Rating:
4 votes

Eureka Bridge

Winnebago County, Wisconsin
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Photos 

5 Eureka 00.JPG

An idyllic scene, soon to be gone; in the pictures, you will see a crew drilling test cores into the riverbed to determine the best locations for the new bridge piers.

Photo taken by Robert Thompson in October 2009

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Map 

Historic significance 

Written by Robert Thompson

This is the only remaining highway lift span on the Upper Fox RIver system. It is scheduled to be replaced in 2011 by a generic fixed concrete span. A similar bascule span used to carry US 10 across the Wolf River at Fremont, Wisconsin; that span was replaced in the 1970's with a modern highway bridge. Other spans, apparently of identical design, were built at Kewaunee and Muscoda Wisconsin and in Sussex County, Delaware (Central Avenue Bridge).

View Uglybridges.com report

Facts 

Overview
Lost Scherzer-type rolling lift bascule bridge (with overhead counterweight) over Fox River on CTH K in Town of Rushford
Location
Rushford, Winnebago County, Wisconsin
Status
Replaced by a new bridge
Future prospects
This bridge is now gone. Dumb, dumb, dumb!!
History
Built 1939; ruthlessly wiped out 2013
Builder
- Wisconsin Bridge & Iron Co. of Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Design
4 through plate girder spans, 1 single-leaf, through, plate girder bascule span with overhead counterweight.
Dimensions
Length of largest span: 76.4 ft.
Total length: 333.7 ft.
Deck width: 24.0 ft.
Recognition
Eligible for the National Register of Historic Places
Approximate latitude, longitude
+44.00559, -88.84343   (decimal degrees)
44°00'20" N, 88°50'36" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
16/352217/4874145 (zone/easting/northing)
Quadrangle map:
Eureka
Inventory number
BH 43242 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Inspection (as of 10/2010)
Deck condition rating: Poor (4 out of 9)
Superstructure condition rating: Poor (4 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating: Poor (4 out of 9)
Appraisal: Structurally deficient
Sufficiency rating: 39.9 (out of 100)
Average daily traffic (as of 2009)
950

Categories 

Bascule (808)
Built 1939 (541)
Built during 1930s (9,035)
Fox River (to Green Bay, WI) (36)
Girder (4,604)
Lost (12,088)
Lost 2013 (139)
Lost during 2010s (947)
Movable (1,836)
NR-eligible (3,810)
Navigable waterway (1,669)
Owned by county (16,969)
 Plate girder (3,334)
Replaced by new bridge (8,182)
Rushford, Wisconsin (1)
Scherzer-type rolling lift (48)
Span length 75-100 feet (4,982)
Structurally deficient (17,114)
Through girder (1,626)
Total length 250-500 feet (3,643)
Winnebago County, Wisconsin (21)
Wisconsin (835)
Wisconsin Bridge & Iron Co. (77)

Update Log 

  • December 13, 2013: Updated by Matt Lohry: Updated bridge status: no longer worth driving this stretch of road; historic bridge is...history.
  • November 10, 2012: New photos from Robert Thompson
  • March 4, 2012: New photo from Robert Thompson
  • August 25, 2010: New photo from Robert Thompson
  • October 31, 2009: Essay added by Robert Thompson
  • October 30, 2009: Updated by Robert Thompson: Bridge scheduled for replacement
  • August 16, 2009: Added by J.R. Manning

Sources 

  • J.R. Manning - thekitchenguy [at] sbcglobal [dot] net
  • Robert Thompson
  • Douglas Butler
  • Matt Lohry
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Comments 

Eureka Bridge
Posted December 13, 2013, by Robert Thompson (rkt [dot] engineering [at] gmail [dot] com)

Well, that's a total poop-quake.

Eureka Bridge
Posted December 13, 2013, by Nathan Holth (form3 [at] historicbridges [dot] org)

That is ridiculous. There wasn't anything severely wrong with the bridge. The simple, manual aspects of the bridge were very unusual like the manual operation chains and the primitive tail lock at the end of the leaf.

Eureka Bridge
Posted December 13, 2013, by Matt Lohry

I live in Wisconsin, and I love everything about it--except for its terrible bridge preservation record! This, one of the most unique and one-of-a-kind bridges in the state, has been demolished. New Google Earh satellite imagery shows a new, shiny, disgusting, nauseating UCEB where it once stood. Appalling.

Eureka Bridge
Posted January 21, 2012, by Robert Thompson

http://oshkoshhub.thenorthwestern.com/article/20120103/OSH0101/111230149/Berlin-seeks-extra-feet-Eureka-bridge?odyssey=obnetwork

Berlin WI Boat Club requests more vertical clearance on UECB slated to replace bascule span