Friday, May 7, 2021

1948+1982 I-24+US-150 McClugage Bridge over Illinois River at Peoria, IL

(Bridge HunterHistoric Bridges (eastbound); John A. Weeks IIISatellite)

John Weeks

David H. McClugage was the mayor of Peoria from 1937 to 1941 when the first (eastbound) bridge was designed in 1939. Construction was delayed until after the war and the bridge was finished in 1948 or 1949 depending on which source you believe. The westbound bridge was finished in 1982. The old bridge was refurbished in 1982. Major work was done from 2005-07. [John Weeks] Now it is being replaced. The ADT (Average Daily Traffic) was 42,500 when the 2005 work was done with a bid of $26.1m. [fhwa] Bridge Hunter shows an ADT of 37,900 for 2018. IDOT rebuilt a lot of the bridge and repainted it with that 2005 work, but they still plan to demolish it after the replacement is opened. I wonder how much the "multi-use path" on the new bridge raised its cost. The cost is supposed to be $167m. [wcbu] Whoops, it is already up to $210m. [CentralIllinoisProud]

The length of the navigation spans are 536' (1948) and 626' (1982). [John Weeks] 536' seems short. Maybe the Coast Guard required that the old bridge be demolished. Historic Bridges calls the 1948 bridge a continuous truss instead of a cantilever truss. The deck trusses are also continuous trusses. I don't know why they built over the wide Peoria Lake instead of the narrow part of the river just upstream from the current location.

John Drake posted
Tiny little towboat with an itty bitty barge headed very quickly through the McClugage Bridge and its replacement under construction in Peoria. It was moving so fast I barely got it.
Rob Smith: That boat is not tiny.... It’s 90’ long and 30’ wide..... 1,950 HP.... 12 loads S/B and 15 mtys N/B on the Illinois River for the last (soon to be) 50 years..... It is not a great big boat, but tiny little ? Hardly.

The 2005 work consisted of "the replacement of the entire floor system, deck, and bearings. Also needed was repair to a majority of the piers along with strengthening and replacement of a substantial amount of deteriorated truss elements. To protect the structure from the environment, the entire structure was cleaned and painted. In all, over 1500 tons of new steel, 1.2 million pounds of reinforcing steel, 5000 cubic yards of concrete, and 17,500 gallons of paint were used." It was closed during 7.5 months of the construction work. While closed, two-way traffic was supported on the westbound structure. [fhwa] Two of the three lanes were available for rush hour traffic by using a machine to move the lane barrier back and forth over the center lane. [John Weeks]

Pam Page Craig posted
Storm clouds in Peoria last night [7/1/2021]

East Peoria - City Government posted
From IDOT: A routine inspection of the McClugage Bridge’s eastbound span over the Illinois River will occur Monday, Aug. 14 through Friday, Aug. 25. The inspection will reduce eastbound U.S. 150 to one lane on the bridge daily, with operations beginning early in the morning each day and wrapping up by 3:30 p.m.
Motorists can expect delays and should allow extra time for trips through this area.
James Traver: How many more times will they inspect these 2 before  the new one is complete? I have lost count the times it has been inspected, are they in that bad of shape?
Matthew Martin O'Brien: James Traver They are, sadly. Pieces literally fall off from them in the water below when you kayak. Scary!
Lisa Ortiz-Martinez: Move in date for college great time to get this done like what did you do during the summer break????

Predecessor Bridge


1888-1947 [PeoriaMagazine]

Donald D Shryock II posted three photos with the comment:
Some of you young people .
Wanted to know about the upper free bridge. It's location is  down from the Peoria water works on E. Lorentz Ave . here's pictures of that bridge it's taken down in the 1950s . It stood over a hundred years. Then the McClugage bridge was completed . The bridge pillar is the only piece left of the old bridge. The middle of the bridge turn
1

2

3
[3D Satellite  Note the crane in the background that is helping to build the 21st Century bridge. (I can't use a year, because it is not done yet, and it has already gone past its original completion date.)]

Another view of the past, present and future.
Bradley Wilkerson commented on Donald's post
I was just there last month with my father who used this bridge a young man.

The old right-of-way is now used by for a power transmission line.
1927 Peoria Quad @ 62,500


Successor Bridge


It became obvious that there were going to be a lot of construction photos posted of this new bridge, so I have notes about the construction of 21st Century Bridge. I've kept information about the design of the bridge here.

Facebook Post

IDOT via WCBU

Screenshot from McClugageBridge

CentralIllinoisProud

IDOT has two web sites, one is basically just a pointer to another. The second site has just construction information. But I did finally find a site that had the information I was after: materials for the public meeting that included the alternatives considered. [GettingAroundPeoria] It is disconcerting that they used the Golden Gate Bridge as an example of a cable stayed bridge. The Golden Gate is a suspension bridge. If IDOT doesn't understand the difference, that would explain why a suspension bridge is not in the rejected alternatives list. They claim that deck replacement is an advantage of the cabled designs. Every design I know of uses precast segments for the deck. And they are under heavy horizontal compression in these bridge designs. I can't imagine how they can be replaced. If IDOT doesn't understand cable designs any better than this, it is probably good that they don't use those designs. (Off the top of my head, the cable-stayed bridges across the Mississippi were managed by Missouri, not Illinois.)
Handout, p1 via PublicMeetings

Handout, p12 via PublicMeetings

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