Welcome to Zilwaukee and the Zilwaukee Bridge. This thing is massive. The budget was also massive, over 48 million dollars. It was only supposed to take three years to build but it took nine. There are some other interesting facts as well.
With a total of 178 million dollars the bridge was completed.
Eugene, Mayor of Zilwaukee: We have had issue with putting it up the second time, had a dip in it, replaced the cables and now it's a very save bridge. Very safe.
Bryan: The original bridge over the Saginaw River was four lanes wide but the problem, a lot of ships couldn't make it through and crashed into it! Next thing you know they decided we have to build a bigger bridge.
Eugene: It's a beautiful place to travel across and stop off and see Zilwaukee. it is the only large expansion bridge we have between the upper penninsula and Florida. So it's a big asset to us here, a very big asset.
Bryan: In order to solve traffic issues Saginaw got lucky. They said, hey we will build I-675 through Saginaw in order to get around the river and the bridge under construction.
So whether you are traveling up north or south over this bridge you can always remember it is one of the largest and most expensive architectural and financial disasters in MDOT history but it is still pretty cool.
