Second Street Bridge (Research Paper Sample)

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2 December 2015
Second Street Bridge (MI)
Abstract
Initially, the second street bridge was made of wood but when it was about to collapse, the ministry of transportation in Michigan and the community appealed to the federal government for its demolition (Condit, 5).The funds were provided, and funds and a contract was given to the company Bridge of King Iron for 3 and a half months to complete the building. This paper is on the culture and construction of this bridge and is divided into the following sections: history, society and culture, location, interior and exterior design, building materials, labor force, a focus on how it would look like if built today and conclusions.
Background
Despite the building of the present structure the bridge of the second street which was made of wood spanned the river and was put into use for fifty good years but at the bridge fall into disrepair by 1880s mid. From the report of Tribune and Allegan in 1886 March showed that the bridge was fully buried in muddy liquid covering most of the holes. The report also commented that there was the great need to the bridge that was then made of iron before the tumbling down of the old one. (Hyde, 8).
King Zenas, who founded the Company known as Bridge of King Iron, designed a replacement bridge, and the building of the bridge started in the year 1886. The building of the bridge was finished within a period of 2 ½ months due to the increased fear of the wooden bridge which would collapse anytime. The cost of construction was seven thousand five hundred and thirty-two points to five dollars. In September the same year the bridge was opened to be used for traffic. The second street bridge was the King Iron Bridge Company’s largest built bridge. In the year, 1979 analysis was carried out whose result showed that the deck was getting worse through the wrought iron shape was good. Due to this the official from the city decided to carry out a rehabilitation on the bridge rather than building a replacement because the second street bridge is a historical site and also more study problems of traffic would be exacerbated if a two-lane structure was replaced. The rehabilitation was funded by the federal government that was highly persuaded by the city even though the second street bridge was not a transportation corridor that was not critical. The rehabilitation process did not meet the standards of AASHTO (Condit, 5). The project approval was made in part and in 1981 the funding was received and the contract given to H and K construction that was the lowest bidder. The eighty-tone bridge was pulled by a crane winch that was hydraulic and ashore rolled on rails system. After scaffolding erection, there was disassembling of the bridge and due to painting and repairs the members shipped to Michigan in Holland. After this, there was a manufacture of new components in Grand Rapids. The bridge was later reopened during a three-day celebration in 1983 and during the same period traffic lights installation was done allowed resuming of 2 way traffic on the bridge that is one- land and from 1995, the bridge of the second street always show in the city log of Allegan. In eleventh June in the year 1980 the second bridge street as a historical place in the National Register. The Civil Engineers of American Society designated the second street bridge as a historic Landmark of Civil Engineering nationally. On eighth September in the year 1982 the second street bridge was chosen as a historic site of Michigan State and finally in 1984 there was an erection of an informational marker (Steinman, 17).
The bridge of the second street is an important structure for many pedestrians and has been put into great usage since it was opened making it possible for people walk between Downtown and Vic West (Hyde, 46).
An image of second street bridge Michigan. Source: (Hyde, 46).
Culture and society
The bridge of the second street is the largest cultural landscape which had many heritage that relates to E$N railway which included the Victoria West roundhouse complex which had back shop, stores buildings, car shop, and turntable are all unaltered virtually since they were constructed and were together designated as a heritage site in the municipal and site a historic site national. To the west of the site laid the first Russell’s Station while on the side of the downtown the station of Via Rail terminated the railway resources extant (Condit,7).
The bridge of the second street also formed part of the cultural industrial landscape that was second which included the industrial site that rapidly disappeared along the channel. The bridge also comprised the Greater part of Victoria trail system that connect in the Inner Harbor with the path system of a pedestrian. The Victoria trail system also connects with the Loch side Regional and Galloping Goose Trails on the Swartz Bay ferry terminal which extends to the north. The bridge of the second street is a very important example of renowned particularly engineering achievement (Hyde, 29).
The bridge of the second street forms part of one cultural landscape which is very large and contains ranging from the Nanaimo and Esquimalt Railway and includes the complex Roundhouse that is located in Victoria West as the only historic site nationally and designated site by the municipal. It also includes the overpass over the road of Esquimalt, the tracks and finally the station of Via Rail, which in 1988 replaced the railway station of Esquimalt and Nanaimo (Hyde, 78).
The bridge of the second street is highly remembered for providing a place to preach from its gallery for the highly celebrated Whitefield while the audience used the street and the opposite of the hill that is located at the margin of the lower and the bath the Bathsheba. Most of its facts are very amusing and sound very strange to the today’s generation or modern ears compacted city and neighborhoods. It highly amuses the person reading it in the processes of sustaining the laid down assertions and trying to get the authorities on which the above traditions are based on. The second street bridge is known to provide a fascinating gathering and public places for its society. The bridge is also known of forming a linkage between two neighboring society which is: Victoria West and Old Town (Steinman, 47).
Location
The bridge of the second Street is a single lane and one span bridge truss that is located in Allegan which is situated in Michigan in the United State and is it’s a historic site in Michigan State. It was built in 1886 to replace the former structure which was made of wood. In the year the 1880s the second street, the bridge underwent many renovations that contributed to its good conservation (Condit, 38). The bridge of the second street is among those listed in the Register of historic places nationally in the state of Michigan. The bridge of the second street was a Civil Engineering Landmark which is historic nationally. The bridge of the second street is the most familiar and survives the longest of all the three bridges located here. The bridge of the second street had a Whipple truss architectural style and tended to carry the 2nd Street over the River Kalamazoo. The bridge has the 69 meters span that is the longest of all and 5.5 meters width. The bridge had 4.6 meters to 6.1 meters clearance above water.
Interior and exterior design
This bridge that is also known as "Whipple through truss" was constructed by the company of King Bridge and was completed in 1883. Whipple through trusses is also termed as "double-intersection Pratt trusses”. The King Iron Bridge and Manufacturing Company of Cleveland, Ohio, were in charge of fabricating this single-span bridge. In 1981, the city of Allegan had received federal funding and approval for the restoration this bridge. From this, they were able to save half of its replacement cost. They started by moving the bridge to dry land, where they replaced the vertical compression iron members iron members with steel members that were structural and also completed other repairs that were needed. After the process of rehabilitation, which included a painting job, they returned the bridge to its abutments. In June 1983, the citizens of Allegan marked the reopening of this bridge which was historic with a three-day civic celebration (Hyde, 58).
Cross-section of the bridge Source: (Hyde, 58).
The restoration of the bridge began 1981 and since then, it has become the centerpiece for the Allegan City. This is a good example of what any town with a bridge that is historical should do. The government of Allegan and its citizens came to realize that a bridge made of the truss is something a town should be proud of, instead of complaining about its demolition. The company offered an excellent solution for implementing the use of a stoplight for traffic flow control on the one-lane bridge (Steinman, 20). In most cases, such bridges (one-lane) are often seen as unsafe, but with this stoplight, the bridge became safer than the average intersection. This sets the bridge as an example for other bridges that are historical, although the implementation has not been often repeated often. In most cases, such bridges have been demolished in urban settings to make it possible for bridges that are wider and that has nothing to offer but a concrete slab to look at.
The shape or structure type of the bridge is concrete closed spandrel deck arch fixed. It has a design of single-span white-truss. Since it was one of the first bridges made of truss restored in Michigan, a huge amount of parts that are modern for example, bolts were used for the areas of the bridge that needed repair. This is because the techniques and standards and techniques, for example, t...