Bell Road Bridge

Visit MDOT's Page For This Historic Bridge

This is a six panel pratt through truss. According to MDOT, this bridge was built by the Wrought Iron Bridge Company. The bridge has been moved off of its abutments and now rests on the grass near the river. The deck no longer remains on the bridge. Although there are traces of paint on the bridge, rust has done some visible damage to the bridge. There appears to be some areas of the bridge that have had plates of steel welded to the heavily rusted areas of the bridge. No guardrails remain on the bridge. V-lacing is present on the vertical members, and on the bottom of the top chords. The bridge features a-frame portal bracing, which is not as tall as other a-framed bridges I have seen.

It looks to me like this bridge was going to be moved somewhere. It looks like the idea came and went. The patch jobs on the bridge may have had to be done to make the bridge safe to move. In my opinion, this bridge is ready for some restoration work. Off on the land, without a deck, repairs to the superstructure could be easily made. This bridge could perhaps be used somewhere in the Huron Mills Metro Park that is near the bridge. Although the bridge does not look as nice sitting on the grass, it is certainly not going to fall into the river. Hopefully someone will get some interest in this bridge and get this bridge fixed at least for pedestrian use.