Rating:
2 votes
Gunnison River Bridges
Description
Pair of Pratt through truss bridges over Main Channel (east bridge) and Overflow Channel (west bridge) of the Gunnison River. In 1957, US 50 was realigned, with new bridges built then, leaving the old road and old bridges as a service road. In 2011-2012, for nearly $3 million, CDOT rehabilitated and restored these historic bridges as part of its FASTER Bridge Enterprise program. See CDOT web pages for details of restoration project, below under Sources.Facts
- Overview
- Pair of through trusses over the Gunnison River on Old US 50 just west of Gunnison
- Location
- Gunnison County, Colorado
- Status
- Open to traffic
- Future prospects
- Very careful rehabilitation completed 2012.
- History
- Built 1926-27; bypassed 1957; rehabilitated 2011-12
- Builder
- - American Bridge Co. of New York
- Design
- 8-panel Pratt through trusses
Riveted - Dimensions
-
Length of largest span: 125.0 ft.
Total length: 129.0 ft.
Deck width: 20.0 ft.
Vertical clearance above deck: 15.0 ft.
- Recognition
- Posted to the National Register of Historic Places
- Approximate latitude, longitude
- +38.53338, -106.95050 (decimal degrees)
38°32'00" N, 106°57'02" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 13/329991/4266800 (zone/easting/northing)
- Quadrangle map:
- Gunnison
- Inventory number
- BH 11903 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Update Log
- March 10, 2018: New Street View added by Roger Deschner
- July 15, 2013: Updated by Roger Deschner: Historic bridges have been saved and rehabilitated!
- October 12, 2011: Updated by K. A. Erickson: Bridges are currently being replaced
- April 26, 2010: New Street View added by Nathan Holth
- February 16, 2010: Updated by Bob Morgan: added map marker
Sources
- Bob Morgan - morgans212 [at] att [dot] net
- Nathan Holth
- K. A. Erickson
- Roger Deschner - rogerdeschner [at] gmail [dot] com
- September 6, 2011 - Bridge Restoration on US 50 Frontage Road - CDOT news release about start of rehab work
- June 12, 2012 - PROJECT UPDATE - Bridge restoration on US 50 Frontage Road - CDOT news release giving rehab project update
Comments
Gunnison River Bridges
I just crossed these bridges in June 2013. Both original bridges are very much intact, with no evidence of construction activity to replace them, despite CDOT's schedule to replace them starting in 2011. Perhaps they figured they had higher priorities than a couple of bridges with 47.9 sufficiency ratings, very light traffic, and an alternate route for high-clearance vehicles via mainline US 50.
Gunnison River Bridges
Looks like one of the bridges got swapped for an UCEB....
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This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/co/gunnison/gunnison/
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/co/gunnison/gunnison/
What a relief to discover that CDOT had carefully rehabilitated these nice old bridges in 2011-12, instead of replacing them. It was such a good restoration that it had me fooled when I stopped and photographed them in June.