30th Street-White River Bridge
Facts
- Overview
- Concrete Melan arch bridge over White River on 30th Street in Indianapolis
- Location
- Indianapolis, Marion County, Indiana
- Status
- Open to traffic
- Future prospects
- Slated for demolition and replacement in Fall 2021, with stones from bridge slated to be placed on replacement bridge.
- History
- Built 1907; rehabilitated 1979
- Builders
- - Henry W. Klaussman
- W.M. Fife & Son
- Design
- Closed-spandrel concrete arch, Melan type reinforcing
- Dimensions
-
Length of largest span: 116.1 ft.
Total length: 316.8 ft.
Deck width: 49.9 ft.
- Recognition
- Listed as a contributing resource to a designated historic district on the National Register of Historic Places
- Also called
- Riverside Park Bridge (1907)
- Approximate latitude, longitude
- +39.80944, -86.19444 (decimal degrees)
39°48'34" N, 86°11'40" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 16/568953/4406918 (zone/easting/northing)
- Quadrangle map:
- Indianapolis West
- Average daily traffic (as of 2014)
- 32,203
- Inventory numbers
- INNBI 4900125 (Indiana bridge number on the National Bridge Inventory)
BH 16609 (Bridgehunter.com ID) - Inspection report (as of August 2018)
- Overall condition: Poor
Superstructure condition rating: Fair (5 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating: Poor (4 out of 9)
Sufficiency rating: 30.8 (out of 100)
View more at BridgeReports.com
Update Log
- April 11, 2021: Updated by Luke: Builder merge
- February 10, 2021: Updated by Nathan Holth: This bridge is now doomed.
- June 24, 2018: New photo from Mike Daffron
- March 9, 2018: New photo from Dave King
- December 30, 2012: New photos from J.P.
- December 20, 2012: Updated by J.P.: added designer
- February 18, 2009: New photos from John Weller
Sources
- John Weller - jweller [at] indy [dot] rr [dot] com
- J.P. - wildcatjon2000 [at] gmail [dot] com
- Dave King - DKinghawkfan [at] hotmail [dot] com
- Mike Daffron - daffmikron [at] gmail [dot] com
- Nathan Holth
- Luke
- 30th Street Bridge (Marion County Bridge 1705, Riverside Park Bridge) - HistoricBridges.org
Comments
It is really a demolition and replacement project with salvage and reuse of non-structural decorative stones. The character-defining feature that gives the bridge its historical significance will be destroyed (nor will it be replicated in modern materials). That is the use of solid steel reinforcing called Melan reinforcing. It is disappointing that Indianapolis is repeatedly allowed to alter "Select" bridges in this manner. I thought the bridge management plan was supposed to preserve historic bridges not build modern copies... and this won't even be a copy as modern rebar will be used.
On a side note, I actually visited this bridge recently. I was shocked at how many sections of railing had been broken, I assume by traffic accidents? This was particularly odd given that this bridge has massive sidewalks that are perhaps twice as wide as even modern day sidewalks. If they were destroyed by accidents, people must drive like maniacs in this area!
It appears this bridge was listed as a contributing structure to a Historic District. It must not have been listed individually as a Melan arch. This appears to be how the city got around the loss of the Melan arch design. Bridges that are listed as contributing to a historic district, rather than individually listed under Criterion C (Engineering) can lose their engineering significance as long as they retain their aesthetic qualities. In truth the bridge should be individually eligible under Criterion C for its Melan arch construction.
Here is an example of another bridge that was replaced in a similar manner: https://historicbridges.org/bridges/browser/?bridgebrowser=i...
This bridge will be undergoing a rehabilitation starting in autumn of 2021 stretching through fall of 2022. The project will install improved safety features, including a reinforced concrete arch and new bridge railing. Existing limestone will be removed and re-installed or replaced where in poor condition. Other features include new curbs, ADA ramps and sidewalks and new decorative lighting.
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/in/marion/4900125/
Yeah, I'm not at all happy about it!