38th Street Bridge

"Scott Road Bridge"

Although not as majestic as a curved t-beam bridge like 6th Street, the original railings on this bridge make it more attractive than most expressway bridges. "Attractive" is a word not often heard when discussing expressway bridges, and so this bridge is a welcome welcome change from the usual. The bridge was built in 1951, as part of the plan for a Detroit-Chicago Expressway, then US-12. It later became I-94 when the Interstate system was created. Unfortunately, this bridge is so old that it was not designed with modern expressway specifications. Near Kalamazoo, I-94 has the smallest allowable number of lanes (two lanes in each direction) yet there is no median of any sort other than concrete barriers, and the 38th Street Bridge was only built to support these four lanes with no median (unlike the curved t-beams like 6th Street which can support three lanes in each direction underneath them. Unfortunately, this means that if a third lane is ever added (which would probably be a good idea) to the very busy I-94, this bridge will end up on the demolition list.

MDOT mentions that this is also known as Scott Road. Although the name Scott Road does not show up on maps, it makes one wonder if Kalamazoo County's roads once had normal names. Many southwestern Michigan counties have a grid-based numbered or lettered naming program for their roads, Kalamazoo County being no exception. In southwestern Michigan, names like East PQ Avenue, 66th Street, and P Drive South are not uncommon rural road names. They are not very attractive names for identifying bridges.