Rating:
4 votes

12th Street Bridge

Boyd County, Kentucky, and Lawrence County, Ohio
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Photos 

Photo taken by Calvin Sneed in April 2010

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Map 

Street View 

View Uglybridges.com report

Facts 

Overview
Cantilevered Warren through truss bridge (riveted) over Ohio River on U.S. 23 Spur (12th Street) in Ashland
Location
Ashland, Boyd County, Kentucky, and Lawrence County, Ohio
Status
Open to traffic, two lanes, one way southbound
History
Built 1930; rehabilitated 1986
Design
Cantilevered Warren through truss
Dimensions
Length of largest span: 738.7 ft.
Total length: 2,277.3 ft. (0.4 mi.)
Deck width: 22.0 ft.
Vertical clearance above deck: 15.0 ft.
Recognition
Eligible for the National Register of Historic Places
Also called
Ben M. Williamson Sr. Bridge (official name)
Approximate latitude, longitude
+38.48444, -82.64085   (decimal degrees)
38°29'04" N, 82°38'27" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
17/356885/4260842 (zone/easting/northing)
USGS topographic map
Ashland
Inventory numbers
KY 010-B00040N (Kentucky bridge number)
BH 18716 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Inspection (as of 10/2011)
Deck condition rating: Satisfactory (6 out of 9)
Superstructure condition rating: Fair (5 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating: Satisfactory (6 out of 9)
Appraisal: Functionally obsolete
Sufficiency rating: 32.4 (out of 100)
Average daily traffic (as of 2011)
12,500

Categories 

Ashland, Kentucky (2)
Boyd County, Kentucky (7)
Built during 1930s (8,553)
Cantilevered (241)
Cantilevered truss (221)
Functionally obsolete (7,036)
Have street view (9,883)
Kentucky (671)
Lawrence County, Ohio (28)
NR-eligible (3,749)
Navigable waterway (1,448)
Ohio (2,197)
 Ohio River (95)
Open (28,305)
Owned by state (9,807)
Painted green (17)
Span length 500-1000 feet (313)
State line crossing (513)
Through truss (9,205)
Total length 1000-2500 feet (1,213)
Truss (23,565)
Warren through truss (926)
Warren truss (3,957)

Update Log 

  • August 26, 2010: New photos from Calvin Sneed
  • July 10, 2010: New Street View added by Calvin Sneed
  • April 4, 2010: New photos from Calvin Sneed
  • March 13, 2010: Updated by Bill Eichelberger: Added Google Street View.

Sources 

  • Bill Eichelberger
  • Calvin Sneed - us43137415 [at] yahoo [dot] com
  • Historicbridges.org - by Nathan Holth
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Comments 

12th Street Bridge
Posted July 11, 2010, by Calvin Sneed (us43137415 [at] yahoo [dot] com)

I checked the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) records and found that both bridges are indeed designated as U-S 23 Spur (since 1986), dead-ending at U.S. 52 on the north end of the bridge.

The link is: http://www.us-highways.com/spurus.htm

But, the U.S. 23-S designation is not used and may be truncated permanently, because of, as you speculated, its confusion with U.S. 23 South. Since there are no signs for U.S. 23-S in Ashland (I didn't spot any when I took the pictures), there isn't any confusion.

But AASHTO indicates, neither bridge carries U.S. 60.

12th Street Bridge
Posted July 10, 2010, by James Baughn (webmaster [at] bridgehunter [dot] com)

The National Bridge Inventory reports that this bridge carries "US 23S" and classifies the route as a "U.S. numbered highway spur". Presumably the "S" stands for "Spur" and not "South". Bid documents by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet also refer to the bridge as carrying US 23S. For example:

http://www.kytc.state.ky.us/Contract/Lettings/2006/1027/BidData/Bids.asp?PCN=061052

Moreover, the route number of "23S" appears in the bridge's inventory number: "010 023S B00040".

Ohio River US 23 Bridge
Posted September 25, 2008, by Donald Dale Milne (ddmilne [at] netscape [dot] com)

Great website, very useful information. I have a correction for you, however. This bridge is NOT on US-23, but is actually on US-60. Specifically on 13th Street. You can check a map closely, and there is a photo at http://www.kentuckyroads.com/images/ohio_river/.