In May 2016, a public meeting was held concerning Main Street/SR 48 Bridge over Great Miami River, which sits at the southeastern corner of the McPherson Town and connects the neighborhood to downtown.
Improvements are needed to address the deteriorated condition of the bridge, constructed in 1956, as detailed in this handout provided at the meeting.
Residents and other interested parties were able to review and comment on the planned rehabilitation of the bridge, including asking for pedestrian lighting and attractive handrails on the bridge; replacement of the bricks that memorialize inventors, allow people in cars to see the river, attractive architectural treatments to the exterior of the bridge similar to other bridges recently rebuilt in the city, infrastructure for cyclists on Main Street, as well as addressing the steep slope and lack of cross-walk at the north end of the bridge.
Since May, the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) and the City of Dayton have been working to revise their plan based on feedback given at the meeting. Construction is slated to begin in 2018 and run through the fall of 2019.
Learn more about the history of the Main Street Bridge, first constructed in 1838, but replaced several times over the years, including a graceful 1892 version that was one of Dayton’s first concrete bridges and acted as a model for other bridges that existed downtown for more than a century and withstood the pounding waters of the 1913 flood.