be completed until 1987-88, but finally, the people of Zilwaukee had a bridge that could handle their growth. Around 21 million vehicles a year ride up and over the Saginaw River. It may not have been the easiest transition, but growing pains are often parts of getting bigger. When two adjacent It didnt really work, and Zilwaukee did not turn into Milwaukee. a new contractor. of concrete was installed on the bridge and the northbound lanes of the I-75/US-23 freeway Adding insult to injury, the contractor discovered that more than 30 of the new bearings weren't properly designed and would not fit where they were to be installed. But in August of 1982, after more than half the bridge had taken shape disaster struck. The northbound portion of the bridge was finally opened to traffic on December 23, 1987, just in time for Christmas. The state spent $120 million to build the bridge but design problems and. Michigan Highways > In Depth: The Zilwaukee Bridge, Page Contents: History The Replacement & Accident Ongoing Maintenance Zilwaukee However, the most significant reason was the overloading of the expansion joint. The Because it would be virtually impossible Boat traffic was also backed up on the river, as shipping traffic quadrupled in the years after the bridge opened. Work started in 1979 and was supposed to finish in 1983. They rejected a proposed steel bridge in favor of a slightly cheaper concrete model estimated at $77M. had also been converted to full freeway with overpasses and interchanges In 1979, construction on the elevated Zilwaukee Bridge, which accommodates both boat and vehicle traffic, began. as well. posted to the USENET newsgroup alt.great-lakes the On precast segmental bridges, the concrete segments must be delivered Traffic began using the Zilwaukee Bridge again on October 1, 2008. joint between the segments. 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. Almost exactly nine months later, the southbound side of the Create an account to start this course today. Enrolling in a course lets you earn progress by passing quizzes and exams. There will be about 27,000 miles of eighth-inch wire in the completed 1.5-mile-long bridge. The worst back-ups, of course, occurred during 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. As an aid in joining each precast piece to its mate, high-strength epoxy Saturday, August 20th 2022 Crashes impacting NB and SB 75 on the Zilwaukee Bridge. Click here to take a moment and familiarize yourself with our Community Guidelines. The bridge wasnt even open for traffic yet at this point. For precast segments, each individual piece is cast against its ultimate The segmental bridge is built from individual concrete pieces, or segments, Do you know anyspectacular road?Click here to send us all the info, and we'll publish it! All rights reserved (About Us). The Zilwaukee Bridge has a mile-long box underneath the entire span so maintenance workers can keep an eye on how its holding up. The State Journal story from Nov. 11, 1960. The original Zilwaukee Bridge as a four-lane draw bridge. 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. 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. The last one was cast in late 1986. This would have been a big enough problem with only the increased vehicle traffic, but Michigan's growing economy also meant that shipping traffic was rapidly increasing. of the new bridge as segments are erected one against another and are post-tensioned Hydraulic presses were used to realign the bridge. A match-cast segment is attached to one side of that pier group The segments are joined It was time to start assembling the concrete segments of the bridge surface. MDOT Bay City Transportation Service Center Manager Gregg Brunner said In 1960, the first In 1975, transit officials decided to build a high-level bridge over the river. The Mackinac Bridge opened in 1957. 1,700 tons. The bridge was only 150 feet wide and several ships actually hit The southbound side opened the next summer. At its peak, the bridge is 125 feet above water level. The Saginaw News reported on the price tag to keep the Zilwaukee Bridge free of snow and ice.The don't use cheap salt which would result in corrosion of. They weigh between Really makes me wonder - if that was a seriously considered plan, what happened? It was a lime-stone hauler from Buffalo. He succumbed to a year-long battle with glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer, in March 2018. The current bridge is not the first Zilwaukee River crossing. freeway beginning at the northern end of the 1953 bypass (at present-day M-13), This process is repeated until the entire span is closed. The original Zilwaukee Bridge as a four-lane draw bridge. Back to: Section 2: Background The four-lane, bascule bridge (or drawbridge) opened in 1960. 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. Learn about the Zilwaukee Bridge on the Saginaw River, its history, and its height. However, construction of the new segmental concrete bridge ran into trouble in 1982 when an expansion joint was overloaded, crushing the temporary expansion block. of the ramp, now scheduled to open this year. 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.". on this website in its entirety for informational purposes and can be Needless to say, the draw bridge wasnt exactly working. Its like a teacher waved a magic wand and did the work for me. After eight years of construction, the northbound lanes of the Zilwaukee Bridge were opened Dec. 23, 1987. Then again, there's not much about THIS bridge that I had known prior to when I first visited this website last year. filled with cement grout under high pressure. This important artery allows traffic to move through the area without. A contingent of lawmakers planned to tour the bridge today after a Saginaw News investigation sparked inquiries about the agencys investigation into the mishap. In 2008, a $3.3 million construction project to replace bridge bearings hit a snag. deck of the old drawbridge now rests on the bottom of Lake Huron as a fish The state fired the original contractors and the constant bridge problems started getting heat from angry legislators in Lansing. 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. are 73.5 feet wide and either eight feet or 12 feet long. Department of Transportation. 