I-74 Bridge
Facts
- Overview
- Pair of suspension bridges over the Mississippi River on I-74 between Bettendorf and Moline
- Location
- Moline, Scott County, Iowa, and Rock Island County, Illinois
- Status
- Intact but closed to all traffic
- Future prospects
- Scheduled for demolition and replacement.
- History
- Northbound bridge built 1935; southbound built 1960; both rehabilitated 1975
- Builders
- - Kansas City Bridge Co. of Kansas City, Missouri (Substructure)
- McClintic-Marshall Co. of Chicago, Illinois & Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (Superstructure)
- Ralph Modjeski of Bochnia, Poland (Chief Engineer)
- Design
- Wire suspension
- Dimensions
-
Length of largest span: 739.9 ft.
Total length: 5,016.4 ft. (1.0 mi.)
Deck width: 23.3 ft.
Vertical clearance above deck: 18.0 ft.
- Recognition
- Eligible for the National Register of Historic Places
- Also called
- Iowa-Illinois Memorial Bridge
- Approximate latitude, longitude
- +41.51956, -90.51330 (decimal degrees)
41°31'10" N, 90°30'48" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 15/707492/4599421 (zone/easting/northing)
- Quadrangle map:
- Davenport East
- Average daily traffic (as of 2018)
- 36,300
- Inventory numbers
- IA 47280 (Iowa bridge number)
IL 081-9901 (Illinois bridge number)
IL 081-9902 (Illinois bridge number)
BH 14376 (Bridgehunter.com ID) - Inspection report (as of August 2018)
- Overall condition: Fair
Superstructure condition rating: Fair (5 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating: Satisfactory (6 out of 9)
Deck condition rating: Satisfactory (6 out of 9)
Sufficiency rating: 48.5 (out of 100)
View more at BridgeReports.com
Update Log
- September 21, 2022: Updated by Luke: Reverted name back to just “I74 Bridge”
- June 16, 2022: New photos from Mark Yurina
- August 19, 2015: Updated by Luke: Added category "US 6" + two scans of a AAA pamphlet via Dave Darby
- February 22, 2015: Photo imported by Dave King
- January 24, 2015: New photos from Jason Smith
- March 16, 2014: New photo from Luke Harden
- November 28, 2012: Photo imported by Luke Harden
- November 17, 2012: New photos from Luke Harden
- July 28, 2012: Updated by Luke Harden: Edited name to what it is locally referred to as.
- April 12, 2010: Updated by Nathan Holth: Updated bridge info.
- March 3, 2009: New photo from Quinn Phelan
- November 20, 2008: Updated by Kim Harvey
- November 13, 2008: New photo from Nathan Morton
Related Bridges
- New I-74 Bridge (Successor)
Sources
- Nathan Morton - morton890 [at] yahoo [dot] com
- Kim Harvey
- I-74 Iowa-Illinois Corridor Study
- Quinn Phelan - qphelan [at] earthlink [dot] net
- Nathan Holth
- Luke
- Historicbridges.org - by Nathan Holth
- Jason Smith - flensburg [dot] bridgehunter [dot] av [at] googlemail [dot] com
- Mark Yurina - markyurina [at] gmail [dot] com
- John Weeks Highways and Byways - I-74 Iowa-Illinois Memorial Bridge, Davenport, IA
Comments
The road deck is gone and most of the pony truss spans on the Illinois side have been dismantled.
https://qctimes.com/news/local/one-fourth-of-old-i-74-bridge...
The old bridge is slowly getting torn down.
https://www.wvik.org/2022-12-05/helm-crews-continue-to-tear-...
Well, there goes one of the few twin-span suspension bridges in the United States....a rare sight if there ever was one.
Most of the old I-74 bridge will be torn down by dismantling the twin spans piece-by-piece and explosives will only be used to bring down the suspension cables. Dismantling the entire bridge will take longer than imploding it and expected to be entirely removed in 2024.
https://www.wqad.com/article/news/local/old-i-74-bridge-prep...
Demolition of the old I-74 bridge is supposed to start in September, though the twin suspension spans will likely be brought down with explosives when the Mississippi River's navigation channel is closed this winter.
My guess is they'll start by dismantling the pony truss sections on the Illinois side of the river and work from there.
https://qctimes.com/news/local/demolition-of-old-i-74-bridge...
A contractor has been selected for demolition of the old I-74 bridge, though they won't begin tearing it down until the river's navigation channel is closed, which will probably be next winter in late 2022 or early 2023.
https://www.wvik.org/wvik-top-stories/2022-07-26/iowa-dot-aw...
The remaining approach span to the old bridge in Illinois is being torn down.
https://qctimes.com/news/local/barb-ickes/ickes-demo-of-i-74...
The old I-74 bridge is now completely closed to all traffic and scheduled for demolition sometime in 2022.
There's talk of preserving the pony truss section and toll plaza on the Illinois side of the river and converting it into a pier.
https://qctimes.com/news/local/more-talks-on-turning-toll-pl...
EH...
I think it's time to add the new I-74 tied-arch bridge on bridgehunter since the westbound span is now finished and open to traffic.
https://www.kwqc.com/2020/11/13/iowa-bound-portion-of-new-i-...
It's been on the chopping block for the better part of a decade.
The bridge is unfortunately slated for demolition.
New bridge in progress. From Modjeski & Masters website:
http://www.modjeski.com/projects/detail.aspx?I-74-Mississipp...
US 6
A ground level view of the I-74 Bridge from the Iowa side.
Here is another atricle on the funding for the bridge replacement. I know this has been in the works for a while and htey are already working on projects along I-74 to accomodate the replacement but I didn't knwo that the entire funding had not been finalized. It looks like this will still take a few more years to even start the construction.
The Quad Cities Times posted an article with historic photos of the bridge:
http://qctimes.com/collection_e4850eda-6623-11e0-9c3f-001cc4...
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/ia/scott/47280/
Although I find Network Arches somewhat less reprehensible than their Cable-stayed counterparts, in no way does it excuse the demolition of an historic suspension bridge. I would have at least liked to have seen the 1935 span retained.