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Weddell Bridge: committee pursues historic designation but faces engineering hurdles
Summary
Staff and an agency official said they have applied for historic designation for Weddell Bridge to unlock preservation funding, but noted the bridge uses a Howe truss and that structural work must balance preservation with safety and limited available engineering expertise.
The committee discussed pursuing a historic designation for Weddell Bridge to access preservation funding sources and to limit structural approaches that would destroy the bridge's authenticity. Staff said Cecilie filed an application for historic designation and the committee is waiting for a decision.
An agency official cautioned that certain retrofit strategies could jeopardize designation. "If we were to do something like that, we would lose our historic designation, because it's no longer an old covered bridge," the agency official said, describing the tradeoffs between building a modern structure under an historic façade and preserving original fabric. Staff added that the bridge's Howe truss design means few specialists remain who can work on the structure and that funding and engineering resources will be key constraints.
