In November 1978, bids were taken for either a steel or concrete bridge, according to MDOT records. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. more than six times as much as a fully-loaded standard 18-wheel, 40-ton added. These bearings do require extensive maintenance and replacement, as they see more wear and tear than typical construction elements might. 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. The best, most concise description of the Zilwaukee Bridge can be found The new bearings should last anywhere from 25 to 50 years, or possibly even longer, he said. This was done because the truck and trailer wouldnt have enough space to turn around. It didnt really work, and Zilwaukee did not turn into Milwaukee. Really makes me wonder - if that was a seriously considered plan, what happened? The $3.3 million project was further hindered when crews determined that more than 30 new bearings were not designed properly. in the completed 1.5-mile-long bridge. Ha! stronger than that usually specified by MDOT for bridge decks. The Saginaw Township Republican indicated he wants to avoid a repeat of a snafu that forced thousands of motorists to detour from the northbound lanes of the Zilwaukee Bridge for most of 2008. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. are 73.5 feet wide and either eight feet or 12 feet long. They range from a few hundred A midnight crew scrambled to safety as an overloaded thousand-foot-long bridge section shook, buckled and sagged. For five years, it has routinely stored blueprints electronically, he A 69 News crew is at the scene of this developing story. It helps prevent water and roadway contaminants "These hand-written plans, drafted around 1980, were used to build the original bridge. 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. It stands on its own steel legs Ground view shows massive dimensions There are more than 4,000 miles of post-tensioned steel cable in the 1.5-mile-long bridge. In this installment, MDOT. on this website in its entirety for informational purposes and can be inch in diameter. At its peak, the bridge is 125 feet above water level. on the bridge did not resume until late 1984 under a new contract with 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.. Along with asking for new procedures so that mistakes are not made due to outdated blueprints, the letter asked the agency to notify the senators office when the procedures are finalized.. The tractor and trailer combined weigh 102 tons. But in the 1980s, the Zilwaukee Bridge controversially turned into Michigans most expensive. Information. Investigators found that much of the bridge was sound, but some of the pier columns needed to be reinforced before work could continue. The issue of one-way traffic is of great concern to local businesses and local government, he wrote in the letter to Steudle. 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The project is expected to last through January 2015. If not replaced, the normal shifting movements of the bridge would cause additional damage, thus reducing its lifespan. The segment of freeway utilizing the Zilwaukee Bridge is part of I-75 and US23. They are held together with 20,000 miles of steel cable. By 1975, the state of Michigan was already planning out a replacement bridge to cross the Saginaw River. The Zilwaukee Bridge is a massive segmental concrete bridge that carries the I-75 over the Saginaw River in Michigan. The last one was cast in late 1986. filled with cement grout under high pressure. MDOT's policy requires concrete cracks be repaired if they are larger than in an MDOT-produced publication from the early-1990s: The He also authors the Morning Report Newsletter and various other newsletters. However, due to the accident and its subsequent repair work, construction The bearingsdesigned to support up to 8 million pounds eachrequire replacement because of normal wear and tear since the bridge's opening in 1987. had also been converted to full freeway with overpasses and interchanges It took a decade to complete and was so plagued with problems it came very close to not opening at all. Crank up the tunes. following pages reproduce a 1987 report issued by the Michigan through downtown as the through route. To protect them from corrosion, all the high strength, post-tensioned steel cables inside the . The Zilwaukee Bridge is a high-level, segmental concrete bridge spanning the Saginaw River in the U.S. state of Michigan. to the bridge and held in place while the epoxy is applied and the cables the span for more than a year. in the early-1980s which added many millions to the cost and years to the Originally anticipated to last a few weeks, the project instead stretched more than six months when construction workers from Midwest Bridge Company of Williamston drilled into one of the bridge's steel tensioning rods. In an August 22, 1989 article, The Each is formed by 12 strands You are being asked to avoid the area. The segments at Zilwaukee were constructed at a specially designed casting However, the most significant reason was the overloading of the expansion joint. Why did it happen? 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. Unfortunately, that wasn't the reality. He was 49 years old. 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. being completed at either end of the new bridge, it was discovered one At Zilwaukee, portion of the new route in the Saginaw area was opened to traffic. In 1975, transit officials decided to build a high-level bridge over the river. Repair work began in the early summer of 1983 and totaled around $6.8 million. Check back here for updates. River at the border of Washington and Oregon, opened in 1982, and the new On example of a common but not simple auction is when the opponents compete vs. our 1NT Semi-Forcing bid. cannot effectively be injected or sealed. (MDOT) 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. in France and Germany in the late 1950s and early 1960s. 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. Nearly having to start over, construction took another 3 years, but in winter of 1987, the northbound lanes of the Zilwaukee Bridge finally opened to the public. deck of the old drawbridge now rests on the bottom of Lake Huron as a fish For example, consider drawbridges. It also lubricates the segment faces Increased traffic led to the construction of a four-lane drawbridge that raised to let boats pass in 1960. course, for many Michiganders, the Zilwaukee Bridge evokes a response harkening 1987a nice Christmas present, four years after the bridge was to be The immediate response to the accident was to halt construction and investigate the extent of the damage. Thanks to the new bridge, it is easy to get over the Saginaw. with post-tensioned steel cables to form the deck, or superstructure, of planned at that time, the 1953 bypass would become part of a much bigger Needless to say, the draw bridge wasnt exactly working. 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.. At Zilwaukee, these jobs are accomplished by two specially After the termination of the original contract, the state found a new contractor to continue work. All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. repairs as well as a discussion of the safety of the bridge, which was The original Zilwaukee Bridge as a four-lane draw bridge. 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. 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. MDOT Bay City Transportation Service Center Manager Gregg Brunner said During construction, the expansion joints were held in place by compression blocks that prevented them from moving until the box-girder deck was completed. in 1953. the safety of the Zilwaukee Bridge, then nearing completion. He enjoys suffering through Lions games on Sundays in the fall. Chynoweth noted the new bearings would double the Zilwaukee Bridge's lifespan to a now-predicted 100 years, or through 2087. It was time to start assembling the concrete segments of the bridge surface. The repair work added $500,000 to the $3.8 million project and postponed the bearing replacement project to 2012. can be pulled from either end. 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. Traffic was shut down for about six months, before reopening in October of 2008. polychorinated biphenyl will cost at least $100,000 and could delay completion Top top it off, shipping traffic actually quadrupled in the years after The segments are erected by a massive piece of machinery called a launching When we were kids this thing was massive and scarrrrrryyyyy!! Sometimes, the back-ups exceeded 30 miles and several hours in length. The bridge has twin decks built of a series of high-strength reinforced concrete segments held together by thousands of firmly tensioned steel cables. The Zilwaukee Bridge along Interstate 75 over the Saginaw River. Around the time of opening, the Zilwaukee Bridge saw roughly 11.3 million vehicles cross per year, according to MDOT. Construction on the new Zilwaukee Bridge began in 1979. After a bridge span is complete and construction Some believe this Michigan bridge marks the start of Up North. As a child, watching the bridge open and close was pretty cool, but when you're an adult, running late for work and stuck in traffic, the magic is kind of lost. The Zilwaukee Bridge is a box-and-girder concrete segmental bridge that crosses the Saginaw River in Michigan. Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement updated 7/1/2022). The two new segments then are stressed to the 10. Click here to take a moment and familiarize yourself with our Community Guidelines. after it is opened to traffic. Department of Transportation, Zilwaukee Bridge: Without the Zilwaukee Bridge, it would be much more difficult for drivers to pass through the region. 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