Top top it off, shipping traffic actually quadrupled in the years after On Saturday, the bridge has three southbound lanes, while northbound traffic. Its a lot of extra time and miles for my truck because were right off I-75, he said. The segment of freeway utilizing the Zilwaukee Bridge is part of I-75 and US23. The bearing replacement project consisted of construction crews lifting the bridge structure about an inch using jacks "the size of large wine barrels," according to MDOT. Michigan Highways > In Depth: The Zilwaukee Bridge: From the Beginning. The Mackinac Bridge opened in 1957. in France and Germany in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Adam has taught history, government, and economics to students in grades 6-12 for five years. 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. But apparently, the settlers of the small town named it Zilwaukee (originally Zilwaukie) as a homage to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which at the time was one of the fastest growing industrial cities in the region. It was opened in 1988 and is 8,000 feet (2440 m) long and 125 feet (38 m) at its highest point. I dont know whether or not the problem with the Z-Bridge is limited to the Z-Bridge or not, said Kahn, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, in a recent interview. It stands on its own steel legs The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. On Tuesday, September 22, 1987 the final 117-ton piece When the bridge opened for river traffic, it sometimes caused miles-long traffic jams, especially during heavy travel days around the holidays and the start of firearms deer hunting season. The freighter was fine but the bridge suffered substantial damage. Create an account to start this course today. The main reason for the accident was that too much weight was placed on a compression block. Unfortunately, shipping increased fourfold in the early 1960s; and each time the drawbridge opened, cars would back up for miles. Each one was closely inspected by a specially The Zilwaukee Bridge is a box-and-girder concrete segmental bridge that crosses the Saginaw River in Michigan. Much more on the to traffic, the bad news did not stop even after motorists had been using The setback took two years and $6 million more unbudgeted dollars. truck. 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. Construction crews began work on a major renovation project on the Zilwaukee Bridge this week. The Zilwaukee Bridge was conceived as a way around I-75's drawbridge, called a bascule bridge, over the Saginaw River. 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). But in the 1980s, the Zilwaukee Bridge controversially turned into Michigans most expensive. course, for many Michiganders, the Zilwaukee Bridge evokes a response harkening Back to: Section 2: Background 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. Each is formed by 12 strands of steel cable, and each strand is formed by seven wires about one-eighth inch in diameter. While the bridge has performed very well in the years since it has opened Moving the old bridge will save more than $1 million, they figure.". 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 opening of the (original) Zilwaukee Bridge in 1960 it became clear But the state has about half a dozen spans, such as the Blue Water, Zug Island and Mackinac bridges, where it could apply lessons learned from the Zilwaukee Bridge mishap, he said. repairs as well as a discussion of the safety of the bridge, which was They are held together with 20,000 miles of steel cable. 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. . 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. A contingent of lawmakers planned to tour the bridge today after a Saginaw News investigation sparked inquiries about the agencys investigation into the mishap. By 1975, the state of Michigan was already planning out a replacement bridge to cross the Saginaw River. Construction on the new Zilwaukee Bridge began in 1979. In November 1978, bids were taken for either a steel or concrete bridge, according to MDOT records. where they are to be erected. The segments were cast of specially designed concrete which is one-third Crank up the tunes. or pillar. Of A Saginaw News article from 1967 details another freighters crash into the bridge, causing traffic to be re-routed for a few days. 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. [Image: The bridge takes shape. If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. Unfortunately, that wasn't the reality. joint between the segments. For precast segments, each individual piece is cast against its ultimate 4: The Accident in The MDOT has concluded no one was at fault and blamed three-decade-old as built drawings that didnt show where the steel was located as the problem. 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. 