Tucked back in the trees, around the curve…
Photo taken by J.R. Manning in May 2013
BH Photo #253493
Same county engineer as Poweshiek. Enough said.
I think that was the secret plan of Tama County: hire some banditos to purposely cut down a tree and have it land onto the bridge so that they can provide contractors with a head start on the demolition plan and justify reasons for demo-ing a National Register Landmark! Such a sad day indeed; esp. as I had this bridge on my list of bridges to visit during the HB Weekend in August.... :-(
Link: http://thebridgehunter.areavoices.com/2013/05/13/traer-bridg...
Looks like it's going to the scrapper and they don't care about damage.
Unfortunately Mr. Manning, It would appear that this bridge's fate is what's locked...
I had a hunch that the trees being cut down might indicate upcoming construction, and unfortunately Google turned this up in a search (copied from the cached pdf):
IOWA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
MAJOR ITEMS - PRELIMINARY QUANTITY REPORT
(for information only)
Proposed Letting Date: March 19, 2013 10:00 A.M.
Proposal ID: 86-7710-601
Proposed Contract Period: Late Start Date of 07/15/13 with 70 WORK DAYS
Project No: BROS-7710(601)--8J-86
Type of Work: BRIDGE REPLACEMENT - CCS
Route: MILL STREET Length: 0.10 miles
Location: IN THE CITY OF TRAER, OVER WOLF CREEK
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Quantity/Unit
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ITEMS FOR A 130'-0 X 30'-0 CONTINUOUS CONCRETE SLAB BRIDGE
2102-2710070 EXCAVATION, CL 10, RDWY+BORROW 5,133 CY
2403-0100010 STRUCT CONC (BRIDGE) 421 CY
2404-7775000 REINFORC STEEL 81,889 LB
Hard to tell from the pictures but this looks like someone cutting trees dropped one on the bridge. Any info on what happened, who is responsible, future prospects?
I'm a construction worker replacing the old bridge. We have saved bridges like this in the past in fact the company I work for rebuilt the Cedar bridge in Madison co Ia and did a major repair on the Hammond bridge in Marion co Ia. We have rehabbed several truss bridges by adding steel plating to their beams, and replacing piling but the Taer bridge was rusted out to the point that repairing the bridge, well not impossible, would have cost 2 to 3 time the price of a new bridge