Rating:
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Checkered House Bridge

Chittenden County, Vermont
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Map 

Street Views 

View Uglybridges.com report

Facts 

Overview
Through truss bridge over Winooski River on US 2 in Richmond
Location
Richmond, Chittenden County, Vermont
Status
Open to traffic
History
Built 1929; rehabilitated 1970
Builder
- American Bridge Co. of New York
Design
Pennsylvania through truss with riveted connections.
Dimensions
Length of largest span: 350.1 ft.
Total length: 356.0 ft.
Deck width: 20.0 ft.
Vertical clearance above deck: 16.8 ft.
Recognition
Posted to the National Register of Historic Places
Also called
West Main Street Bridge
Winooski River Bridge
Approximate latitude, longitude
+44.42338, -73.01662   (decimal degrees)
44°25'24" N, 73°00'60" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
18/657880/4920811 (zone/easting/northing)
USGS topographic map
Essex Junction
Inventory number
BH 33950 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Inspection (as of 07/2011)
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: 2.0 (out of 100)
Average daily traffic (as of 1998)
4,000

Categories 

American Bridge Co. (449)
Built 1929 (670)
Built during 1920s (7,033)
Chittenden County, Vermont (12)
Have street view (9,902)
NR-listed (2,354)
Open (28,316)
Owned by state (9,810)
Pennsylvania truss (308)
 Richmond, Vermont (1)
Span length 250-500 feet (863)
Structurally deficient (16,683)
Through truss (9,210)
Total length 250-500 feet (3,371)
Truss (23,574)
US 2 (29)
Vermont (265)

Update Log 

  • June 13, 2012: Updated by Tony Dillon: Updated status and added builder
  • June 13, 2012: Updated by Luke Harden: Updated status
  • July 21, 2010: Updated by Nathan Holth: This bridge has been demolished and replaced.

Sources 

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Comments 

Checkered House Bridge
Posted March 18, 2013, by Froggie (froggie [at] mississippi [dot] net)

http://vtdigger.org/2013/03/17/in-this-state-2/

Another recent article about Vermont's truss bridge preservation program, with several mentions of the Checkered House Bridge.

Checkered House Bridge
Posted January 3, 2013, by Nathan Currier (ncurrier [at] gmail [dot] com)

Here is one of the articles featuring the rehabilitation and widening of the Checkered House Bridge in Modern Steel Construction (AISC).

http://www.modernsteel.com/SteelInTheNews/?p=1870

Checkered House Bridge
Posted November 9, 2012, by Clark Vance (cvance [at] dogmail [dot] com)

The link below is dead but the Sep 2012 issue of Civil Engineering magazine (from ASCE) has a story and photos of the work.

Checkered House Bridge
Posted June 13, 2012, by Tony Dillon (spansaver [at] hotmail [dot] com)

This is the name that the locals referred to the bridge by in the article about the widening and rehabilitation.

The article also mentions that 16 million is being spent on this where a new bridge could be built for about half. Certainly makes me wonder if it wouldn't have been better to have built that new bridge next to this one and then restored the old bridge for one way traffic. Seems like it would end up being cheaper in the end.

West Main Street Bridge
Posted June 13, 2012, by Benjamin Putnam (bwp47 [at] yahoo [dot] com)

This bridge has not been demolished -- it is being widened and rehabilitated. See the following link:

http://www.reformer.com/ci_20827902/vermont-save-historic-bridge-unusual-expansion-project?source=most_emailed

West Main Street Bridge
Posted July 21, 2010, by Nathan Holth (form3 [at] historicbridges [dot] org)

Everyone tells me Vermont has one of the strongest commitments to historic bridges. Is this how it manifests itself? Tearing down National Register eligible 350 foot Pennsylvania trusses like they are 1960s stringers? Very disappointing.

I find myself wondering how this bridge would have been treated if it were a wooden covered bridge. Bet they wouldn't have demolished it then.

A temporary bridge was built next to this bridge when it was replaced. This temporary bridge should have instead been a permanent bridge, the historic bridge restored, and a one-way couplet of bridges formed.