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. In the 1980's, Toebe completed a number of large . But work didnt resume after the accident until 1984, with a new contractor. Copyright 2022 by WDIV ClickOnDetroit - All rights reserved. group to create a solid unit, six segments long. In order to provide you with the best online experience this website uses cookies. 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. Cracks smaller than .004 inches An average of more than 6,600 pounds of steel cables holds each segment in place. My concern is (if) there are other examples out there of marked drawings that are incomplete. Each is formed by 12 strands computer-aided design drawings for projects built since the mid-1990s. of high-strength reinforced concrete segments held together by thousands Groves and Sons Company was the low bidder on a contract to complete the remaining bridge, and they engaged T.Y. Zilwaukee Bridge: From the Beginning. 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. 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 original bid for the project was $76.8 million. Detroit Free Press noted "Containing and removing the toxic segments is then pulled together with high-strength steel cables, also the bridge opened, it also caused problems for traffic on the Saginaw River bridge was opened to traffic on Monday, September 19, 1988. The new bearings should last anywhere from 25 to 50 years, or possibly even longer, he said. 91.3 Port Huron 89.7 Lansing 91.1 Flint. The southbound lanes opened in the fall of 1988, at which point the old bascule bridge was officially closed. 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. Many of the original stainless steel and teflon bearings have been replaced with a plastic material. the safety of the Zilwaukee Bridge, then nearing completion. They range from a few hundred The entire segment instantly sank five feet lower than the section they were attempting to attach it to. During a bearing replacement project, a contractor inadvertently cut through reinforced steel on the bridge, the agency has reported. Thanks to the new bridge, it is easy to get over the Saginaw. To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member. The concrete segments were built nearby, at a facility constructed for the project. Ground view shows massive dimensions The origin of today's Zilwaukee Bridge can be traced back to the original It assures thatthe 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. repairs as well as a discussion of the safety of the bridge, which was Several ideas were proposed, including tunneling under the river, but eventually they decided on a box-and-girder, concrete segmental bridge that would simply be elevated high enough for ships to pass underneath. Repair work began in the early summer of 1983 and totaled around $6.8 million. It is also exceptionally tall to allow shipping to pass beneath the bridge. Zilwaukee Bridge crash leaves 49-year-old woman seriously injured SAGINAW COUNTY, MI - Police expect a 49-year-old Ortonville woman to survive serious injuries she sustained after being hit by. cast into each segment. concrete segment onto the bridge, is the equivalent of 49 fully-loaded Investigators said there were five reasons for the failure. 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. accident, what caused it and what was done to remedy the situation can Here's a copy of letters this week from an MDOT engineer to Kahn and from Kahn to MDOT's director about the Zilwaukee Bridge construction mishap. (You can read a lot more about the construction issue here). Department of Transportation, Zilwaukee Bridge: 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. an outmoded, inadequate drawbridge that caused backups on the freeway every Crank up the tunes. beginning at the existing route (Dixie Hwy) in Bridgeport, continuing northerly After the cleanup and investigations and hiring of new contractors, work didn't resume until late 1984. "From the 'as built' plans for the bridge, the only steel that was expected to be encountered were smaller steel bars," said Bay Region Engineer Robert Ranck. The grout cures to become The initial budget of $79 million had already been exceeded by $48 million, when at time in 1982, the bridge was roughly two-thirds completed, and a 150-foot (46 m) long segment weighing 6,700-ton (6,070 metric tonnes), not being properly counterbalanced, tipped down to being five feet (1.5 m) out of alignment, with the other end rising 3.5 feet (1.1 m). 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. The cause, according to Michigan Highways, was construction loads at that location were too heavy. The resulting fiasco was the worst in Michigan's transit history. Information. The agency's Bay Region spokeswoman Anita Richardson said MDOT will follow the recommendations of an independent report on the mishap to make sure construction mistakes dont occur in the future on the Zilwaukee Bridge or on other Bay Region road work. no alterationsgrammatical or otherwisehave been made. 10. We froze the ground below the pier, we abandoned the footing in place because the footing was completely destroyed. 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. which are hollow and usually rectangular in shape. ), The Department of Transportation in response to public concerns about All rights reserved (About Us). The ship failed to respond after turning the bend near the bridge. On Tuesday, September 22, 1987 the final 117-ton piece There will be about 27,000 miles of eighth-inch wire When The Zilwauke Bridge is so high because it must allow boats to past. and constructed is a post-tensioned, segmental, box girder bridge and work The Zilwaukee Bridge has some impressive specifications. . It Zilwaukee Bridge is ahigh level bridge carrying I-75 [and US-23] over In fact, in 1979, the traffic jam was a whopping 56 miles long. and then locked in place with tapered steel wedges, a process called post-tensioning. The bridge carries the I-75 / US 23 road. 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. Here are some facts, myths and statistics about the bridge, which turns 30 this weekend. Unfortunately, shipping increased fourfold in the early 1960s; and each time the drawbridge opened, cars would back up for miles. You are still completely responsible for your decisions, your actions, and your safety. The Z-Bridge, as it has come to be called, has a rich and, at times, dangerous history, but its without a doubt one of the best-known bridges in Michigan. 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