West Swan River Bridge
Facts
- Overview
- Lost Pony truss bridge over West Swan River on CR 965
- Location
- St. Louis County, Minnesota
- Status
- Replaced by a new bridge
- History
- Built 1921
- Design
- Pony truss
- Dimensions
-
Length of largest span: 51.8 ft.
Total length: 55.1 ft.
Deck width: 17.1 ft.
- Approximate latitude, longitude
- +47.25833, -92.85250 (decimal degrees)
47°15'30" N, 92°51'09" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 15/511159/5233882 (zone/easting/northing)
- Quadrangle map:
- Little Swan
- Inventory numbers
- MN 7812 (Minnesota bridge number)
BH 20637 (Bridgehunter.com ID) - Inspection (as of 05/2014)
- Deck condition rating: Serious (3 out of 9)
Superstructure condition rating: Fair (5 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating: Fair (5 out of 9)
Appraisal: Structurally deficient
Sufficiency rating: 45.1 (out of 100) - Average daily traffic (as of 2003)
- 30
Comments
MnDOT does have some sort of re-use program in place, but only for a finite, pre-selected group. Most of these bridges are more notable and "rare" (they're ALL extremely rare now!); they seem to have considered these Warrens "common" and not worth salvaging; I don't know of any from up there that have been re-used. It's sad to see them all being wiped out; there were tons of these bridges when I was a kid; now there are none :'(
It's just sad that rehabilitation doesn't seem to be given higher priority in many of these cases where the ADT count is so low.
Don't get me wrong I'm all for public safety, but are these new structures significantly cheaper than at least sustaining repairs on the historic ones?
Joe, and/or Matt... Does Minnesota promote dismantling and storing any of these trusses for possible future trail or park reuse?
I agree; it's certainly not an historic truss, but it beats Jersey barriers any day of the week! St. Louis County has been using this bridge type on county roads for several decades now; presumably to fit in a little bit better with their "rustic" atmosphere. They use Jersey and steel barriers on state and federal highways though.
The replacement bridge, 69A30, is a 3-span steel girder bridge with timber deck and rails and a bituminous overlay. At least it isn't a UCB!
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/mn/st-louis/7812/
Most of these old trusses are on the local system, so it is up to the individual county or township to decide what happens to them. I am not aware of any official re-use program, although I have heard that a couple have been purchased and moved to a private location.