Showing posts with label bridgeTrunnion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bridgeTrunnion. Show all posts

Sunday, July 19, 2026

St. Claude and Claiborne Avenue Bridges over, and Lock on, Industrial Canal

From north to south or going upstream.
Claiborne: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; Historic Bridges; Satellite) Judge Seeber Bridge
Lock: (Satellite)
St. Claude: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges; Satellite)

The formal name for the Industrial Canal is the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal (IH-NC).

1957 Claiborne Avenue Bridge (Judge Seeber Bridge)


The blue lift bridge towers in the right background are for the Florida Avenue Bridge.
Street View, Aug 2019

2011 photo by C Hanchey via ArchivedBridgeHunter_claiborne
["This bridge was refurbished in 2013 with new concrete railings and a new coat of paint." [Matt Lohry comment on ArchivedBridgeHunter_claiborne]]

HistoricBridges_claiborne
"This vertical lift bridge, which also includes a long approach system, stands out in Louisiana for its large size."

Industrial Canal Lock


The Claiborne Avenue Bridge is in the background, and this view was taken from the St. Claude Avenue Bridge.
Street View, Mar 2016

USACE, New Orleans District posted
PRESS RELEASE: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans District, released the Final General Reevaluation Report and Integrated Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal (IHNC) Lock Replacement Project for a 30-day public review from July 10, 2026, through August 10, 2026.
https://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/Media/News-Releases/Article/4540034/usace-releases-final-ihnc-report-for-review/
Charlie Everhardt: US Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans District This Project has had Final Reports since the 1960s. On opening day, I will believe it.
Michael Park: Here comes the Corp of Carpetbaggers. The most invasive species in Louisiana.
[I could not find an estimated cost figure. It is planned to take several years to complete the project.]

Charlie wasn't kidding, they have been studying the replacement since March, 1956.
@ 4:55

The plan is to replace the lock with a larger lock between Claiborne and Florida Avenues and to replace the St. Claude Bridge. Also, some of the flood walls will be replaced with levees for aesthetic reasons. (Are they replacing flood walls that were just built after Hurricane Katrina?)
@ 0:02

Part of the replaning: "The lock has been resized from 1,200 feet and -36 feet deep to 900 feet by 22 feet deep, reflecting the removal of deep-draft navigation following the closure of the MRGO." (I don't know what the MRGO was.)

@ 3:46
"The lock now ranks first in average transit time and second in average delay time of any lock in the nation. It's also increasingly unreliable with more frequent unplanned outages and a growing backlog of maintenance needs."

@ 8:08

I noticed the big crane in the street view at the top of these notes. I see that they also permanently store stop logs at the lock. So, is there a dedicated crane because of the frequency of emergency maintenance outages or because of the risk of draining the Mississippi River or because of another reason?
Satellite

The lock helps connect the Mississippi River with the eastern part of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (GIWW).
@ 1:51

1919 St. Claude Avenue Bridges



@ 4:23

2010 photo by Bob Morgan via BridgeHunter_claude

As part of the lock replacement, this Strauss bridge will be replaced by a trunnion bridge.
@ 6:14

Another view of the stop-log crane. This bridge was originally built for rail and highway, then it was converted to just highway.
Street View, Mar 2023

Wednesday, July 8, 2026

1880 Bridge Street and 1874 Rockland Road Bridges over Sparkill Creek in Piermont, NY


1880 Bridge Street Bridge


Today, I researched two bridges built by the King Iron Bridge and Manufacturing Company. This is one of them, and the Hale Bowstring Iron Bridge at Anamosa, IA is the other.

Street View, Sep 2016

Street View, Jul 2019

Christopher R Hernandez posted four photos with the comment: "ridge Street Bridge, Sparkill Creek, Piermont, NY.  Built 1880 by King Iron Bridge Company of Cleveland.  Hand cranked bridge."
1

Digitally Zoomed

2

3

4

HsitoricBridges_1880
Nathan rates this bridge with two 10s.
"This is the oldest known surviving bascule bridge in the United States and the only known example in the country of a simple archaic draw bridge design. As a movable bridge it is truly tiny, and would have only allowed very small boats to pass. The creek it is located on is also very small. Bridges of this design are more common in Europe. The bridge was hand-operated and simple counterweighted chains would wrap around the counterweight sheaves to pull the bascule leaf up. In this manner it resembles a medieval castle drawbridge. The bascule leaf and the approach span has riveted connections, making it an extremely early surviving rivet-connected truss bridge in the United States. The bridge has been bypassed and preserved in place for pedestrians. The bridge retains good historic integrity considering its age, although some rivets on the trusses have been replaced with bolts. The rivets that survive have a primitve appearance to them indicative of the early use of rivets. Because of its rarity and age it is one of the most unique and important historic bridges in the state. The bridge is worthy of consideration of National Register National Significance."

