East Shore to West Shore, underneath easternmost span
4 Warren (PTC) through truss spans over Barren Fork River on State Highway 286. Welcome to Middle Tennessee, where most "Camelback" Warren Through Truss Bridges go to die.
Photo taken by Calvin Sneed in October 2009
BH Photo #147389
Turns out the new deck was for the new bridge that was about to start construction, replacing the through trusses. I was able to grab pictures about 2 months before the trusses were removed. T-DOT strengthened the decking and then took out the trusses, but utilized the original bridge piers.
It's getting it's deck removed in the photos,dude.It's not getting a new one.
Does anyone know the story on this bridge? Google maps shows it's not there, but Calvin's photos from 2009 show it getting a new deck. Why would you put a new deck on a bridge and replace it in the same year unless some local politician got a fat kickback?
Actually, these spans are Through Camelback, Subdivided Warren Trusses. I sent a picture to T-DOT's bridge engineer for Region 1-Knoxville, who checked with pghbridges.com, the same place I use.
The easy thing to remember is that TDOT's policy is to demolish and replace all truss bridges in the state. This was noted in a newspaper article a few years ago. It is extremely disappointing to know that TDOT plans to destroy an entire category of historic bridges, but I am just passing along what I heard.