IL-104 Bridges over Illinois River at Meredosia, IL

(1936 Bridge Hunter; 2018 Bridge Hunter; Historic Bridges; John A. Weeks III; Satellite)

While researching a Wabash Railroad bridge, I discovered that I have missed an opportunity to photograph a cantilever-looking truss bridge. (According to Historic Bridges, it is a continuous truss bridge.) It has been replaced with a tied-arch bridge.

(I wrote these notes while Google blog search function didn't work. I already had notes for this bridge.)

John Weeks III

An IDOT video of the truss bridge that also shows several coal barges docked at the coal plant. I don't know the date of the video, but the generating station was burning coal instead of natural gas as of that date.

Bridge Hunter

Street View, old

Street View, new

John Demkovich posted
Meredosia, IL over Illinois River. Arch bridge I welded and fabricated around 7 years ago. Good to see and use it in person.

HalversonConstruction-20

Note that the concrete deck has been removed from the old bridge so that only steel will fall into the river when they blow it up.

HalversonConstruction-85

They built the arch over the river using falsework rather than building it on the side of the river and then floating it into position.

HalversonConstruction-38

HalversonConstruction-57

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HalversonConstruction-43

Video of "energetic felling" of the town side approach span starting at 0:37

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Since the satellite views will be changing, I grabbed some images. In 2010, IDOT was still debating about building the bridge south of the town with a bypass for IL-104 around the town or keeping the highway in town. Obviously, they decided to keep IL-104 in the town. According to Google Earth, these images are from Aug, 2015.

Satellite

They have bought properties and demolished the buildings to make room for the new right-of-way to the new bridge.

Satellite

Google Earth, Jul 2012

Satellite

They have erected a crane (upper-right corner) that is ready to walk across the access road when it is done. And they have driven the piles for a cofferdam near the bottom of the photo.

The city of Meredosia is famous as being one of the first cities in the United States to have a railroad line. The Northern Cross line started in 1838, and was one of the first 3 operating steam railroads in the US. There is a depot and caboose preserved as part of a small museum a few blocks south of IL-104. [John Weeks]

Lisa Ruble posted four photos with the comment:

Lost Bridges of Pike County Illinois.... Wabash Railroad Bridge over the Illinois River at Morgan County IL and Pike County IL. The railroad bridge, completed in the 1861 (date is from the May 1861 Quincy Daily Herald), is now gone. In 1920 Wabash made plans to plank the railroad so that it could also be used as a wagon and automobile bridge. 5,000 people attended the opening of the newly planked bridge. The last train to pass over the Meredosia rail bridge was on January 28th 1955. When the new lift bridge was opened at Valley City in 1959 the bridge at Meredosia was dismantled. There is still one pier standing on the Meredosia side of the river. The Meredosia Bridge for automobile traffic opened in November 1936 and was demolished in August 2018.

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