City Council, November 27th - Restoring the Church Street Bridge

Of all the Salem bridges associated with the influence of Conde McCullough and more directly R. A. Furrow, the Church Street bridge is the most picturesque and merits the greatest effort in preservation. If the other bridges are replaced at the end of their expected 100 year lifespan, it would be terrific for the Church Street bridge to be restored and preserved as the best example of the 1920s/30s bridges here. (See the appreciation at On the Way from 2014.)

Stairs on the Church St Bridge (2014)

At Council on Monday is news that the City has submitted to ODOT four requests to fund bridge repairs in the 2027-2030 cycle. As context the City adds: "19 of the City’s 58 bridges are greater than 90 years old and bridges are normally designed for a 100-year design life. The average age of the City’s bridges is 63 years old."

1. Turner Road SE over Mill Creek - $15.4 million replacement project. This 66-year-old bridge provides the main connection to the City of Turner.
2. Church Street SE over Pringle Creek - $2.9 million rehabilitation project to fix bridge rails, concrete deck, and substructure cracking. This 94-year-old historic bridge is adjacent to Pringle Park near the Salem Hospital.
3. Airport Road SE over Shelton Ditch - $8.5 million replacement project. This 69-year-old bridge is functionally obsolete due to its narrow width. It also lacks pedestrian and bicycle facilities.
4. Liberty Street SE over Pringle Creek - $40.3 million replacement project. This 95-year-old historic bridge is experiencing scour concerns and additional concrete degradation at multiple locations.

Three of the projects are replacements, and the rehabilitation project is indeed for the Church Street bridge! Hopefully there is money for all of them.

Moss, delamination and flaking, corrosion
Church St Bridge (2017)

Here, then, is another item to be thankful for. Not all the bridges associated with McCullough can be preserved. They are at the end of the 100 year life, and it's fine to celebrate them and also replace them. (As we did with the Commercial Street bridge at Mirror Pond and the Winter Street bridge at the Hospital.)

But since the Church Street bridge is lovely, the auto travel demands on it are not so high, and we should be promoting non-auto travel on Church Street anyway, it should have a reasonable chance of lasting beyond 100 years. The rehabilitation project is terrific.

With the Church Street bridge, the south Liberty Street bridge was part of a substantial bridge program in the late 1920s. Most of those 19 bridges older than 90s years are part of it.

In the spring of 1927 the city debated a $350,000 bridge bond. Mayor Livesley and Conde McCullough, State Bridge Engineer and member of the City Planning and Zoning Comission, led the case for it. 12 or 13 bridges were included in it. This editorial in favor cites bridges on South Commercial Street (recently replaced), North High Street, North 17th Street, South Liberty Street, South Church Street, South Winter Street (recently replaced), East State Street, North Cottage Street, North Winter Street, North Summer Street, North 14th Street, and North 15th Street. This is that cluster awkwardly commemorated in the interpretive panel at the Winter Street replacement.

June 15th, 1927

The citizenry agreed with the need for modernizing bridges, and the bond measure passed.

June 29th, 1927

The involvement of Conde McCullough in the bridges has been a little unclear, and here is direct evidence for it. Mayor Livesley appointed McCullough to a formal bridge committee. City Bridge Engineer R. A. Furrow designed the bridges, but there was a direct influence from McCullough, not just generally as the State Bridge Engineer, but as a member of the supervising committee. This confirms it is reasonable to attribute them to "the school of Conde McCullough" as art historians might say.

July 20th, 1927

The Church Street bridge was constructed in 1929. Amusingly, jaydrivers ignored the order closing the old wooden bridge. Late in the summer the new bridge opened.

April 3rd and August 24th, 1929

What today seems like the grandness of the bridge, with the two staircases and the landings and lampposts, did not seem very remarkable in the newspaper. It merely mentions "the stairway leading down to the city auto park." I thought there might be more attention and hoopla for the plan even before construction started, but these features did not seem to stand out. Maybe there will be more to say later on that. 

At the time, it was the South Liberty Street Bridge that got more attention. Its significance for city travel, rather than any aesthetics, was the main thing. Liberty Street dead-ended at the creek, and any new bridge had to span a "ravine" twice as long as the Commercial Street Bridge spanned. The engineering feat and the opening of a continuous Liberty Street were more notable.

There might be more to say on R. A. Furrow's position also. Today, the City would hire an engineering consultant to design the bridge. For the late 1920s bridge program, the City brought engineering and design in-house, and hired three engineers. At the conclusion of the building, there was a real kerfluffle, and a faction of City Council forced the resignation or firing of Furrow and the others. This will be interesting to look into.

The prospects of new housing on the old City Hall site and of repairing the Church Street bridge are terrific grace notes for this Thanksgiving.

 Also on this Council agenda:

• News of proposed housing at the old City Hall site
• A little greenwash for the airport