HUMBOLDT BRIDGE PLANS UNVEILED

Special to the Readers of Milwaukeeworld.com

By Michael Horne

Bids will be let on August 12^th, 2008 for the reconstruction of the bridges on N. Humboldt Avenue over N. Riverboat Road and over the Milwaukee River. Construction is to begin in October, and the work should take about a year.

Preliminary design on the bridges was authorized in 1999. In 2004, project agreements were executed to assure WisDOT participation based on the conceptual plans.

In 2006, it was estimated the city’s 20 per cent share of the expenses would amount to $790,200. Since then the city’s share has increased to $1,816,362. A significant portion of the increase is due to the addition of newly-eligible funding for the necessary retaining walls between the bridges, which are now also eligible for 80 per cent share by the state and federal governments. The total cost of both bridges will be $8,099,520. They were designed by City of Milwaukee engineers, and you can see them for the first time here as a special service from milwaukeeworld. The bridges will feature 7-foot wide sidewalks, a significant improvement over the existing paths. The river bridge will feature a bump-out in the middle for scenery lovers.

CONCRETE PATCHES FOR AILING BRIDGES

An alert reader noted that recent patches to the bridges' surfaces were made with concrete rather than the traditional asphalt, and wondered if this was a sign that the structures had received a lease on life. Quite to the contrary said engineer Craig Liberto, who said the concrete was chosen because the bridge is in such poor shape that the asphalt would simply vibrate out of the potholes. Even so, the current structures, which date to the 1950s, rank with the Verazzano Narrows and the Golden Gate bridges as far as structural integrity is concerned, compared with their predecessors.

RACINE STREET (NOW N. HUMBOLDT AVE) BRIDGE

(From the Milwaukee Sentinel, May 6th, 1922)

This is best illustrated by the events of Friday, May 5^th, 1922, when a 60-foot span of the 40-year old river bridge collapsed into the river. At the time it was the oldest bridge in the city, and had been constructed according to pre-Socialist principles of civil engineering. Traffic had been unusually heavy on the span for the year previous, when the North Avenue bridge was under construction. It probably did not aid in the bridge’s integrity that it had been jacked up on stilts to allow a dredge to pass beneath it some time previously for river improvements. There were no injuries associated with the collapse, the beginnings of which had been noticed earlier in the day. The bridge's descent was graceful, apparently, since a jug of water was found on the bridge's surface, undisturbed, after the collapse.

FUN FACT

Until the freeway era, Humboldt, Holton, Third Street and the lakefront bore the majority of traffic between the city and the North Shore suburbs. As late as 1950, the commute on Humboldt to Whitefish Bay typically took as long as 45 minutes. Today the trip might occupy no more than half that time, and usually less. Travel on any street, even at its worst, is much, much faster than it had been for generations. Remember that when folks think the freeway needs extra lanes just because their commute has gone up a couple of minutes. If the freeway is too crowded, there is still plenty of room on Milwaukee's fabulous grid system.

-- Michael Horne