Cultural resource professional Gloria Scott touts SCA:

“It’s a great organization. I’ve been a member since its founding in 1977. Its journal and newsletter have contained scholarly articles that are a great resource when evaluating such resources and for making a case for National Register eligibility, particularly under National Register criteria considerations (b) for moved properties and (g) for properties less than fifty years of age.”

Prospective conference speakers are encouraged to submit abstracts on topics exploring transportation’s role in the growth of tourism in coastal New Jersey and the Mid-Atlantic from the late nineteenth through twentieth centuries, mid-century motel architecture, and innovative preservation strategies for historic roadside tourist facilities (restaurants, gas stations and motels) and tourism sites. However, any topics related to the 20th century commercial landscape are welcome. Abstracts should be submitted to Blythe Semmer via email to: jbs2339@yahoo.com by May 31, 2012. Conference registration information will be available in early summer at www.sca-roadside.org.

Rare wrought-iron bridge installed at new site on Gateway Trail

The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) has shared a new video of this recently completed project on its Facebook page, showing details that can inspire and guide others who are planning to relocate a truss bridge for trail use. This rare wrought-iron truss bridge, now located on the Gateway State Trail near Stillwater, was originally built in the 1870s and functioned for years on a state highway in northern Minnesota.

The project involved disassembly, refurbishment of reusable iron members, modifications to serve as a trail crossing, and reassembly at the new trail location over Manning Avenue. Mead & Hunt provided historical services for the planning for the bridge’s relocation and rehabilitation.  Our historians reviewed the engineer’s disassembly plans and monitored the on-site disassembly process and cataloguing of truss members.  Following disassembly, Mead & Hunt worked collaboratively with the engineer to prepare reassembly plans that comply with preservation standards.

Kristen Zschomler, MnDOT Cultural Resource Unit, narrates the video, describing the project’s success in accommodating functional needs for the trail, especially its use by horseback riders, and achieving historic preservation goals, including the state’s installation of rivets for the first time in 50 years.

On the video, you’ll hear a description of project features from these individuals:

• Nancy Daubenberger, MnDOT State Bridge Engineer, acknowledges the many parties and coordination activities that came into play to make this a success.
• Steve Olson, design engineer, explains adaptation of the bridge to the horse-trail requirements including associated railing changes.
• Bob Frame, Senior Historian with Mead & Hunt, talks about the bridge’s significance as one of very few surviving iron bridges in the nation.

For construction sequence photos and more about the popular Gateway State Trail, see this page.

The attached report was prepared by Mead & Hunt in cooperation with the Historic Bridge Alliance based on the results of a national survey of state DOTs, FHWA Division Offices, and SHPOs about historic bridge programs. This study helps states put their historic bridge preservation efforts into the national perspective.

The conference will feature workshops, sessions and speakers from the historic preservation, archaeological, heritage tourism, transportation, legislative, and planning communities, as well as tours.

Mead & Hunt historians, Emily Pettis and Amy Squitieri, will be presenting results from recent projects involving the evaluation of Post-World War II residential properties and historic roads.  You can find out more and register for the conference at: www.pennbyways.org.

According to the EPA’s announcement: “NEPAssist draws information from publicly available federal, state, and local datasets, allowing NEPA practitioners, stakeholders and the public to view information about environmental conditions within the area of a proposed project quickly and easily at early stages of project development… NEPAssist is designed to help promote collaboration and early involvement in the NEPA process by raising important environmental issues at the earliest stages of project development.”

For now, the tool is billed as “available for use by federal agencies.”  Users can define an area of interest and immediately screen for environmental indicators.  This is helpful for identifying alternative project locations, avoiding and/or minimizing impacts, and locating potential mitigation areas. Perhaps its application can be expanded to local and state governments, and consultants working on their behalf, if proven effective.

I did find a publicly accessible link online. This may be a beta version—I have no information on the reliability of data provided. When I plugged in Stillwater, MN, as a test, NEPAssist flagged “impaired waterbodies,” including along the St. Croix River with a helpful information box that defined the term and provided a source. You can test the tool here.

