Information and Findings From MDOT
 This
multiple-span concrete/steel bridge carries the Fruitport Road over the
Pettys Bayou, an arm of Spring Lake, between the villages of Spring Lake
and Fruitport. Extending 418 feet in overall length, the Bowen Bridge is
comprised of nine steel stringer spans, five at 55 feet in length, two
at 53 feet and two at 18 feet. Each span is made up of eight lines of
rolled I-beams, with steel channel spandrel beams, all braced laterally
by solid steel diaphragms. The superstructure is supported by concrete
spill-through piers, each of which rests on two steel caissons.
The bridge’s location over a marshy inlet necessitated unusually deep
foundations. “The design was dictated by the type of material underlying
the lake bottom which provided very low bearing values at depths of over
100 feet below the water surface,” MSHD engineer C.H. Voss stated in
1949. “In order to provide satisfactory bearing for the foundation
units, the substructure was designed to incorporate the use of friction
piling which was provided by the use of tapered, fluted shell piles in
the pier units and timber piles in the abutment units.”
The Bowen Bridge features standard MSHD design and detailing, with
corbelled steps on the bulkheads and concrete piers, ornamental steel
guardrails with concrete posts, and a concrete deck that corbels over
the spandrels to form stringcourses. Today the bridge is in excellent
structural condition, without alterations.
Formed in 1911, the Ottawa County Road Commission immediately began an
ambitious program of countywide road and bridge construction, entailing
almost 200 miles of roads. One of the routes originally designated by
the commission was the Fruitport Road, a 1 ½ -mile stretch in Spring
Lake Township. The commission began actual construction of this and
other county roads in the spring of 1912. Under the supervision of
County Surveyor Emmet Peck, work progressed throughout the county during
the 1910s. In 1921, the commission hired civil engineer Carl Bowen. A
former MSHD employee, Bowen was responsible not only for the road and
bridge engineering in Ottawa County but for day-to-day operation of the
road commission. He held the position for more than three decades before
retiring around 1956.
One of the bridges built under Bowen’s tenure was this multiple-span
structure over Pettys Bayou on the Fruitport Road. The Michigan State
Highway Department engineered the structure late in 1947 on behalf of
the county. MSHD designated the bridge as a Federal Aid Secondary
project, solicited competitive proposals and awarded the contract to
build it to L.W. Lamb of Holland, Michigan, and the Luedtke Engineering
Company of Frankfort.
Poor bearing conditions dictated an innovative substructural system.
According to Voss, “The abutment units are of cellular construction
supported on timber piling. This type of construction was selected to
reduce the weight on the underlying soil and to spread the bearing over
a greater area so as to avoid superimposing loads on the approach fill.”
The piers were caisson-type over driven piles. Construction on the
bridge commenced in February 1948 and continued unabated until a
two-week break in July. The last concrete was poured in November; the
bridge was opened to traffic on December 3, 1948. Total cost :$237,000.
At the request of the local Chamber of Commerce, the bridge was
dedicated on June 24 as the Bowen Bridge. The structure “honors Bowen
for his long service to the commission,” state the Grand Haven Daily
Tribune. “For 27 years he has guided the development of county highways
and bridges, virtually lifting most county roads out of literal sand
ruts of years ago.”
The Bowen Bridge has since carried vehicular traffic on this secondary
route, in essentially unaltered condition. The Bowen Bridge represented
one of the most important pieces of post-WWII construction in Ottawa
County. It is historically important for its association with Carl
Bowen, a locally important personage. And it is technologically
noteworthy as a well-preserved example of late-1940s bridge construction
in Michigan.
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