The first pic of the week since the move is actually a throwback to last year’s trip to the US. During a week-long stay in Pittsburgh visiting friends and doing some activities, we ran across the first of two bridges, spanning the tracks of the Norfolk and Southern Railroad at West Park. The two spans are nearly identical: Warren pony trusses built in three sets of ten panels (the middle one used to divide the street), each having V-shaped alternating vertical beams and vertical connections. Each were built in 1903 by the Fort Pitt Bridge Works Company in Pittsburgh. The only difference is the fact that they are located 400 feet from each other- one crossing at Ohio Street and this one at Ridge Avenue. Sadly, both spans have been closed for over a decade and were scheduled to be removed at the time of the visit. Yet during the visit in 2018, the two structures were still standing- rather untouched except by nature and walkers who can climb over or pass through the barriers to get to the nearby Children’s Museum on the east end. As both bridges are still standing as of present and are in a park setting, a word of advice to the City of Pittsburgh: If you are cash-strapped and are struggling to catch up on the infrastructural woes (and there are still some since the visit), why not rehab the bridge and make one crossing for cars and another for recreational purposes? It’s affordable. It can generate tourism- especially if you want to add plaques, picnic areas and the like. And it would solve the problem of forcing drivers to take a long detour, which is costly- both financially as well as for the environment. As we’re looking for ways to green up our planet and reduce carbon dioxide levels, it is something to think about.
The Bridge of Asel when water levels of Lake Eder are at its lowest. Photo taken in 2017 by Hubert Beberich via wikiCommons Levels have reached even lower since this photo was taken.
Low Waters make for Discovery of Atlantis in a Lake in Hesse
Clarendon Bridge in Arkansas. Photo taken by C. Hanchey in 2012
Author’s note:This is the first podcast since the move and features all the events that happened over the past 2-3 weeks. The most current version of Newsflyer (for the week of August 5th, 2019) will follow.
US Hwy. 2 Cut River Bridge. Photo taken by James Baughn
Lansing, Michigan- Entries are still being taken for this year’s annual Iron and Steel Preservation Conference. The two-day event will take place on Friday and Saturday, October 18-19 at the Lansing Community College West Campus, located at 5708 Cornerstone Drive in Lansing. With a couple exceptions, this conference has been held annually and focuses on welding and other industrial techniques, using historic bridges as examples, as the state has many of them still in use, a third of which have been credited through the technical expertise of those who have participated in the workshop and has done a lot of work with historic bridge preservationists and welding experts.
The events on each day will be from 8:00am to 5:00pm. According to the coordinator, Vern Mesler, the Conference will feature the following:
Day One of this conference is primarily lecture, and Day Two participants will have opportunities to see Demonstrations of actual preservation techniques and have hands on learning opportunities.
Day 1 – Speaker’s Forum: Presentations on the rehabilitation work recently completed on Michigan’s Cut River Bridge on U.S. Highway 2 in the Upper Peninsula by Michigan Department of Transportation personnel who were directly involved in the rehabilitation work. (Lloyd Baldwin, cultural and historic resource coordinator for MDOT, will lead these sessions from the initial planning stages to the completion of the rehabilitation work.)
Presentations on issues related to riveted and bolted connections and on the damaging effects of pack rust on metal structures. Presentations on the role of riveting in new construction and design.
The presenters at the Friday event:
Lloyd Baldwin, Cultural and Historic Resource Coordinator (MDOT)
“Cut River Bridge Rehabilitation”
Andrew Zevchak & Mario Quagliata (MDOT)
“Bridge Rehabilitation Design Overview”
Christopher Garrell, PE (AISC)
“Exploiting the Resiliency of Built-up Steel Members”
Robert J. Connor, PhD (Purdue University)
“Research and Evaluation of Pack-out Corrosion in Steel Built-up Members at Purdue University”
Steve Howell, Ballard Forge
“Hydraulic riveting introduction”
Steve Howell and Lansing Community College Staff
“Hydraulic Rivet Demonstration”
Day 2 – Hands On Demonstration: The experienced staff of craftsmen at Lansing Community College will demonstrate electric arc welding processes, braze welding, and an introduction to the industrial rivet process (both field riveting and shop hydraulic riveting).
The event is open to all who are interested in the profession of welding and/or preservation of historic bridges and workshop participants will experience the use of the aforementioned welding demonstrations and other industrial processes during hands-on sessions and learn how these processes are used in the preservation of historic metals and new construction. One of the key centerpieces of this conference will be the Cut River Bridge along US Hwy. 2, which had recently undergone extensive rehabilitation using these welding techniques that will be presented at the conference (for more on the bridge, please click here).
Breakfast and lunch will be provided for both days. Participants will need to book their own lodging accomodations. For more information and to register for the event, please click on the link below, which will lead you directly to the conference website and registration page:
To honor the reopening of a key historic icon, this Pic of the Week takes us back ten years and to Winona in Minnesota. During my visit in 2010, I took a ton of photos of the Winona Bridge, a 1942 cantilever through truss bridge that spans the Mississippi River at the Minnesota-Wisconsin border, carryinh Highway 43. While I got a lot of angles and listened to some interesting stories about the bridge, including one from a gas station attendant who used to be a female wrestler (she even looked like one of my heroes, Sara Del Rey), this shot from the Wisconsin side was probably the best one of the bunch. Even with the new bridge running alongside the newly restored historic bridge, this photo vantage point would be highly recommended if you want to get a shot of just the cantilever bridge itself, even when lit with LED at night.
To learn more about the restoration of the Winona Bridge, click here to listen to the Newsflyer podcast and access the links and videos of the project. More photos of the bridge plus facts about the bridge can be accessed here.
Transport design, transport architecture, and transport's influence on art and culture. Part travelogue, part history, all transport (but sometimes tangentially so)