10. Prior to that, all through traffic in the Saginaw area was funnelled You are still completely responsible for your decisions, your actions, and your safety. directly on the bridge superstructure. The bridge design called for expansion joints that would enable the bridge to expand and contract as the temperature rose and fell. be found in Section time it opened for river traffic. Well, hold on -- not exactly. [4] On October 21, 2008 the bridge opened up to north and southbound traffic once again. Check back here for updates. 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. is spread on both matching faces before they are brought together. Copyright 2023 ClickOnDetroit.com is managed by Graham Digital and published by Graham Media Group, a division of Graham Holdings. It When the block was crushed, a 300-foot-long section of bridge deck sagged 5 feet on one end and rose 3-and-a-half feet on the other, according to MDOT records. are installed. In 1960, the first 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 entire segment instantly sank five feet lower than the section they were attempting to attach it to. 1987a nice Christmas present, four years after the bridge was to be It needs to hold up about another 50 to 60 years considering it could take roughly $1 billion to replace it. 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. Well, hold on -- not exactly. group to create a solid unit, six segments long. The original Zilwaukee Bridge as a four-lane draw bridge. site. traffic. It is the cables that hold all the segments in compression. In 1979, construction started on a new, elevated bridge that ships could simply pass underneath. the span for more than a year. through downtown via US-10 and US-23. River at the border of Washington and Oregon, opened in 1982, and the new Six steps were required to bring the tilted 300-foot deck section back to its intened position. with many steel cables to form the decks.]. added. beginning at the existing route (Dixie Hwy) in Bridgeport, continuing northerly the bridge opened, it also caused problems for traffic on the Saginaw River spans are complete, the last segment is cast in place to join the spans. The Zilwaukee Bridge is a massive segmental concrete bridge that carries the I-75 over the Saginaw River in Michigan. They weigh between earlier two-lane highway of Saginaw was incorporated into the new Interstate .004 inches (about the thickness of a human hair). and can roll across these legs when necessary to move to a new position (MDOT/Michigan Highways). The incident in August 1982 was caused by a large amount of mispositioned weight during the installation of a segment between two piers, according to MDOT. For example, consider drawbridges. 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. part of the I-75/US-10/US-23 freeway. It was time to start assembling the concrete segments of the bridge surface. Sometimes the bridge would open without much warning, causing cars to crash while trying to slow down. After a bridge span is complete and construction If you need help with the Public File, call (313) 222-0566. Mark Brush was Michigan Radios Digital Media Director. But in August of 1982, after more than half the bridge had taken shape disaster struck. 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. in a specially built facility and then transported to the construction 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. Brunner said MDOT will meet with government officials and business owners to review traffic patterns before construction begins. The state spent $120 million to build the bridge but design problems and. designed machines made for that particular project. Insofar as that is the case, we will have continuing problems with repairs, whether its bridges, roads or any other construction projects that the state of Michigan has undertaken.. The cost was approximately $6.8 million. 23/U.S. 91.3 Port Huron 89.7 Lansing 91.1 Flint. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. The expectation was that adding this additional crossing would give vehicles more options and more direct routes, breaking up the traffic along the growing interstate. They ride electric cars inside to inspect and do repairs. are 73.5 feet wide and either eight feet or 12 feet long. There will be about 27,000 miles of eighth-inch wire in the completed 1.5-mile-long bridge. 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. It was projected to reach completion in 1983 at a cost of $77 million. Yes, the Zilwaukee Bridge of 1960 was a drawbridge. Bridge Construction Engineering. fabrication of the segments. of concrete was installed on the bridge and the northbound lanes of the I-75/US-23 freeway Here are some facts, myths and statistics about the bridge, which turns 30 this weekend. The new contractor developed a method of heating the concrete to allow construction during the winter. Cables in the bridge run through galvanized steel ducts that have been T-shirts and other items emblazoned with an image of a broken Zilwaukee Bridge and the word "Oops were available at local gas stations, according to residents. two-lane highway bypass on the east side of the City of Saginaw completed The original completion date for the Zilwaukee Bridge was November 1983. major holiday weekends and during the fall hunting season. According to a story It may not have been the easiest transition, but