|
Key Facts |
Bridge Name |
Type | Road | Location | City | Crossing |
| Maple Road Bridge | Truss | Maple Road | Washtenaw County, MI | Ann Arbor Township | Huron River |
The Maple Road Bridge is also known locally as the Foster Bridge. This bridge was the first restored through truss bridge that I had the privilege of seeing. It is an excellent example of why restoring historic bridges can work.
This bridge is a perfect example of what I like to see - a historic truss bridge restored so it can continue serving vehicular traffic in its original location. It seems like the few bridges that are restored end up for pedestrian use only, and it is nice to see that this bridge will continue to serve the way it was designed to, in its original location. The sacrifice is some steel cable retrofit (which brought this bridge up to a whopping 20 ton weight limit!), and modern metal guardrails, but those sacrifices are small compared to the end result. This bridge is a solid counter-argument to the St. Clair County Road Commission who repeatedly has told me that old truss bridges can not be restored to safely serve public roads.
This is an old bridge, supposedly built shortly after Wrought Iron Bridge Company put a patent on its bridge kit in 1876. It is unusual because it has no v-lacing on any members. This appears to be a distinction of a few of the Wrought Iron Bridge Co bridges, most other through truss bridges had v-lacing at least on the verticals. The nearby East Delhi Road Bridge, also built by Wrought Iron Bridge Co also lacks v-lacing. However, other Wrought Iron Bridge Co. bridges I have seen do include v-lacing, so it was not something that the company never did.
I was browsing the Digital Bridges website, and I found a picture of a similar bridge in a Wrought Iron Bridge Co. pamphlet. Click here to see the picture. Click here to view the entire pamphlet. The portal bracing is the same, as well as the plaque. Note that lack of v-lacing in the picture. The only difference I noticed was their appears to be some sort of decoration on the top of the end posts in the pamphlet bridge. It is possible that the county selected this bridge from a pamphlet similar to the one on the Digital Bridge's website.
