This state trunk line feels like it goes through the middle of nowhere, since goes right through the Huron National Forest. It has a pleasant surprise for travelers who cross the Ausable River, this beautiful two span pony truss.
It appears that MDOT has done a complete restoration of this rare truss bridge! A big thank-you to MDOT for a job well done! I am concerned, however, since rust is beginning to appear in a few areas of the bridge. I hope that MDOT will repaint the portions of this bridge that are rusting. I am afraid with the trunk line realignment, it will revert to county ownership, who may not care for this bridge properly.
Since MDOT spent so much time and effort redoing this bridge, I was in shock when I revisited this bridge and found that MDOT has also constructed a second, huge concrete slab bridge next to this bridge. They appear to be preparing for a small realignment of M-65 in this area, as they have blasted a new road through the hills that leads to the new bridge. I contacted MDOT and was told that they are not going to tear down the historic bridge, which is good news. They said that they wanted a new bridge because the grade and curve on toward the historic bridge was too steep. I find this odd, because I live near M-136, which has some of the sharpest curves and steepest grades of any Michigan Road, and nobody is redoing that road. I really don't care what they do, so long as the old bridge continues to remain.
The final fate of the M-65 truss bridge is bittersweet, as a summer 2005 visit by Luke Gordon revealed. The bridge has been closed to vehicular traffic, but remains open for pedestrian use. You can drive down to the bridge, park, and walk across the bridge and photograph it. What is nice is that the bridge will no longer be assaulted by salt during the winter and will likely last a lot longer. What I am sad about is that a bridge that was restored to the point where it had no posted weight limit, can no longer have cars going across it. Driving across a truss bridge is a fun experience, and now no one can have that experience with this bridge. I also am a firm believer that truss bridges, can and should be able to serve light 21st century traffic. I feel that instead, this bridge should have been left open to vehicles seasonally, with no winter maintenance. This would keep the salt off the bridge, but would allow people to enjoy a scenic drive across the bridge, and view the pretty river, and the dam, without being tailgated across the ugly slab bridge at crazy speeds!
This is a two-span parker pony truss. Parker truss is a camelback shaped version of a Pratt truss. V-lacing and latticing are present on diagonal members and the top chord. The deck is concrete.
According to some historic pictures I have, the concrete abutments originally looked like this when the bridge was first built, but I have seen less old pictures that show pipe and concrete guardrails on the abutments of this bridge. A closer inspection revealed that the restoration of this bridge removed the modified abutments and rebuilt these new abutments that are true to the original design. This is awesome, since so often it seems like the historic integrity of less obvious things like abutments are often ignored when restoring a bridge.
Sometimes MDOT seems ahead of the county road commissions, and they are. Since trunk lines are heavily used, MDOT wasted no time in destroying all but the very tiniest number of historic truss and arch bridges in past years. As tragic as that is, it seems that the few that were spared get first class treatment, since they are now so rare on state roads.
