Rockford Bridge
Facts
- Overview
- Two-span open-spandrel arch bridge over Shell Rock River on E. Main Avenue in Rockford
- Location
- Rockford, Floyd County, Iowa
- Status
- Replaced
- History
- Built 1922; Replaced by a really ugly slab bridge in 2014
- Builders
- - Iowa State Highway Commission of Ames, Iowa (Design)
- Miller-Fifield Construction Co. of Waterloo, Iowa
- Design
- Open-spandrel arch
- Dimensions
-
Length of largest span: 87.9 ft.
Total length: 176.2 ft.
Deck width: 24.9 ft.
- Approximate latitude, longitude
- +43.05220, -92.94347 (decimal degrees)
43°03'08" N, 92°56'36" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 15/504603/4766613 (zone/easting/northing)
- Quadrangle map:
- Rockford
- Average daily traffic (as of 2001)
- 3,100
- Inventory numbers
- IA 10050 (Iowa bridge number)
BH 13515 (Bridgehunter.com ID) - Inspection report (as of March 2012)
- Overall condition: Poor
Superstructure condition rating: Serious (3 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating: Poor (4 out of 9)
Deck condition rating: Poor (4 out of 9)
Sufficiency rating: 12.8 (out of 100)
View more at BridgeReports.com
Update Log
- June 30, 2014: Updated by Jason Smith: Replacement span open to traffic
- May 29, 2013: Updated by Luke Harden: Gone. In the process of being replaced.
- October 21, 2012: New photos from J.R. Manning
- August 7, 2012: Updated by Jason Smith: This bridge is doomed based on info per posting
- July 30, 2010: New Street View added by Jason Smith
- December 19, 2005: Posted photo from Jason Smith
Related Bridges
- Lover's Lane Bridge (Predecessor)
Sources
- Jason Smith - flensburg [dot] bridgehunter [dot] av [at] googlemail [dot] com
- J.R. Manning - thekitchenguy [at] sbcglobal [dot] net
- Luke
- Engineering News-Record, Volume 88 - Book
Comments
Sad to look at. The time lapse photos are archived here:
The bridge is now gone I'm sorry to say. The main problem is the people in town have only one way out, and only one way in. Can't find anything in reference to completion time. I can see that rebuilding even the simplest bridge is no easy assignment.
I was surprised that they posted a link so you can see them rebuilding it. Maybe with the cameras on them they will work faster for completion, couldn't hurt. Here is the link so you can watch them work.
The state has given the go ahead to tear down the bridge and rebuild. Even though I knew it was going to happen it's still saddens me. There's just so much history and memory's to it. My uncle said only the older people care, and the younger ones could care less. It's not going to be easy to get to town considering that's the only convenient way. My uncle was around three and crawling on some sort of boards that the builders used to walk on. One of the men saw this and quickly grabbed him. Thank god he was spotted and rescued.
I'm very curious as to what the new one is going to look like.
Does the bridge have spread footings? In Michigan we are losing two of our historic concrete arch bridges because they were built with spread footings, a design that I am told is nearly impossible to repair without destroying most of the bridge. Very frustrating.
This is an update on the Rockford Bridge. I found out it needs to be torn down because of structural problems. Almost 90 years after it was built, it is now considered unsafe for use. My uncle who is coincidentally having his 90th birthday this week told us it can’t be saved. It has to be completely torn down. This is the man that removed the snow for us kids to ice skate. It’s very sad but time has taken its toll and unfortunately nothing can be done. It surprises me how sympathetic I have become over this bridge.
Seeing this bridge brings back a lot of memories, for as a child I walked it every day and my uncle had a mill / dam and I would go there to fish or skip rocks. During the winter all the kids would ice skate. My uncle would take his tractor and plow the snow off by the bridge so the kids could skate all threw the wintertime. Keeping the snow off in “Iowa” was know easy job. Before this it was my parents turn. Swimming, fishing, and for the brave, jumping off. This is what it looks like now.
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/ia/floyd/rockford/
The new bridge is done but I don’t think it has the charm the old one did. I was hoping they would have made it somewhat like the old one but that didn’t happen.The people are just glad it's over and they don’t have to circle around anymore.