Mill Creek Bridge, State Highway 31/U.S. 441 spanning Mill Creek, Pridgen

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER GA-141. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

State Highway 31/U.S. 441 spanning Mill Creek 1.1 miles southeast of the Ocmulgee River Coffee County, Georgia U.S.G.S. 7.5 minute Jacksonville, Georgia, quadrangle, Universal Transverse Mercator coordinates: Date of Construction: 193 5 Engineer: Georgia State Highway Bridge Department Builder: Georgia State Highway Bridge Department

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER GA-141. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

The 8-span steel stringer bridge composed of four, 2-span continuous spans of 20' is a complete example of an important early state highway department design that became a standard (No. It continued to be used in an updated fashion through the although the timber substructure was replaced by concrete or steel. The bridge has standard design concrete railings, brush curbs, timber pile bents, and a concrete deck. Timber pile bents are the most common early type of substructure utilized for this design because of its economy. The bridge is a significant example first-generation bridge technology in the state, a technology that is disappearing because of the limitations of the substructure. Few than twenty pre-1936 examples of the structure have survived to the present day.

Report Prepared By: Sandy Lawrence GDOT Architectural Historian Office of Environment and Location Georgia Department of Transportation Aviation Circle Atlanta, Georgia Date: May Mill Creek Bridge HAER No. GA-141 Page2 Introduction The Mill Creek Bridge is a 8-span steel stringer bridge on a timber substructure located on U.S. 31 and spanning Mill Creek. The bridge was built as part of the construction of SR 31 north of Douglas as it was added to the state highway system in the early This particular steel stringer bridge is the only surviving example of its kind along this section of state highway. In fact, fewer than twenty examples of this type of bridge from before remain in the state.

Background Georgia created the state highway department 1 6 and was one of the last states in the nation to do so. In an enactment by the General Assembly created among other things a system of state highways of which SR 31 was included. These proposed highways were intended to connect the county seats around which the majority of Georgia's population was located. 1 During this time of road improvement and expansion, rolled steel I beam, or stringer and reinforced concrete became the two primary bridge building technologies used throughout the nation. These technologies were popular primarily due to the efficiency of their erection and maintenance which in turn made them cost effective.

This new bridge technology replaced the previously popular metal truss and reinforced concrete arches.2 Realizing the integral role of the construction and maintenance of bridges within Georgia's overall transportation plan, State Highway Engineer Warren Rabun Neel created a bridge department in and appointed Searcy B. Slack to serve as State Bridge Engineer. Slack' s primary goal as set forth by Neel was to construct as many permanent bridges as possible.3 This policy of bridge building under Slack's leadership resulted in the construction of 217 reinforced concrete bridges by Most of Georgia's federal aid funding was allocated for bridge building rather than paving primarily due to the fact that many of the state's highways were located within low-lying areas.

Unimproved roads while not ideal avenues for travel during or 1State Highway Department of Georgia, Third Annual Report of the State Highway Engineer to the State Highway Board of the State of Georgia Atlanta, Georgia, 18- 19. 2Lichtenstein and Associates, "Historic Contexts: Bridge Building Technology in Georgia." Historic Bridge Inventory Update [Unpublished manuscript on file with the Georgia Department of Transportation's Office of Environment/Location, Atlanta, Georgia, 1. 3 State Highway Department of Georgia, Second Annual Report of the State Highway Engineer to the State Highway Board of the State of Georgia Atlanta, Georgia, 16. Mill Creek Bridge HAER No.

GA-141 Page 3 after inclement weather could nonetheless be traversed unlike streams and rivers which were viewed as permanent barriers for transportation across the state. 4 Slack's bridge department replaced ferries and low-water bridges with higher and longer bridges. Under Slack's leadership, Georgia became a nationally recognized leader in the construction of these economic and efficient highway bridges. 5 By increases in vehicular traffic created the need for wider roads with greater load bearing capacities such that most of the bridges built in the earlier part of the century had to be replaced in the 193 Os. Roads were widened from the 16 to 18 feet widths to the new 22 to 24 feet widths, the new standard.

6 In effect, the bridges which Slack and his bridge department had worked so diligently to build ten to twelve years previously were now obsolete. Slack was greatly concerned for the state's financial investment in these early bridges and consequently looked for new ways to economize with the result that steel replaced concrete as a bridge building material. Steel was now more readily available and could be manipulated and utilized in ways that were not possible with concrete. Slack also saw the benefits of steel in other ways. Steel stringer bridges could be widened more easily than reinforced concrete bridges and the individual components of the bridge could possibly be salvaged and used in other places.

7 When the stock market crashed in and the Great Depression began, continuous span bridges were well on their way to becoming the standard bridge design for the state. In spite of the depressed economy, the early years of the Depression did not result in the slowing down of road construction. President Hoover and his administration were determined to maintain the current relationship and distribution of federal funds to state agencies with the effect that Georgia continued the building of roads and bridges on into When President Roosevelt introduced the New Deal programs in road building programs increased all across the nation; however, in the south and particularly in Georgia, controversy abounded over federal government control versus state or local government control.

Governor of Georgia, Eugene Talmadge, opposed the New Deal to the extent where all of the state's road and bridge building programs ceased altogether. Talmadge mostly feared that the wages provided by federal funds for road construction workers would steal laborers away from farms and further harm Georgia's struggling agricultural economy. The state highway department limped along during these years with a skeleton staff of engineers. By President Roosevelt and Governor Talmadge had 4 State Highway Department of Georgia, Second Annual Report, 75.

5Lichtenstein and Associates, "Historic Contexts," 6State Highway Department of Georgia, Fifteenth Report of the State Board of Georgia to the Governor and General Assembly of the State of Georgia for the Fiscal Years Ending, June 30, & June 30, Atlanta, Georgia, 27. 7Lichtenstein and Associates, "Historic Contexts," 39. Mill Creek Bridge HAER No. GA-141 Page 4 reached a compromise with the result that additional engineers were added to the staff and bridge and road projects increased. The Mill Creek Bridge in Coffee County was one of several bridges built during this time. Governor Talmadge was defeated by Eurith Rivers in and under Governor Rivers' leadership, federal and state funds were once again committed to fund road and bridge projects.

8 Mill Creek Bridge is a remnant from this short period in Georgia's transportation history. Although the continuous span bridges introduced first by Searcy Slack in the would go on to become one of the most common designs in the state until the Mill Creek Bridge is one of the few remaining early examples of this type of bridge technology. 8Lichtenstein and Associates, "Historic Contexts," Mill Creek Bridge HAER No. GA-141 Page 5 Site Plan/Photo Key Date Drawn: March Not to Scale t N