By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
ODOT would like to sell someone – anyone – a bridge in Waterville.
The 113-year-old Roche de Boeuf Bridge is a landmark stretching between Wood and Lucas counties. But it’s an unsafe, crumbling bit of history that the Ohio Department of Transportation would love to sell.
The starting bid at an auction planned for June 30 is quite the deal – $1.
However, the new owner will have to either repair, replace or demolish the structure, according to ODOT spokesperson Rebecca Dangelo.
The auction is a last ditch effort to let someone else save the historic structure.
“It is not in good shape – by any means,” Dangelo said Friday afternoon.
Some of the pier walls are falling off, creating a hazard for people who may be using the Maumee River below for fishing or boating.
“Some pieces have already fallen into the river,” and some chunks of concrete are dangling dangerously by the rebar, she said.
So the potential buyer would not be able to sit by while the bridge disintegrates.
It isn’t that ODOT doesn’t appreciate history, Dangelo said. It’s just that spending millions of dollars on a bridge that is no longer needed is not in line with ODOT’s mission.
“We have to be good stewards of taxpayers’ money,” she said. “It doesn’t make sense to invest in a bridge that goes nowhere.”
And here is where Dangelo makes a critical distinction. The ODOT engineers don’t even refer to the Roche de Bouef as a bridge anymore.
“We don’t consider this a bridge,” since a bridge holds traffic, she explained. “Unfortunately, this structure doesn’t do that.”
The structure has a storied past.
The Roche de Boeuf bridge was constructed in 1908 for an electric interurban trolley line linking Wood and Lucas counties.
One of the northern bridge piers was built upon a natural bedrock island in the river, which has been a landmark since around 1750. The rock island is called Roche de Boeuf, which has a modern translation to “rock of beef” or “rock of buffalo.” Historically it was a documented meeting place for Native Americans and early settlers. About a third of the original rock island was removed during construction of the bridge.
After carrying trolley cars for nearly three decades, the tracks were removed and the bridge abandoned in 1937.
But the bridge was put back into service in 1941 when the Waterville bridge on Mechanic Street collapsed. The Roche de Boeuf structure was used as a temporary automobile crossing due to the shortage of steel during World War II.
In 1943, the state bought the old interurban bridge, and three years later, traffic returned to the Mechanic Street bridge which by then had a new truss.
The interurban bridge was retired again, and in 1972 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The community rallied around the structure, and in 1974 the Roche de Boeuf Bridge Historical Society made an unsuccessful attempt to preserve the structure.
By 1983, ODOT deemed the bridge unsafe for equipment traffic.
Then in 2017, ODOT received a letter describing the safety concerns for watercraft below the bridge. The next year, ODOT sent invitations to stakeholders to notify them of the project to improve safety on the river. Those potential stakeholders included adjacent landowners, local governments, local emergency response agencies, local schools, local historical societies, state agencies and tribal nations.
There were no takers.
So in 2019, land and environmental surveys were conducted and alternatives for the bridge were researched.
It was estimated the cost to tear down the bridge would be $2.2 million, and the cost to restore it would be “north of $15 million,” Dangelo said.
That’s when a public meeting was held to present the options from a feasibility study.
Supporters of the structure have been very, very vocal, according to Dangelo.
“The public meeting was the most highly attended (and loud) meeting I’ve been to with ODOT,” she said. “There’s a lot of love for this bridge.”
ODOT officials don’t have high expectations for the auction – which not only includes the bridge but also nearly four acres on the Wood County side and nearly two acres on the Lucas County side of the Maumee River.
In fact, “we don’t anticipate it selling,” Dangelo said.
But they do feel a lot of pressure to offer stakeholders one last chance.
“We’re not really sure what to expect from this,” Dangelo said, noting that ODOT isn’t in the business of auctioning off “structures.”
The public auction of the Roche de Boeuf bridge will be held on Wednesday, June 30, at 10 a.m., at the Maumee Rotary Pavilion at Side Cut Metropark in Maumee.
