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This bridge has been relocated and preserved for vehicular use on Crystal Springs Road in Cass County, Michigan. Please also see HistoricBridges.org's page for photos and documentation of the bridge in its current location at Crystal Springs Road.
This bridge is built to the same state standard plan at the bridge in New Boston. Michigan developed a standard plan for pony truss bridges, but never for through truss bridges, likely due to the lack of many large rivers in the state. The bridge was originally built in 1923. The bridge does not retain its original railings, but it does retain a plaque on it. This is not the original plaque, however. It is a plaque that was put on when this bridge was moved from its original location on Telegraph Road over River Rouge in Wayne County, Michigan to M-86 over Prairie River in 1938-1939. Here, the bridge replaced the former Prairie River Bridge which was a six panel Pratt truss bridge. The M-86 Bridge is a camelback pony truss with riveted connections. The outside of the truss has cut rivets, empty rivet holes, evidence of plate that was cut, and remains of brackets. These are all visual indications that in its original 1923 location this bridge had cantilevered sidewalks. Design drawings for the relocation indicate this was removed when the bridge moved to St. Joseph County.
In 2013, MDOT had decided it wanted to replace this historic bridge, but worked an agreement to relocate and reuse the bridge on a county road, specifically Crystal Springs Street over the Dowagiac River south of Dowagiac in neighboring Cass County. This was an outstanding preservation solution, and it makes it the second time this versatile bridge has been relocated! The bridge was dismantled, restored, and reassembled in Cass County by Bach Steel, who restored the bridge using in-kind restoration techniques, replacing individual lacing bars, and using genuine historically correct hot rivets in all repair work, rather than using ugly modern bolts. The project was completed in 2018.
The relocation of this bridge is a great success story. It got this historic bridge off of busy M-86 where it was subjected to heavy truck traffic, and instead located it to a quiet county road that crosses the scenic Dowagiac River. It also marked an unusual but positive event in Cass County history, since Cass County was one of the counties in Michigan with the dubious distinction of being a "truss-less" county, meaning a county that had lost or demolished all of its historic metal truss bridges. Cass County is now no longer a truss-less county!
The only surviving historical plans for this bridge are from its 1938 rehab project. The 1939 bridge relocation was a Public Works Administration sponsored project. The PWA allotted about $13,000 for the project, which had an initial cost estimate of $29,000.00. L.W. Lamb Company (Holland, MI) won the job contract with a low bid of $22,370.64 (Michigan Roads & Construction, December 22, 1938, p.6) Based on the MSHD schedule, the contract was to be awarded December 26, 1938 and work to begin immediately, with a projected completion date of September 15, 1939. Lamb was a 1917 graduate of the U of M Engineering program.
Information and Findings From Michigan Historic Bridge InventoryNarrative Description The Michigan State Highway 86 Bridge is eligible for the National Register as a good example of a 1920s camelback pony truss. This structure also exemplifies the movability of a truss bridge. |
This bridge is tagged with the following special condition(s): Available
This historic bridge has been relocated and is no longer at this location. See the main bridge page for a link to the new bridge location. This map is shown for reference purposes only.
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