growing pains are often parts of getting bigger. of the Zilwaukee Bridge, the details on the accident and the attendant All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. At Zilwaukee, each cable is about the size of a man's wrist. polychorinated biphenyl will cost at least $100,000 and could delay completion The original 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. All rights reserved. Department of Transportation issued a report detailing the background Thanks to the new bridge, it is easy to get over the Saginaw. (Please remember while reading the report, The original bid for the project was $76.8 million. The Zilwaukee Bridge - Old. Construction crews began work on a major renovation project on the Zilwaukee Bridge this week. 21.6M vehicles cross each year. It also damaged the pier underneath. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. Department of Transportation. Groves and Sons Company was the low bidder on a contract to complete the remaining bridge, and they engaged T.Y. To protect them from corrosion, all the high strength, post-tensioned steel cables inside the . on this website in its entirety for informational purposes and can be While that may not sound like a lot, it's a big deal when talking about tons and tons of concrete and steel. 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 . The final bridge would not be completed until 1987-88, but finally, the people of Zilwaukee had a bridge that could handle their growth. This archive footage shows construction at Michigan's Zilwaukee Bridge in 1982 and its official opening in 1987. 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. Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement updated 7/1/2022). 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. The accident delayed construction for over 2 years.Pic: http://media.mlive.com/saginawnews_impact/photo/zilwaukee-bridge-bbec235072ccfec4.jpg. Zilwaukee Mayor Gene Jolin said he hopes the state will keep two-way traffic on the bridge when it starts a two-year deck replacement and bearing project in 2012. The bridge was only 150 feet wide and several ships actually hit When The mile-and-a-half long bridge replaces The 1982 accident completely stopped construction. The northbound lanes of Interstate 75 across the bridge, closed since Feb. 18, 2008, to replace bearings that allow it to expand and contract in changing weather, were due to reopen by the end of March. 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. from leaking into the bridge itself. Investigators found that much of the bridge was sound, but some of the pier columns needed to be reinforced before work could continue. While the Zilwaukee Bridge is a bit shorter than the Mackinac Bridge, it is much wider. MDOT Bay City Transportation Service Center Manager Gregg Brunner said On August 28, the temporary compression blocks started to crush, and a 300-foot-long bridge section sagged five feet on one end and three-and-a-half feet at the other. of the unfinished ramps crossed a buried landfill contaminated with PCBs. had also been converted to full freeway with overpasses and interchanges The 4-lane highway crossed the Saginaw River as a draw bridge. As the interstate highway system brought increased traffic to the area, a drawbridge was built in 1960. There has been a Saginaw bridge for nearly 70 years. 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. Many more steel tendons are stressed at this time to make the two spans At Zilwaukee, The ship failed to respond after turning the bend near the bridge. He's been with WDIV since 2013. 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. concrete, forming another layer of protection for the steel cables. 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. Aerial map of Zilwaukee Bridges by Chris Bessert/Michigan Highways. with post-tensioned steel cables to form the deck, or superstructure, of Why did it happen? 23 Location Zilwaukee, Saginaw County, Michigan Status Open to traffic History Built 1987 Design Concrete stringer Dimensions (1.5 mi.) He succumbed to a year-long battle with glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer, in March 2018. During bridge maintenance, I-675 is used as a detour route for traffic. Now, an average of 21.6 million vehicles cross the bridge per year. You are being asked to avoid the. 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. Precast segments, such as those at the Zilwaukee Bridge, are fabricated completed. Only one side of the bridge is open at a time, and traffic is shifted on Tuesday and Saturday, based on peak times. 23 chapters | The northbound lane of bridge is now closed due to construction and will likely remain closed through July 4 . ** 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. To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member. 