Green Valley Drive Bridge

Information and Findings From Missouri's Historic Bridge Inventory

Bridge Features

Superstructure: steel, 8-panel, pin-connected Parker through truss
Substructure: stone abutments and wingwalls; concrete-filled steel cylinder piers
Floor/decking: asphalt over timber deck with steel stringers
Other features: upper chord and inclined end post: 2 channels with cover plate and lacing; lower chord: 2 punched rectangular eyebars; vertical: 2 channels with lacing (2 angles with batten plates at hip); diagonal: 2 punched rectangular eyebars; counter: 1 square eyebar with turnbuckle; lateral bracing: round rod with threaded ends; strut: 2 angles with continuous plate; floor beam: I-beam, field-bolted to vertical; guardrail: 2 angles with lattice

Discussion of Bridge

This long-span pinned Parker truss carries the Moon Valley Road over Hinkson Creek at the outskirts of Columbia, the Boone County seat. Supported by steel cylinder piers and concrete abutments, the bridge appears to have been built at this location originally, but in fact it was built as part of a two-span structure over the Lamine River in Cooper County, and moved to its present site in 1938. The truss on the Moon Valley Bridge dates to 1906. In May of that year the Cooper County Court declared "an urgent necessity for re- building the Turley Bridge across the Lamine River." The county solicited competitive proposals for the new bridge's construction, but when all twelve of the bids came in too high, county surveyor Eth Hale negotiated with all of the bridge contractors to secure a lower price. The Kansas City Bridge Company received the contract for $8200.00. Using steel components rolled in Pittsburgh by Carnegie, KCBCo fabricated the two 170-foot spans and erected them on stone abutments and piers. The Turley Bridge was reported complete in March 1907. It carried traffic at the rural Cooper County crossing for almost thirty years before it was replaced by the state highway department with a heavier bridge [COOP03]. One of the spans of the 1907 bridge was moved to another Cooper County crossing [COOP04]. The other was moved in 1938 to this crossing on the Moon Valley Road near Columbia. It replaced an earlier truss that was destroyed when two cars crashed through its floor on University of Missouri Homecoming night. In November 1938 the county hired Columbia contractor Everett Stone to move one of the Turley Bridge trusses and re-erect it on the existing steel tubes from the earlier truss. It has functioned in place since the move, in unaltered condition. Pinned Pratt through trusses were erected by the thousands on Missouri's county road system in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Parker trusses - polygonal-chorded Pratt variants -were built far less often. Less than three dozen pinned Parker trusses remain in use in Missouri today. With a construction date of 1906-07 and a span length of 170 feet, the Moon Valley Bridge typifies the remaining Parkers. Its locational integrity has changed considerably, due to the 1938 move, but the truss itself has retained a high degree of structural integrity, and it has acquired the patina of history in its more than 50 year service at this Boone County location.

Bridge Considered Historic By Survey: Yes

View Original PDF Historic Bridge Inventory Sheet