In the wake of the horrific Interstate 35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis, nervous traffic officials across the country are fanning out to check bridges in an effort to ensure a similar tragedy doesn’t occur.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that one of the structurally deficient bridges in Missouri is on Route 66:
One of those bridges, a Meramec River crossing that serves as an entrance to Route 66 State Park near Eureka, has been rated as low as a three [out of 10]. It was closed temporarily in November so crews could reinforce failing concrete on piers that support it.
“The scary part is we don’t know what caused the bridge collapse” in Minnesota, said Pat Martens, a Missouri Department of Transportation bridge engineer for the St. Louis district.
Here’s what the Route 66 State Park bridge looks like. The park sits on the former Route 66 town of Times Beach, which was evacuated because of dioxin contamination.
I don’t think the Route 66 State Park bridge is in any danger of collapsing. Semis don’t use it anymore, and car traffic there is very light. As long as it’s maintained and monitored, it should be fine.
But this whole episode makes me a bit nervous. I want safe bridges as much as anyone. But I fear transportation officials will become overzealous and replace Route 66’s historic bridges — such as the Rock Creek Bridge in Sapulpa, Okla., and the Pony Truss Bridge near Hydro, Okla. — instead of repairing them and maintaining their unique look.
We Route 66ers must be vigilant and firm in telling our local traffic officials that historic bridges must be repaired, not replaced.
UPDATE: Here’s an interesting excerpt from the Inland Press-Enterprise in Southern California:
The worst of San Bernardino County’s roughly 200 bridges are the nearly 100 on the National Trails Highway, formerly Route 66, a road the county inherited from the federal government when Interstate 40 was built, Olson said.
The historic old highway through the Mojave Desert has 58 structurally deficient timber bridges that cross washes and culverts, and others that need to be replaced, at a cost of about $300,000 each, Olson said.
With that price tag, a complete and immediate overhaul is not possible, and they must remain open because they are part of a historic highway, she said.
The county copes, Olson said, by replacing the most deteriorated bridges, and posting speed and weight limits on the others.
In other words, maintenance is deferred until the bridge gets too bad to ignore any longer.
That doesn’t inspire much confidence. Nothing will change until governments allocate more funding for them. And that’s assuming the money even exists.
UPDATE2: The San Bernardino County Sun elaborates on the challenges of getting those Route 66 bridges in California up to code:
There are 120 bridges, “all timber, all of which are in trouble and need to be replaced, and they’re all historic,” she said.
The historic designation means any replacement has to remain true to the look of the original, except that wooden bridges are no longer allowed.
The county is considering bolting treated wood to concrete structures, or using forms to give concrete the appearance of wood and then painting it.