So happy together

Historic bridges get second chance

By Janine Anderson

Sometimes a bridge has to hit the road before it finds its rightful place.

Sometimes a bridge's road to home is long and winding. That was the case for the Scofield Bridge and, to a lesser extent, the Ninabuck Road Bridge before they found themselves laid end to end across the Crawfish River in Dodge County's Astico Park.

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation decommissioned the historic bridges several years ago, but people in the surrounding Dodge County communities didn't want the structures destroyed.

So the bridges sat until someone could find a use for them. The use appeared in Astico Park, but the years took their toll on the spans. They needed extensive work to get back into working order.

That's when the road trip began.

"The Scofield Bridge was so deteriorated," said Steve Janke, president and owner of Janke General Contractors, the general contractor for the Astico Park project. "We had to take it to our shop to get measurements."

	Project Name: Dodge County Historic Bridges - Astico Park Location: Dodge County Submitting Company: Janke General Contractors Inc., Edgar General Contractor: Janke General Contractors Inc. Project Leader: Steve Janke, Janke's president and owner Architect: MSA Professional Services, Baraboo Engineer: MSA Professional Services Owners: Dodge County, Wisconsin Department of Transportation Project Cost: $720,000 Project Size: 2,000 square feet Start Date: June 2006 Completion Date: September 2006

So the contractor hauled the Scofield Bridge 190 miles from Dodge County to Janke's shop in Athens. From there, it journeyed another 130 miles to United Painting Inc. in Forest Junction for additional restoration work before making its way back to Astico Park another 73 miles away.

The Ninabuck Road Bridge only had to be moved once, about 1 mile, from its temporary home to Astico Park.

Once Janke determined the pieces needed to restore the bridges, the contractor had to find a way to make those pieces match the century-old structures. Janke simulated the rivet construction of the bridges so the restored portions would match the original parts that survived.

With the restoration complete, the crew turned to the challenge of installing the bridges across the Crawfish River. The project team could only access the site from one side.

"We had to float the bridge out," Janke said. "Because of the river, we were unable to plug it up. We had to build a temporary causeway to the pier on one side, and from there we had to set the smaller bridge on a barge and set it into place with a crane."

The weather presented an additional challenge, he said. A downpour dropped 7 inches of rain, and the river rose so high the team had to stop working for several days while the water level went back down.

But Janke said he enjoyed working on the project, especially knowing it was preserving history.

"We like to do challenging projects that are out of the ordinary," he said, "rather than just building a bridge over the highway."