Street View, Oct 2025

1874 Rockland Road Bridge


2021 photo by Patrick Gurwell via BridgeHunter_1874

Christopher R Hernandez posted eight photos with the comment: "Rockland Road Bridge, Piermont, NY.  Historic stone and brick arch bridge built 1874."
1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8


Saturday, April 18, 2026

1939,1988 2nd Avenue Bridge and Dams on Thunder Bay River in Alpena, MI

Bridge: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge HunterHistoric Bridges; Satellite)
Alpena (9th Street) Dam: (Satellite)
4-Mile Dam: (Satellite)
7-Mile Dam: (Satellite)

2nd Avenue Bridge


Isaac Pennock posted
Tall ship Thursday. The Pride of Baltimore II fires her cannons passing through the 2nd Avenue bridge on the Thunder Bay River in Alpena. July 2022.

Postcard with steamship RE Moody via BridgeHunter

I got a view of the railings because HistoricBridges points out that they are original even though they look like modern replacements. HistoricBridges also points out that the control tower is short and that you can see the controls through the window. 
Street View, Sep 2019

Looking at a satellite image, there is no marina or commercial operation to cause the bridge to be raised. The cement plant has its own harbor on the lake. But there is some boat traffic.
Sara Townsend, Jun 2022, cropped

Alpena (9th Street) Dam


Street View, Jul 2024

EagleCreekRE
"The Ninth Street facility is the final facility on the Thunder Bay River, located in downtown Alpena about one mile from the mouth of the river in Thunder Bay on Lake Huron.  It contains three horizontal Leffel Samson turbines with a total capacity of 1,200 kilowatts and produces approximately 7.2 million kilowatt-hours of clean electricity per year."

4-Mile Dam


ThnderBayPower_4mile via ThunderBayPower

ThnderBayPower_4mile via ThunderBayPower

EagleCreekRE
"The Four Mile facility is immediately downstream of the Norway Point facility in Alpena, Michigan.  It contains three horizontal Leffel Samson turbines and one Flygt turbine for a total capacity of 2,080 kilowatts and produces approximately 9.5 million kilowatt-hours of clean electricity per year."

7-Mile Dam


Happycamper, Apr 2026

Some comments identify this as the 7-mile dam.
Facebook Reel

Tuesday, March 3, 2026

1934+1996 US-1 and Brightline/Florida East Coast Bridges over St. Lucie River in Stuart, FL

1934 US-1: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges; Satellite) Dixie Highway
1996 US-1: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; Satellite) Roosevelt Bridge
FEC: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges; Satellite)

A view of the railroad and Dixie Highway Bridges from the Roosevelt Bridge. 
Street View, Jul 2017

I noticed in a satellite image that the bridge was built over a lot of water. I hope that the water is shallow here and that the bedrock is close to the surface to reduce the cost of all of those piers. 
There is limestone bedrock near the surface in a lot of places in Florida.
It is 4,487' (1.4km) long with a span length of 260' (79m). [BridgeHunter_1996]
Scott Johnson (sajflorida) Flickr, License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC)

This shows that there are a couple of curves in the bridge.
Street View, May 2024

The 1996 Roosevelt Bridge is a concrete segmental box girder bridge. IT STARTED FALLING APART IN LESS THAN 25 YEARS! [ArchivedBridgeHunter_1996]

In June 2020, both the northbound and southbound bridges were shut down because cracks were found in the southernmost span of the southbound bridge. They also closed the 1934 Dixie Highway bridge because it passes under the cracked span. In fact, there was not just cracks, there was falling concrete! The U.S. Coast Guard overracted and declared the bridge is "at risk of an imminent collapse." The Coast Guard stopped all commercial traffic under the other end of the bridge.  [RoadsBridges]
It is interesting that the story as to how the crack was found and reported changed. Originally, it was by a construction crew on another road project. But later FDOT claimed that it was found by a routine biannual inspection.

wptv
Within hours of the Coast Guard alert, the mayor of Stuart, FL, said "FDOT engineers have not found any evidence that the bridge is at immediate risk of collapsing." "Upon inspection, engineers with FDOT found that rust in the steel cables had been exposed when the concrete fell. Further inspection revealed an area of concern on the northbound side of the bridge as well." Tolls were waved on the Florida Turnpike between Port St. Lucie and Stuart to help detour traffic around the closed bridges.

The railroad bridge is obviously a trunnion bridge because we can see the trunnion. I think the old road bridge is also a trunnion bridge.
Street View, May 2024

The railroad drawbridge was upgraded in 2023 to support better reliability and faster speeds for passenger trains.
5:20 video @ 0:37

Note that traffic is stopped. The road bridge started going up in this segment of the video.
@ 4:04

This is the post that led me down the rabbit hole of St. Lucie River Bridges. This train is one of those faster passenger trains that caused the upgrade of the railroad bridge.
Steven J. Brown posted
Brightline Siemens SCB-40 121 (built 2023) crossing the St Lucie River at Stuart, Florida - February 19, 2026. The train wears a wrap celebrating the 250-year anniversary of the USA.