Friendship Road Truss Bridge

The Friendship Road Bridge is located on Friendship Road in Monroe County Indiana, just off of S.R. 46 between Bloomington Indiana and Nashville Indiana.  The 98′ long through truss bridge crosses Stephens Creek on Friendship Road, originally built by the Lafayette Bridge Company in 1898, CLR Inc. performed major repairs on the structure in 2002.  Some of these repairs included plating the end posts and entire upper chord with steel plate to stiffen the chords.  Also replacing all the floor beams that support the stringer beams and wooden floor.  The floor beams were replaced while the wooden deck and stringers beams did not require replacement, which required CLR to replace these floor beams while supporting the wooden floor and stringers from above.  The floor beams had to be hung under the bridge with cables and hoists, then hoisted up to the stringer beams and then bolted with ‘U’ bolts to the lower chord.  A new guardrail system was designed to modern standards and to protect the delicate verticals and diagonal bracing.

The design and inspection of the work performed on the bridge was directed by J.A. Barker Engineering of Bloomington Indiana.  This project was chosen to receive the 2003 Indiana Partnership for Highway Quality Achievement Award from the Federal Highway Administration and Indiana Department of Transportation.

The Friendship Road Truss Bridge