Rating:
1 vote

Almena - Road 1 Turntable Bridge

Norton County, Kansas

Photos 

Photo taken by Nick Schmiedeler in April 2019

Enlarge

BH Photo #446474

Map 

Description 

Timber stringer, but not exactly....w/help of Robert Elder, pointed out what appear to be inverted subset plate girders are most likely re-purposed railroad turntable panels...just a freaky thing. Spotted this on satellite, and fortunate to have the time on last weekend 1200 mile jaunt to 3 corners of KS to investigate this one in tiny town of Almena, and plaque is pretty incredible also.

Facts 

Overview
Timber stringer bridge over S. Fork Prairie Dog Creek on 1st Road / Van Horn Rd.
Location
Almena, Norton County, Kansas
Status
Open to traffic
History
Built 1896 by the Lassig Bridge and Iron Works, Chicago Illinois
Builder
- Lassig Bridge & Iron Works of Chicago, Illinois
Design
Timber stringer, but not exactly....w/help of Robert Elder, pointed out what appear to be inverted subset plate girders are most likely re-purposed railroad turntable panels...just a freaky thing.
Dimensions
Span length: 115.0 ft.
Total length: 115.0 ft.
Deck width: 15.0 ft.
Also called
S. Fork Prairie Dog Creek Bridge
Approximate latitude, longitude
+39.88582, -99.71506   (decimal degrees)
39°53'09" N, 99°42'54" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
14/438860/4415329 (zone/easting/northing)
Land survey
T. 2 S., R. 21 W., Sec. 8
Average daily traffic (as of 2012)
25
Inventory numbers
KS 000690567303160 (Kansas local bridge number on the National Bridge Inventory)
BH 84960 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Inspection report (as of March 2018)
Overall condition: Fair
Superstructure condition rating: Fair (5 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating: Fair (5 out of 9)
Deck condition rating: Fair (5 out of 9)
Sufficiency rating: 49.9 (out of 100)
View more at BridgeReports.com

Categories 

19th Century (9,794)
Almena, Kansas (1)
Beam (17,486)
Built 1896 (311)
Built during 1890s (3,422)
Deck girder (6,699)
Girder (11,783)
Kansas (3,294)
Lassig Bridge & Iron Works (269)
 Norton County, Kansas (21)
Open (41,560)
Owned by city (6,315)
Plate girder (9,289)
Recycled Turntable (22)
Relocated (1,112)
Span length 100-125 feet (4,703)
Timber stringer (4,520)
Total length 100-125 feet (5,665)

Update Log 

  • April 11, 2019: Updated by Luke: Corrected builder ot preexisting category; Added category Recycled Turntable & Relocated
  • April 11, 2019: New photos from Nick Schmiedeler

Sources 

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Comments 

Almena - 1st Road Turntable Bridge
Posted April 11, 2019, by Matt Lohry

I’ll take a weird old Frankenstein bridge over a new UCEB any day of the week!

Almena - 1st Road Turntable Bridge
Posted April 11, 2019, by Robert Elder (robertelder1 [at] gmail [dot] com)

This bridge is an awesome find! It really shows the ingenuity of County Officials.

The transverse floor beams are obviously recycled because of their swiss-cheese appearance. This bridge is an oddball in many ways.

Kansas: we don't have the biggest bridges, but we sure have the weirdest ones...

Almena - 1st Road Turntable Bridge
Posted April 11, 2019, by John Marvig (marvigj27 [at] gmail [dot] com)

Wow! This is a really cool find! This could either be a turntable or a span that was once on a large steel viaduct. I wonder if the county knows anything about it?

Almena - 1st Road Turntable Bridge
Posted April 11, 2019, by Tony Dillon (spansaver [at] hotmail [dot] com)

That's pretty cool!