East Fork White River US 231 Bridge
Photos
Photo courtesy of the Indiana State Department of Natural Resource, Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology.
View more info about Indiana historic bridges from the SHAARD database
BH Photo #158932
Description
Finished 11/10/1934 at a cost of $101,895.93. South side footings are on bedrock, the north footings required extensive pilings for support in deep silt.Facts
- Overview
- Lost four-span through truss bridge over East Fork White River on US 231
- Location
- Dubois County, Indiana, and Martin County, Indiana
- Status
- Replaced by new bridge
- History
- Finished 11/10/1934; rehabilitated 1985; replaced 2007
- Builders
- - Indiana State Highway Department
- Vincennes Bridge Co. of Vincennes, Indiana
- Design
- Riveted Parker through truss
- Dimensions
-
Length of largest span: 197.8 ft.
Total length: 800.6 ft.
Deck width: 23.9 ft.
Vertical clearance above deck: 14.5 ft.
- Approximate latitude, longitude
- +38.49593, -86.91326 (decimal degrees)
38°29'45" N, 86°54'48" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 16/507564/4260845 (zone/easting/northing)
- Quadrangle map:
- Jasper
- Inventory numbers
- INNBI 016710 (Indiana bridge number on the National Bridge Inventory)
BH 16084 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Update Log
- October 30, 2010: Updated by Ed Hollowell: Corrected complrtion date, added builder, cost
- April 25, 2010: New Street View added by J.P.
- March 24, 2010: Updated by Anthony Dillon: Added truss type and coordinates
- May 24, 2009: Updated by Robert Stephenson: History and status
Sources
- Robert Stephenson - seinfeld99 [at] yahoo [dot] com
- Tony Dillon - spansaver [at] hotmail [dot] com
- J.P. - wildcatjon2000 [at] gmail [dot] com
- Ed Hollowell - erhollowell [at] aol [dot] com
- Historicbridges.org - by Nathan Holth
Comments
The construction of the new roadway and bridge to rplace the present bridge can be seen in this photo.
Unfortunately, I think this bridge is scheduled for or in the process of being replaced. This was according to another website. Traffic on US 231 is very heavy and I believe the bridge has been strained by it. I sure hate to see a massive four-span structure to like this go. I only wish a new road could have been built further away if only things would work that way. I guess the only other example like this in Indiana is the SR 57 White River Bridge in Greene County but only it goes slightly up/downhill.
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/in/dubois/16710/
The new bridge was open Thanksgiving weekend (2007), and the demolition of the old bridge was well underway. Not sure of the exact opening date, but it could not have been long before I drove through there.
The project included a short new stretch of roadway that eliminated an S-curve on a hill leading down to the bridge (heading north). It was a blind curve because of the cut in the hill, and if there was something stopped on the bridge, you wouldn't know it until it was too late.
The old bridge itself was in rough shape, too, from the driving surface up ... I'd hate to think what it looked like from below! There were big chunks missing from at least a couple of the trusses, for example. The increase in traffic on 231 had a lot to do with it, but a lot of oversize/overweight loads surely did not help.
I will miss the old bridge, but I dare say the new one will be much safer!