ZILWAUKEE - "No news is good news."

That adage seems to best sum up the most recent history of the Zilwaukee Bridge, an 8,000-foot concrete span over the Saginaw River that has enjoyed an era of good feelings after a disastrous beginning.

The twin bridge finally opened to two-way traffic on Sept. 19, 1988, five years behind schedule and nine years after the project began. Initially, the project was expected to cost $79 million, but an accident in 1982 delayed the bridge's completion and added another $48.3 million to the cost of the project.

Since then, the bridge's stellar service has more than made up for its shaky start.

"It's a fine structure and today it's in very good shape," said Larry Tibbits, Bay Region engineer for the Michigan Department of Transportation. "Every year we take precise measurements of the structure, make inspections, and we run load tests, and everything is always within tolerance."

Built without the grace of the Mackinac, Ambassador or Blue Water bridges, the Zilwaukee Bridge is ponderously referred to by the engineers as a "segmental concrete box girder." The span probably never has appeared on the cover of any chamber of commerce promotional materials - but it has been a boon to hundreds of thousands of regular I-75 travelers in Michigan.

The Zilwaukee Bridge replaced a notorious drawbridge over the Saginaw River that was built in 1960. Waiting for a ship to pass through the drawbridge created legendary traffic backups along I-75, and at least one deer hunter expressed his frustration by firing a bullet through a window in the bridge's control booth.

The traveling public overwhelmingly favored a new bridge, the sooner the better, but construction of the new span 125 feet over the Saginaw River came to a grinding halt in August 1982. Too much weight was placed on one of the bridge's 150-foot-long deck sections without a sufficient counterweight, causing the section to sag nearly five feet out of alignment, concrete to crack, and a pier footing to crumble.

The accident and repairs led to numerous questions about the bridge's design and long-term safety. At the time the bridge's design was somewhat controversial, with taught interior steel cables holding massive concrete sections together. Fingers of blame for the accident were pointed among the state Department of Transportation, its Dutch-based prime contractor Steven Construction Co., and its U.S. partner, Walter Toebe Construction Co. A settlement was eventually reached with the state accepting a good share of the blame.

But there was no turning back on the project after the accident: it would cost $20 million to tear down the bridge, which was two-thirds complete. And the federal government would have demanded about $55 million of its money back. Plus the drawbridge would still be there.

"It's a very unfortunate accident and we can't duck it. We were involved in it," said Michigan Department of Transportation Director Jim Pitz in 1983. He said later, "I was persuaded that there was not a great deal of future in not finishing the bridge."

After some head-scratching about how to repair the span, the 6,700-ton segment that sagged was finally fixed in March 1984, and construction resumed.

There continued to be controversy about the safety of the bridge as it neared completion. One engineer found concrete cracks in more than 100 areas. And waves and dips in the concrete in numerous areas caused concern. But a study by the federal Government Accounting Office found "the bridge is safe as constructed."

Predicted Michigan Department of Transportation engineering consultant Maurice Miller in 1985: "The conditions that produced the accident won't even exist during use. It will have no bearing on the safety of the bridge once it is opened to traffic."

Also vouching for the bridge is retiree Terry Brandon, a union officer with the former Reinforced Iron Workers Local 426 and Iron Workers Local 25. He toiled on the Zilwaukee span as a general foreman for three-and-a-half years.

"Building that bridge was a very complicated process, and I know some parts of the bridge are not completely plumb, but it hasn't affected the integrity," Brandon said. "I believe it was a good design, and it's been a good bridge. It has pretty much held up as expected. A few years ago they finished a bridge in Malaysia that was built on this same design."

Brandon and MDOT's Tibbits said the state chose the precast concrete design to cut down on maintenance costs - the Mackinac Bridge, for example, is repainted from end to end every few years.

Tibbits said there have been no major repairs to the Zilwaukee since it was built. Cracks in the concrete do take place, but they are repaired with a regular maintenance schedule using injected epoxy. The state has always used concrete-friendly calcium magnesium acetate to melt snow and ice on the bridge, and before both bridge approaches for two miles, so that road salt on tires will be eliminated or diluted.

"We have no plans for any major modifications to the bridge," Tibbits said. "That not only saves money on repairs, but it saves time for motorists. With traffic volumes the way they are today, closing down just one lane on a Friday night could cause a backup of 20 miles. We remember the drawbridge. We're very sensitive to motorist delays."

Why Zilwaukee?

Located in northeastern Saginaw County, the Village of Zilwaukee was begun in 1848 when brothers Daniel and Solomon Johnson from New York built a saw mill. Officially organized 10 years later, the Johnsons gave the unusual name to the town purposely to cause people to confuse it with the city of Milwaukee, in hopes of luring immigrants to work there.

The Zilwaukee Bridge is the primary claim to fame for the small community.

JUST LIKE THE CONCRETE it's made of, the Zilwaukee Bridge in Saginaw County has been a rock-solid example of engineering and construction after surviving a precarious start. This photo taken during construction also shows the now-demolished drawbridge.