By Don Pritchard with photos by Randy Ruzicka and Karen Stuppy
ST. MARY — After more than 102 years, the Franklin Bridge looks pretty good for its age.
After being knocked off its piers once and bearing the weight of more traffic than its builders could have imagined, the three-ton-capacity bridge is actually in pretty good shape.
Ste. Genevieve County Associate Commissioner Randy Ruzicka said the bridge is bearing up well under daily use. He says that probably is due to the American made steel which makes up its superstructure. He said the steel is probably stronger than most steel made today.
What inspectors did find when they took a close look at the bridge were problems where the bridge rests on piers at each end. So the footings were redone with a lot of concrete, giving the superstructure of the through truss bridge a firm foundation.
Ruzicka said he had been told the bridge once fell off its piers under the weight of a tractor and combine sometime in the 1950s. In typical Missouri style, the farmers got together and with a lot of rope and muscle, and maybe a team of horses, they lifted the bridge back into place.
To their credit, their fix lasted the test of time. Now 60 or more years later, the bridge was only a bit off its plumb, leaning slightly toward Perry County.
Ruzicka said they haven’t tallied the total cost of the repairs which took three weeks. The accountants will have the job of calculating the expenses. Ruzicka said it will probably come to between $64,000 and $100,000, with his bet on the higher side. That will bite into the county’s paving budget, which has already been hit by higher prices for asphalt and for the diesel fuel to run the machinery.
Was it worth it?
Ruzicka says yes.
The people on the other side of the bridge need a way to get where they need to go. Anyone who has traveled the road the rest of the way to Route H in Perry County knows it is narrow, prone to mud and dust and unsuitable for ambulance or fire truck. The bridge is their connection to the world, quite literally, a lifeline.