The Mighty Mac is clearly going strong. But man-made things don't last forever. So, how much life does the Mackinac Bridge have left in it? The Mackinac Bridge has many more generations of peninsula-switching motorists to facilitate, according to the man in charge of it. But in the coming decades, the bridge will get some of the first major work it has seen since it was built. Bridges age differently than other major infrastructure; different components have different service lives, said Robert Sweeney, executive secretary and chief executive officer of the Mackinac Bridge Authority, an independent state agency that operates and maintains the bridge.
The bridge's two large towers — feet above water; up to feet into the waters of the Straits of Mackinac, where lakes Michigan and Huron meet, and down into the lake bottom up to another feet — are in remarkably great shape, Sweeney said.
Scour, an engineering term for water body currents eroding away the foundations of a bridge and negatively affecting its structural soundness, is not an issue at the Mackinac Bridge, despite six decades of dynamic, shifting water currents in the Straits of Mackinac working against it, Sweeney said. The authority operates as a employee bridge maintenance team that keeps it painted and repaired, Sweeney said.
That's paid off on the bridge's deck, the suspended steel portion upon which vehicles drive. A typical steel deck lasts 40 years, and the Mackinac Bridge's is at 60 years going strong. But that deck will become the first major rehabilitation work on the bridge in its history. Many suggested that the completion of the Mackinac Bridge was Michigan's biggest historical event in years.
During the ceremony, then-Governor G. Where nature divided us, we have bound ourselves together with this web of steel. Oldsmobile also provided brand new models to celebrate the opening of the Mackinac Bridge, with 83 white Olds convertibles carrying beauty queens from each county. Since , the bridge has served its purpose to move traffic and people across our beautiful Michigan waters between the two peninsulas. Mackinac Bridge from the air Wikipedia. Today, the bridge has become a tourist destination for bridge enthusiasts and photographers from all over the world and will always be a part of Michigan's great history.
But the Armies of Europe began to march and bridge progress came to a halt. By the legislation was enacted, but it limited the newly created Authority to determine feasibility only. While this agency was studying the request, a private investment banker became interested in the project, and offered to manage a group of investment companies which would underwrite the sale of the bonds.
The Authority accepted the offer and was ready to offer its bonds for sale by March of There were not enough takers to guarantee successful underwriting. The money market had weakened. Contracts which had been awarded contingent upon this financing were immediately implemented.
David B. Ignace and Mackinaw City. The bridge opened to traffic on November 1, according to schedule, despite the many hazards of marine construction over the turbulent Straits of Mackinac. The last of the Mackinac Bridge bonds were retired July 1,
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