County Highway T is one of the main line roads that crosses a forest and wilderness between WI-35 and US-53. While this area was once a very remote wilderness, it has become much more popular over the past two decades as hundreds of miles of ATV trails have been developed, and the cost of lakefront property is pushing people to ever more remote areas of the state.
This 1976 structure is not likely to be the first bridge at this location. Rather, there was likely a structure from the 1910 to 1930 era in place. That bridge was probably a narrow one-lane bridge, possibly a through truss structure. If anyone knows for sure, please let me know. At any rate, that structure would have been obsolete in about 40 years, leading to the construction of the current bridge.
The new Highway T bridge is a modern pre-stressed concrete girder bridge with a concrete deck. To save time, money, and materials, a rather simple metal rail was installed rather than a safer concrete railing. The metal rail is simply bolted into the bridge deck. The downside is that it allows bridge runoff and debris to end up in the river. One very interesting feature of this bridge is that it was built on a curve in the road with a curve in the bridge.
