Reed Road Bridge

This bridge is scheduled for demolition within 5 years!

Another doomed truss bridge about to fall on a road that does not see enough traffic to justify it. Besides, this bridge is really wide enough to be a two lane bridge, as far as dirt roads are concerned. This bridge should be restored where it stands. Restorations nearly always cost less raw money than building a new bridge. However, the county usually will receive federal funding for demolition and replacement, so it is cheaper for the county to rebuild. Still a larger number of taxpayer dollars though. The road that this bridge is on is beautiful, and should be listed as a natural beauty road! Although the road is very straight, there are large, tall trees on either side of the road, and the tunnel effect is very impressive, giving the feeling of a cathedral-like hall. But I am sure that the county will follow though with demolition plans, and may even re-ditch the road and cut down all those trees that make the tunnel.

The Tuscola County Road Commission gives a date of 1930 for this bridge. I was able to confirm this date, with the Michigan Historic Bridge Inventory. Often, truss bridges built in the 30s were camelbacks, but since this was built right at 1930, it must have been just before that time period. The bridge is a warren pony truss, and it has a corrugated steel base for the deck, with an asphalt layer on top. It has quite large lattice guardrails. The height of the top chord above the roadway seems higher than on other similar bridges. This may be a heavier capacity bridge due to its relatively late construction date. The bridge sits on concrete abutments. The bridge is rusted, and does not show any original paint, although the local juvenile population appears to keep some paint on the bridge in the form of graffiti. Perhaps they should organize and simply paint the whole bridge!