Bailey Road Bridge and Norman Road Driveways

The Bailey Road Bridge is an example of a small lattice beam bridge on a public road, which has been closed by the county. If you continue west from Bailey Road on Norman Road, you will find that the driveways of the houses in the next mile also have the same bridge types going over the drain. The county or township must have built these bridges for the residents.

The lattice guardrail steel stringer bridge type appears to have been a somewhat standard design in Michigan. Some of them were small ditch bridges like this one, and others were larger bridges that were crossing small creeks. An example of the larger type is the 27 Mile Beam Bridge. This standard structure type is characterized by corrugated steel forming the base of the deck called a jack-arch deck. The jack-arch deck is perhaps one of the most noteworthy features of these bridges, as very few examples of this deck type survive, particularly in other states. The standard design also includes the lattice railings, which are held onto the bridge by an unusual bracket system. These brackets appear to have been a flaw in the design, as many bridges of this type, including the 27 Mile Bridge, have their guardrails falling off or are completely in the river. They appear susceptible to damage from things carried by spring floods. The Bailey Road Bridge and Norman Road Driveway Bridges seem to have survived with collision damage being the only thing afflicting their guardrails.