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Lee Creek Road Bridge

Crawford County, Arkansas
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Photos 

Looking west

Photo taken Dec. 2004 by David Backlin

Map 

Street View 

Description 

Built 1898 as a two span through truss; one span replaced by two Warren pony trusses in 1930; bypassed by new bridge in 1994-95

Facts 

Overview
Abandoned through truss bridge over Lee Creek on Lee Creek Road (West Rena Road), just north of I-40
Location
Van Buren, Crawford County, Arkansas
Status
Closed to all traffic
History
Built 1898; one span replaced in 1930; bypassed in 1995
Design
Main span: Pin-connected, 7-panel Pratt through truss (1898)
West approach: Two riveted Warren pony trusses (1930)
Dimensions
Length of largest span: 126.0 ft.
Total length: 296.9 ft.
Deck width: 10.8 ft.
Vertical clearance above deck: 12.0 ft.
Recognition
Posted to the National Register of Historic Places on January 21, 2010
Approximate latitude, longitude
+35.46463, -94.38930   (decimal degrees)
35°27'53" N, 94°23'21" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
15/373940/3925457 (zone/easting/northing)
USGS topographic map
Fort Smith
Inventory numbers
NRHP 09001241 (National Register of Historic Places reference number)
AHTD 19094 (Arkansas Highway and Transportation Dept. bridge number)
BH 10312 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Inspection (as of 04/1991)
Deck condition rating: Imminent Failure (1 out of 9)
Superstructure condition rating: Imminent Failure (1 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating: Imminent Failure (1 out of 9)
Appraisal: Structurally deficient
Sufficiency rating: 0.0 (out of 100)
Average daily traffic (as of 1987)
517

Categories 

19th Century (3,817)
7-panel truss (246)
Arkansas (1,219)
Built 1898 (160)
Built during 1890s (1,555)
Bypassed (114)
Closed (2,071)
Crawford County, Arkansas (70)
Have street view (9,883)
NR-listed (2,353)
Owned by city (3,046)
Pin-connected (1,519)
Pony truss (13,215)
 Pratt through truss (3,162)
Pratt truss (5,654)
Riveted (1,011)
Span length 125-175 feet (2,950)
Structurally deficient (16,676)
Sufficiency rating zero (308)
Through truss (9,201)
Total length 250-500 feet (3,367)
Truss (23,561)
Van Buren, Arkansas (16)
Warren pony truss (1,987)
Warren truss (3,956)

Update Log 

  • January 29, 2010: Updated by James Baughn: Posted to the National Register
  • March 8, 2005: Posted photos by David Backlin

Sources 

  • David Backlin - us71 [at] cox [dot] net
  • James Baughn - webmaster [at] bridgehunter [dot] com
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Comments 

Lee Creek Road Bridge
Posted November 15, 2012, by Robert Scoggin (robert [dot] scoggin [at] arkansashighways [dot] com)

Yes the through truss is one of the original trusses. The other truss was destroyed by a flood in either 1927 or the early 1930s and was replaced by the pony trusses.

Lee Creek Road Bridge
Posted November 10, 2008, by GENE MCCLUNEY (mccluney [at] sbcglobal [dot] net)

According to my research this is not the first truss bridge at this location. Attached is an image from the 1898 Frisco Headlight Flashes brochure on Van Buren, showing the water plant and the bridge at that time. The water plant, while now gone was adjacent to the first and second bridges. It is possible that one Pratt span was washed out, and replaced with the two pony spans, and the remaining Pratt span is 1898, which, if so, would make it one of about 4 pre-1900 bridges still extant in arkansas.

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