Industrial History: Franklin Street, IL-40 and Cedar Street Bridges over Illinois River at Peoria, IL

Saturday, August 29, 2020

Franklin Street, IL-40 and Cedar Street Bridges over Illinois River at Peoria, IL

1913-1993: Franklin: (Bridge Hunter)

1933+2010 Cedar: (Bridge Hunter, Historic Bridges; John A. Weeks III; Satellite) Kudos to IDOT for rehabilitating a truss bridge in 2010

1993: IL-40: (John A. Weeks III; Satellite)

Franklin Street Bridge

Given how tight two barges fit through this bridge, getting a standard tow of 3-barges wide through this thing must have been very exciting. Replacing this bridge with a high bridge that doesn't obstruct traffic was needed.

Peoria Public Library via Bridge Hunter

Matthew Bietz posted
Howard Keil shared
Good view of the damaged TPW swing bridge [one, two] in Peoria 1977 from the Julia Belle Swain riverboat headed south on the Illinois River.

In fact, this bridge was taken out by an allision.

Noah Haggerty posted via Dennis DeBruler
Matt Ryan: Did a barge hit is?
Harold J. Krewer: Matt Ryan, no, but the Army Corps of Engineers had been trying for years to straighten and widen the navigation channel of the Illinois River through Peoria. Most of the 'problem' bridges (IT, TP&W, Cedar St. Bridge) had been eliminated by attrition, leaving the P&PU bascule span as the narrowest channel left. As you can see, the vertical lift span was significantly longer, thus widening the channel to an acceptable level for the now-standard 3-barge-wide tows.
David Jordan: Harold J. Krewer Franklin Street, not Cedar Street.

Cedar Street Bridge

I never realized that Cedar Street was a cantilevered truss until I saw it in the background of the above photo.

I labeled these notes with "bridgeStrauss" even though Cedar Street is not the usual Strauss trunnion bascule design because he was the designer of this bridge. "It is interesting to observe the main span of this bridge. The way the cantilever arms meet in the middle [with a hinge], the way that the main span span has an arched shape, and the configuration of the truss as a Pratt all are similar to what you would find on a bascule bridge like the Jackson Boulevard Bridge. Perhaps we can see the influence of an engineer whose experience was with bascule bridges here in this fixed bridge?" The anchor arms use Warren, instead of Pratt, trusses. "In 1933, this bridge won the prestigious award of Most Beautiful Steel Bridge from the American Institute of Steel Construction." [Historic Bridges]