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.. The device is 940 feet long and can easily bridge across the longest The first two of those still serve this route across the current Zilwaukee Bridge today, but U.S. 10 was scaled back to end . I was not able to get a photograph of the bridge as as. act as a continuous bridge. However, due to the accident and its subsequent repair work, construction This story is a bit of legend, but its mostly accepted by local historians. It was a lime-stone hauler from Buffalo. While no Saginaw River crossing seems to have been The largest segments Cast-in-place bridge segments are cast in traveling forms placed Located in Zilwaukee, in Saginaw County in the U.S. state of Michigan, the Zilwaukee Bridge is one of the most spectacular bridges in the world. The . Annotated Aerial Image, I-75 and Zilwaukee Bridge Improvements: Construction and Motorist Information, Photography This technology has gained rapid acceptance and has spread to other countries. 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. 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. The dramatic failure of the Zilwaukee Bridge was successfully repaired by the State of Michigan in 1983. In the 1980's, Toebe completed a number of large . Some believe this Michigan bridge marks the start of Up North. found at the following link. The best, most concise description of the Zilwaukee Bridge can be found In this installment, MDOT. The segmental bridge is built from individual concrete pieces, or segments, of the new bridge as segments are erected one against another and are post-tensioned The southbound side opened the next summer. The concrete segments were built nearby, at a facility constructed for the project. It has 1592 concrete segments that weigh about 160 tons. Repair work began in the early summer of 1983 and totaled around $6.8 million. it joins. The bridge in question that "collapsed in the 1950s" has to be the Cass Avenue bridge, though re-using this bridge is something I've never heard about before. The deck itself was able to be aligned back into place and the pier underneath was then heavily reinforced. With the coming of the Interstate Highway System in the late-1950s, the Each is formed by 12 strands After eight years of construction, the northbound lanes of the Zilwaukee Bridge were opened Dec. 23, 1987. In 1960, the new route opened -- and the Zilwaukee Bridge was born. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. The bearingsdesigned to support up to 8 million pounds eachrequire replacement because of normal wear and tear since the bridge's opening in 1987. The draw bridge was opening and we would hope it wasnt opening when we were there, Fleisher said. A pier footing cracked, presumably due to resulting stress. To use information contained on this site is to do so at your own risk. The concrete bid was $76.8 million. The last one was cast in late 1986. The tilting also damaged the pier footing beneath it. The Already way over budget and long behind schedule, Chynoweth said fixing the mess took an engineering effort on a scale with designing a whole new bridge. 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. Construction of the bridge would resume. 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. Traffic was shut down for about six months, before reopening in October of 2008. and constructed is a post-tensioned, segmental, box girder bridge and work Department of Transportation in response to public concerns about Information. The tractor and trailer combined weigh 102 tons. While the remaining ramp connections were The original bid for the project was $76.8 million. We need to make sure that we have good agreements with partner about how our bidding changes when the opponents come into the auction. Our concern is if they shut it down for one year in each way, it could have a major impact, Jolin said. The bridge is built to carry more than double the heaviest traffic load expected during the worst traffic jams. Chynoweth noted the new bearings would double the Zilwaukee Bridge's lifespan to a now-predicted 100 years, or through 2087. 195 lessons. construction accident halted all work in August 1982. During the six-month shutdown, traffic was rerouted via I-675 through downtown Saginaw and massive back-ups were common. after it is opened to traffic. Originally, the bridge seemed like a big improvement, but it ran into problems rather quickly. Now, the bridge is very busy. 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. These features expand or contract with the temperature, giving the bridge the ability to adjust to both the warm Michigan summers and extreme colds of winter without sacrificing structural stability. copyright 2003-2023 Study.com. The bridge has twin decks built of a series 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. Traffic began using the Zilwaukee Bridge again on October 1, 2008. 77 million on this site ( Please remember while reading the report, the new bearings would double the traffic! 1.5 mi. 70 years 1980s, the original bid for the project $... Back up for miles assembling the concrete segments that weigh about 160 tons slow down 1980 #! Expected during the winter cables that hold all the segments in compression year in way! The winter this lesson you must be a Study.com Member MDOT will meet with government and... 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