Kentucky Route 36 Bridge, Spanning Lick Fork Creek near Camp Northward, Williamstown

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER KY-50. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

The Lick Creek Bridge is a two-span, closed spandrel, concrete arch structure constructed in It was constructed by the Luten Bridge Company of York, Pennsylvania, and is one of four surviving documented concrete arches by this company in the state.

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER KY-50. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Jayne Henderson Fiegel KY ROUTE 36 BRIDGE HAER No. (page 2) The KY 36 bridge over Lick Fork has been determined eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. The double concrete arch, constructed in is currently owned by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet and is scheduled for replacement. The KY 36 bridge crosses Lick Creek in the southeastern section of Grant County, Kentucky. The bridge serves KY 36, which is a two-lane, secondary state route. The structure is located in a tiny crossroads community called Camp Northward, which is about 6 miles south of Williamstown, the county seat, and 2 miles east of the Pendleton County line. Lick Creek, a tiny tributary, is drained by the Licking River, a major waterway in northeastern Kentucky.

The Lick Creek bridge is a two- span closed spandrel concrete arch structure constructed in It was built by the Luten Bridge Company of York, Pennsylvania, and is one of four surviving, documented concrete arches by this company in the state. The bridge, which is 60 feet long and 18 feet in width, is a small, filled arch structure with solid parapet walls. The Luten . Company specialized in this type of structure, decorated with incised rectangles on the parapet, a Luten trademark. The "Survey of Truss, Suspension and Arch Bridges in Kentucky," completed in documented 41 concrete arch structures in the state. The average length of the documented concrete arches is 108 feet. The largest span measured 302 feet and the shortest 20 feet.

They are divided into the following KY ROUTE 36 BRIDGE HAER No. (page 3) type categories: five are open spandrel deck arches, one is an open spandrel through arch, and the remaining 35 are closed deck arches. Five of these concrete bridges were constructed by the Luten Bridge Company of York, Pennsylvania, and Knoxville, Tennessee. Three of these five were declared eligible for the National Register in as a result of the comprehensive statewide survey conducted by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. When the remaining two Luten structures were considered for eligibility, the KY 36 bridge over Lick Creek was the only structure which had retained sufficient integrity to be considered.

Significance of National Register Eligible Property The KY 36 bridge is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places as a structure of state and local importance which possesses integrity of location, design, setting, materials and workmanship and embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period and method of construction. The bridge, although in poor structural condition, is a good example of the evolution of civil engineering technology and bridge construction in Kentucky.

Although Kentucky has bridges representing most of the early truss designs, beginning with the wooden king post and queen post and Town lattice trusses and including the mid-19th century metal truss designs of the Bowstring Arch and Whipple trusses, the first widespread bridge construction efforts in Kentucky did not materialize until the late century. During this period the Pratt and Warren trusses accounted for a great majority of bridges KY ROUTE 36 BRIDGE HAER No. (page 4) constructed. As bridge designs evolved, many later truss improvements retained the Pratt configuration of compression and tension member while changing the shape of the top chords. The Parker truss, for example, is clearly a Pratt with a polygonal top chord.

Because of the arched top chord, the Parker is stronger than a regular Pratt, but uses nearly the same amount of materials. A further modification on the Parker is the camelback, which has a polygonal top chord of exactly five slopes. In the latter part of the century, increasing railroad weight requirements necessitated new truss developments capable of withstanding greater loads. A major advance in strengthening the metal truss came with implementation of sub-struts and sub-ties to stiffen the truss under moving loads. The Baltimore and Pennsylvania trusses, named after railroad lines that used them extensively, utilized these components with either a straight or arched top chord, respectively. Early examples of concrete arch, suspension and cantilever bridges are also found in Kentucky.

Early concrete arch design and construction quite naturally imitated stone construction in many ways. The first concrete arches, built during the were shaped as traditional masonry barrels with filled solid arches. These closed spandrel walls acted as retaining walls for the fill material and carried the roadway loads to the arch. Conrete arch bridges were typically built using two standard designs, the solid spandrel and the open spandrel. The design for the open spandrel was developed as the advantages of reinforced concrete were explored and the heavy filled barrels of the closed spandrel were lightened into ribs. KY ROUTE 36 BRIDGE HAER No. (page 5) The open spandrel design consisted of an arch support system resting on ribs, which in turn support a horizontal deck.

Spandrel walls were pierced and opened, eventually diminishing into column size, which carried the deck loads to the arch ribs. During the late and early century, technological innovations into reinforced concrete structures abounded. With the introduction of the metal reinforcements and the lightening of the arch ribs, the columns and curves could be shallower, and longer spans became possible. Experimentation with these ribbed arches resulted in the development of through concrete arches. Only one through concrete arch has been documented in Kentucky. The first concrete arch bridge in the United States was constructed in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, in In the first reinforced concrete arch was built in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.

Al though concrete structures imi tat.ed stone construction in several ways, reinforced concrete arch bridges have several advantages over masonry arches. Stone arched bridges were generally constructed using a semi-circular or segmental curve, which limited the span length. Reinforced concrete on the other . hand lent itself to a low rise to span ratio that allowed for a longer span length. Less handwork was required for concrete arches, which decreased their cost and construction time and made them more economical. It was the plasticity of concrete which allowed for the flexibility of the design which stone construction could not imitate. This same characteristic allowed aesthetic innovations KY ROUTE 36 BR1DGE HAER No.

(page 6) as well, and concrete arches displayed a variety of architectural details. All spandrel arch concrete bridges utilized parapet walls at the outer edge of the deck. Closed spandrel walls were decorated with a variety of surface treatments, and elaborate balustrades defined the edges of the open spandrel arches. The balustrades were composed of top and bottom railings with the balusters between. It was this element which allowed for the most effusive details. Al though concrete arches allowed for greater flexibility in construction, the workmanship on most of the earliest structures imitated stone. Many of these bridges, particularly those in urban areas, displayed voussoirs of molded concrete along with side walls rusticated to resemble ashlar.

As concrete construction techniques became more sophisti- cated, so then did the aesthetic treatments and the methods used to achieve these treatments. Many times the concrete surface was treated while still "green," a term applied to the material before it was completely cured. Surface treatment included acid washes, sand blasting and bush hammering.