Omaha daily bee., 1898-11-26
BRIDGES ON INDIAN CREEK
Work Of Raising the Structures IL Being
Pushed Rapidly.
MANY ARE BEING MADE ENTIRELY NEW
Railroads Are Cooperating with the
City in the work of Giving the
RantanlSerOus Stream More
Room I'm which to spIurge.

n1Cu SpIuTBcs
The work Of raising the bridges over In
dian creek Is being pushed as rapidly as
circumstances and the weather will permi.
and the city has already completed large
share Of its work, while several of the rail-
roads have commenced active preparations
to replace their present structures across
the creek with permanent steel bridges.
| The raising OF the bridges Is in accordance
with the instructions issued by the city
| council in resolution adopted at the Oc-
| tober meeting. The council committee on
bridges and city property consisting OF John
| Brough. chairman, and DR.. Christensen and
Thomas Metcalf. yesterday let the contract
for the raising Of the city's bridge at Thir-
teenth street and Broadway to w. N. Shat
fer on his bid OF $521 Other bids were
! received as follows: ]. e. Holenbeck, 1928;
w. J. Morris s59S; c. e. H. Campbell, $500;
George c. Wise, s74O The city had at
/ first arranged to raise the bridge with the
force Of men employed in the engineers
department, but as 1t lacked the proper
appliances for such work Chairman Brough
| OF the committee in charge was authorized
to let the work by contract. The con-
tract provides that the bridge shall be raised
eighteen inches and the six piers capped
with solid stone, also that it shall be re-
laid with a three-inch white oak floor and
guard rails. In order that traffic shall not
be delayed at this point longer than will
be absolutely necessary the work Of rails
ing the bridge will not be commenced un-
til all the material is on the ground and
then 1t will be pushed as rapidly as pos
sible. While the work is in progress all
traffic will have to make a detour by Ave-
nues and B.
Although the bridge itself will be raised
eighteen inches the center of the floor will
only be eight inches higher than 1t Is at
present and the end five inches. The bridge
at present has practically three floors, there
being first a layer Of scantlings 2x4 then
a flooring Of double planks 21kx2 inches
thick, topped by cedar blocks six inches
high. When raised the bridge will have but
single flooring Of three-inch white oak,
the planks being spiked from underneath to
the steel l. beam stringers.
City Engineer Etnyre has completed the
work Of raising the bridges at Third, Sixth.
Eighth and Ninth avenues and is now wait
ing for the Union Pacific road to begin
work at the Fifth avenue bridge, which Ia
owned jointly by the city and the railway.
The bridge at Third avenue has been raised
two feet and the old piers capped. At Sixth
avenue the bridge was also raised two feet
but here considerable more work was neces-
sary, as all the old piers were found to
be rotten and six new large piles and four
small ones had to be driven. The foo,
also had to be relaid.
The Eighth avenue bridge was also raised
two feet and the piling capped. At Ninth
avenue the bridge was raised twenty eigh,
inches and the iron cylinders capped with
stone twelve and sixteen inches thick. The
floor OF this bridge had to be partly re.
laid.
The Wabash Is preparing to replace its
old wooden bridge at Fifteenth avenue with
an entire new structure and has the piline
already driven and the tracks leading to the
bridge graded to conform with the raise Of
three and one-half feet the new bridge
being this much higher than the old one
The Chicago. Burlington & Quincy roat
!, has it's tracks graded and Is temporarily
raising its bridge at Eleventh avenue, bu
. as soon as the material arrives win replac,
t 1t with fifty-foot steel girder bridge.
The Omaha Bridge and Terminal railwa!
is also preparing to replace its temporar!
trestle at Second avenue with q steel girde
bridge, which will be placed at the SAM
height as the city's bridge at Second ave
nue..
The Rock Island road will not commence
work until next spring, when, 1t has in
. formed the oity council, 1t intends raisinl
it's yards, building a new roundhouse AM
depot and replscing its present bridge be
| tween Twelfth and Thirteenth avenues will
r a steel structure.
The Milwaukee has made no move to rails
Its bridge at Thirteenth avenue, nor as ye
!, has 1t given any intimation of Its intention
to do so, although served with the order o
=. the city council.
% The Northwestern road has three bridge
to raise, one at First avenue and two a
I Twelfth avenue. City Engineer Etnyre ia
been given to understand by the official
I Of the company that the work will be com
). menced on these bridges as soon as tn
% material reaches here. The Northwestern
also owns three bridges at Eleventh street
which have always been considered tn
| main cause OF the creek overfowing II
banks at the time OF a freshet. Thes
bridges are Just north of Broadway and
Is always at this point that the creek leave
Its banks and floods the company's track
and the adjoining streets. The city car
not order these bridges raised, as they ar
on a level with the established grade an
for the city to change the present grad
would leave the city open to heavy dam
ages to surrounding property, the mai
portion Of which IL owned by the Nortl
western.