What’s next for the Bird Creek Bridge?

A public meeting by the Oklahoma Department of Transportation on Tuesday evening left little doubt that the historic but deteriorating Bird Creek Bridge near Catoosa will be soon closed to traffic or dismantled entirely — the latter of which would greatly alter that scenic “Three Bridges” vista on Route 66.

However, after the meeting, an ODOT official provided hope for a compromise that would preserve at least part of the bridge and that scenic spot for future Route 66 travelers, plus give motorists a safer bridge. More on that later.

The Bird Creek Bridge was built in 1936 and carries two lanes of westbound Oklahoma 66 (aka old U.S. 66). It was designed to handle only a 30,000-pound Ford Model T truck. It now carries almost 10,000 vehicles a day, and its weight limit has been lowered to 15 tons. To give you an idea how light that is, an empty dump truck weighs 18 tons, and a tanker fire engine full of water weighs 28 tons. Modern bridges are designed to handle 45 tons.

Its concrete deck continues to crumble, and saw 42 calls for emergency repairs in the past two years. Many of its steel parts are rusting. ODOT’s Craig Moody said it’s doubtful the life of the bridge could have been extended substantially unless the state had “a big pile of money” for maintenance.

“It was never designed for the load that it’s carrying,” Moody said. “The bridge has done a great job, but it’s outlived its expected age.”

The Bird Creek Bridge is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. However, ODOT officials said if the bridge is upgraded to modern traffic standards, it no longer will be eligible. The Bird Creek Bridge is 24 feet wide, and its steel cross-girders can handle a truck 14 feet, 8 inches tall. An updated bridge must be 38 feet wide and 16 feet, 9 inches tall.

ODOT officials gave an audience of about 50 people a presentation of nine options [warning: 66 MB Acrobat file] that the state has for the bridge:

• One includes doing nothing and eventually being forced to close the bridge, then converting the neighboring 1956 eastbound bridge into two-way traffic. This is not considered a viable option.
• One includes re-routing traffic to other highways. This is not considered viable, either.
• One is completely rehabilitating the bridge, which would destroy its character and render it no longer historic.
• Four of the options include building a new bridge and approaches on either side of the river crossing and closing the Bird Creek Bridge but leaving it otherwise intact. Costs would range from $7.7 million to $11.1 million. It would require the state to buy more right-of-way from several private landowners and Roger Point Public Park.
• Two of the options would be building a new concrete or steel bridge in place of the old. This would be the cheapest option, both at $4.5 million, but the new bridge’s appearance would be much more nondescript.

In a letter to ODOT, the Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program stated its support for preserving the bridge. Most people at the meeting also seemed sympathetic to retaining the bridge in some fashion, especially for Route 66 tourism reasons. But it remains uncertain whether the city of Catoosa has the ability to maintain the bridge or convert it to a pedestrian area at the park.

Earlier in the meeting, Emily Priddy asked about using the Bird Creek Bridge’s steel trusses on the new bridge, purely for aesthetic reasons. As we were leaving after the meeting, ODOT official Greg Allen flagged us down in the hallway and asked to speak to us.

Allen wanted to discuss Emily’s idea to set the old bridge’s trusses on a separate, load-bearing foundation, then attaching new but similar-looking steel crossbeams, when needed, to meet the bridge’s new width requirements.

We said we were amenable to a pragmatic solution for the the bridge. A new bridge that contained the old steel elements of the Bird Creek Bridge would no longer be eligible for the National Register. But it would keep the old Route 66 look of the bridge, preserve that area’s scenery, and still give motorists a safe and stable bridge for decades to come. The compromise also would likely be cheaper than the four options of building a new bridge and approaches over the river.

He encouraged us and other roadies to put that idea in writing on ODOT’s comment form. We later found that it was Allen who insisted on retaining the old truss bridge parts of the historic Captain Creek Bridge in Wellston when it was repaired a few years ago. That explained his intrigue for Emily’s idea on “recycling” the bridge’s eye-catching elements.

So please chime in on this form on what you want to do with the bridge. If you want it closed to traffic but otherwise kept as it is, say so. If you like the compromise of using the Bird Creek Bridge’s old steel girders on on the new bridge, say that, too.

ODOT won’t make a decision on what to do for several weeks. The agency is well aware of the significance of Route 66 and this bridge, and it’s listening.

UPDATE: Emily has an action alert on her blog on her blog on what she recommends for the ODOT comments:

From an aesthetic and safety standpoint, the best option seems to be a compromise that would involve building a new, flat bridge, then placing the old steel trusses – with some minor changes to meet modern height and width requirements – on top for aesthetic purposes. This option would preserve the bridge’s visual impact while meeting modern safety requirements.

Talking points are then listed.

Here are reports about the public meeting by KJRH-TV and KOTV. But both TV stations were gone when we were discussing the compromise solution with the ODOT official, so they’re out of the loop.

UPDATE2: Here’s a report by OETA public television:

Rod Harsh has posted Emily’s action alert on his website, along with a very nice photo of the Twin Bridges.