According to National Register Bulletin 15, which provides guidance on how to apply the National Register criteria: “The significance of a historic property can be judged and explained only when it is evaluated within its historic context. Historic contexts are those patterns or trends in history by which a specific occurrence, property, or site is understood and its meaning (and ultimately its significance) within history or prehistory is made clear.”  To register go to: Free webinar

If you missed any of the previous National Register webinars, go to Powerpoints.

In particular, we were all interested in Alicia Barber’s oral history project on former U.S. 40 and previous route of the Lincoln Highway that is being sponsored by the county’s transportation agency.  Her oral histories are informing the planning process by engaging folks who may not attend typical stakeholder meetings and providing feedback gathered in a non-traditional way to be considered in the development and preservation of the roadway.  In addition, the oral histories provide  historical background and a record of the use of the road and its role in the community that can be used in interpretative programs.

To hear more about issues professionals are encountering with historic roads see the case studies.

Also to follow the dialogue on key themes and questions raised in the case studies, see my initial blog post.

Due to my personal interest in bridges and sustainability, I found the Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT) story about deconstructing and recycling a 47-Year-Old Bridge intriguing.

According to AASHTO:

ODOT is embarking on a first-of-its-kind, large-scale, bridge recycling project. This past February when ODOT opened the new Crosstown Expressway in Oklahoma City, it took the I-40 Crosstown Bridge out of service. Instead of tearing down and scrapping the 47-year-old structure, ODOT decided to recycle the bridge, awarding a $10 million contract to deconstruct it.

A majority of the bridge’s 1,900 beams are expected to pass inspection and be made available at no cost to county governments for use in bridge projects statewide. ODOT estimates that the recycled beams could help counties construct more than 300 bridges, saving Oklahoma taxpayers millions of dollars.

For more information, contact Tony Dorsey, AASHTO, at tdorsey@aashto.org.

It turns out this wasn’t the first time that Oklahoma made good use out of an old bridge. Several years ago, a 140-foot truss was moved intact to a new site 11 miles down the road.  The county had estimated that a new bridge would have cost about half a million dollars, but reusing the old one only cost about $200,000. The story was captured by local news.

The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) is preparing to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) in 2016. An important part of this celebration will include the collection of “106 Success Stories” that illustrate how Section 106 of the NHPA has been used to engage people in the discussion about protecting historic properties that matter most to them. These stories will provide examples of how federal agencies have used the Section 106 process to protect historic properties, improve federal planning, and raise awareness of the benefits of historic preservation. 

The 106 stories will be used individually and as part of a collection to explain the benefits of this important program to the public, elected officials, federal agencies and preservation partners. The ACHP plans to gather and publish these stories on a regular basis, leading up to a final product that will be released in conjunction with the NHPA’s 50th anniversary.  The success of the Section 106 process depends on the actions and involvement of many and that is why we need to hear from you. To find out how to nominate a project, please contact 106stories@achp.gov.

The ACHP has released the first three success stories which are available here.

Thanks to Christopher H. Marston, Architect & Project Leader, NPS-Historic American Engineering Record, for sharing this information:

The Federal Highway Administration’s National Historic Covered Bridge Preservation Program (NHCBP) will be sponsoring the Second National Historic Covered Bridge Conference in Dayton, Ohio, June 5-8, 2013. Co-sponsored by the National Park Service’s Historic American Engineering Record and the USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory, this event will be held ten years after the First National Covered Bridge Conference in Burlington, Vermont.

The second national conference will follow up on several themes:

• reviewing several of the NHCBP-funded research and rehabilitation projects
• exploring best practices for rehabilitation
• revisiting the Burlington Charter for the Preservation of Covered Bridges

We will also discuss the continuing threats and challenges to covered bridges, most recently illustrated by the flooding in New England from tropical storms Irene and Lee in 2011. These natural disasters resulted in the loss of the Blenheim Bridge, a National Historic Landmark, and damage to several others.

The Dayton Conference will feature presentations from some of the leading covered bridge engineers, scholars, and builders from across the country. Held in downtown Dayton, with additional events at the historic Engineers Club of Dayton, participants will also have the opportunity to tour several nearby covered bridges and local historic sites, such as the National Museum of the US Air Force.

The conference will offer the opportunity for exchange between a diverse audience of civil engineers, public transportation officials, academics, trades people, historians, architects, and covered bridge enthusiasts. Proceedings of the event will be published online. More information will be made available on the conference website. Mark your calendar and plan to attend!