Tainter Lake Bridge

The new bridge? PUKE

Love the sarcasm there! I'll use this bridge and nominate it in the Bridge Pics Awards for the worst example on destroying a HB. Will announce the winner in December. Thanks Matt! BTW, man, is that bridge really ugly! ;-P

Tainted Lake... I like that one Matt!

EPIC FAIL. Replacing a beautiful, historic bridge that was in immaculate condition and did not need it with this ugly, nasty monstrosity. Colossal waste of taxpayer money. Tainter Lake should now be called "Tainted Lake".

I agree Nathan... This is an extremely vile pic!

Please, I was trying to eat while browsing this website... New bridge photo is bringing it all back up!

The new bridge.

it is gone now and a new one is being constructed

I have generally found that the given NBI dates and the locations of bridges tend to be suspect. I have not generally noticed the same trend with the condition of a bridge however. I do have to wonder about those bridges that are rated zero however.

Well, not every bridge is in the wrong county, but several of them are. A bridge listed as being in Forest County is actually in Wood County. It crosses the East Fork of the Black River, which is nowhere near Forest County. It's a moot point since the bridge was replaced in 2005.

I've been trying to track down several other miscreant bridges that have gotten up and walked over to different counties, too.

It looks like the NBI 1992 data for Wisconsin has every bridge in the wrong county. It appears that Wisconsin does have its own Yellowstone River, but in another county. I don't think there's going to be an easy fix for this.

I did track down the 1992 data for this bridge and it shows a high sufficiency rating as well as a "Very Good" (8 out of 9) rating for the superstructure. I can't believe that the rating could drap so drastically unless there was some kind of major disaster or accident. Functional obsolescence is a factor in the sufficiency rating, but should NOT be a factor in the superstructure, substructure and deck ratings.

Spanfan: it appears as though the bridge at Downsville was replaced in 2003. You can see the old bridge in the Google Earth aerial view by clicking on the clock icon and drag the arrow on the timebar back to sometime before 2003.

I also noticed the sharp increase in daily traffic and would expect the sufficiency rating to drop somewhat, but I wouldn't think that the overall condition of the deck, as well as the super and substructures (as you pointed out, James), should drop so severely--the decrease would be attributed to functional obsolescence rather than structural deficiency. It is a crying shame that Dunn County will lose one of its most beautiful historic bridges because of this likely error. Looking at the listing of lost bridges, I would say that they have lost enough. As far as the 1992 NBI listing, I believe it's from somewhere in Montana or Wyoming, given that a few Yellowstone River listings are in there.

Matthew: Yes, that is quite a shocking change. The 2000 NBI data rated the superstructure as "Satisfactory" (6 out of 9), while the latest inspection rated it as "Serious" (3 out of 9). I can't find the bridge listed in the 1992 version, although it appears several other bridges are missing -- might be a technical problem there.

Average daily traffic has increased according to the NBI -- from 210 in 1998 up to 900 in 2006. Both of these factors would explain the sudden drop in sufficiency rating. Still, "Serious" ratings are usually reserved for bridges that are hanging on by a thread. I don't know what the inspectors found, but it must have been bad. Or somebody goofed.

I just noticed something peculiar, and I believe that this bridge's 16.8 sufficiency rating is incorrect. The bridge received a sufficiency rating of 68.8 in the 2000 NBI, so how could it deteriorate to just 16.8 in nine years? I was out to the bridge and physically looked at it, and as a civil engineer, I certainly cannot see how it only rates 16.8. There are other truss bridges that look like they could collapse at any time with rusted superstructures, crumbling substructures, and holes in the deck that score higher than this. This bridge is virtually rust-free, with no section loss anywhere, and the abutments have no spalling or cracking that I can see. Based on these observations, I believe that this bridge's rating should still be well over 60 out of 100. I just hope that this bridge is not being unfairly replaced because of a typo in the sufficiency ratings box.

Bummer--I'm certainly not surprised, but it is quite sad. Get out and see this bridge while you can, the truss type is very complex and impressive to look at.

From the Google Map satellite view, it looks like the truss bridge at Downsville is gone, alas...

I'm not sure the Downsville bridge is still there-it's been a few years since I've been on the trail, & at the rate these bridges are being torn down, it could be long gone. Let me know if you see it!

No, this bridge spans Tainter Lake about 6 miles north of Menomonie. You got my attention though, as I would like to see the Downsville bridge that you mentioned...

Is this the bridge that's right off the Red Cedar bike trail near Downsville?

Hello, attached are several photos of this historic structure.