1908,1988 Currie Parkway (Upper) Bridge over Tittabawassee River in Midland, MI

(Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; Historic Bridges; Satellite)

Midland has some interesting bridges. See also The Tridge.

Street View, Apr 2024

Street View, Sep 2017

Cindy Smith posted
Currie Parkway Bridge (Also known as the Upper Bridge) crossing the Tittabawassee River in Midland, Michigan.
The structural arches on either side of the bridge, were added in 1988 to provide structural support to the 1908 steel Pratt truss. Hope that helps!!

HistoricBridges

"This bridge has been recognized as a state historic site, and even has a full-size Michigan historic site interpretive plaque placed, something which only a few of Michigan's historic bridges have. Interpretive plaques are important because they help raise public awareness of the existence and importance of historic bridges.

"This bridge was rehabilitated as part of preservation efforts in 1988. This makes it one of the earlier truss preservation projects in Michigan. This fact is apparent in the form of rehabilitation that took place on the bridge, which included adding a structural arch to support traffic loads, rendering the truss decorative (non-structural). Supplemental arches are one way to rehabilitate a historic bridge, although their use is generally considered a compromise preservation solution because while the added arch can increase the load capacity of the bridge and reduce project costs, the arch changes the appearance of the bridge significantly (the arch is hard to ignore when viewing the bridge), and also removes the function of the truss, since the arch is load-bearing. With the Currie Parkway Bridge, one unusual and invasive alteration was that the entire bottom chord connection assemblies were destroyed as part of the rehabilitation, and  the bottom chord eyebars were then welded directly to the vertical members about a foot higher. The diagonal members were also crudely welded to the vertical members. This is an unusual alteration that resulted in a significant loss of original bridge material and design, thus having an adverse affect on the historic integrity of the bridge. It is unclear why this was done, as it appears it should have been possible to add the arch without removing the bottom chord connections. If a compromise is being made to add the arch to increase the weight limit (thereby eliminating the need of the truss to bear loads), this should allow for the truss itself to be restored in-kind without alteration, balancing out the negative effect of installing the arch."

2016 photo by Rick McOmber via BridgeHunter

This reminds me that the Edenville and Sanford Dams failed on May 20, 2020.

mlive
"The Currie Parkway bridge seen partially submerged on Wednesday, May 20, 2020 in downtown Midland, Mich. The Midland Area Farmers Market and parks"