Historic Bridge to be Auctioned off
By Jason Smith
Friday, September 16, 2011
There are historic bridges that have been marketed through the state department of transportation's historic bridge marketing programs, like the ones in Pennsylvania and Indiana, and there are those that were sold directly from one party to another at the price of scrap metal. But what about auctioning off a historic bridge? This small town in Germany is definitely experimenting with this option as a pedestrian bridge spanning a railroad is the target of the German Railroad's plans of expanding and electrifying the rail line, and the town's mayor wants to get rid of the bridge for money. Here's an article by the Bridgehunter's Chronicles with some details on the town's plan to auction it off on eBay:
Friday, September 16, 2011
While houses can be auctioned off, auctioning off a whole bridge is an experiment which if successful will provide state DOTs and other local governments an incentive to rid a historic bridge by auctioning it off to someone who will take care of the structure as well as they did. Question is how successful is it to auction a bridge, and what would you use the bridge for if you won the highest bid? Any thoughts from the historic bridge community?