Read an article about the Schaub variant truss.
This structure crosses the Farm Creek Channel in downtown East Peoria. The area is highly developed, with many businesses.
Built in 1905, the bridge features a single 6-panel skewed, riveted Schaub variant Through Truss. An approach on the east side consists of a large through plate girder span of identical length, which was added in 1930 as part of a flood control project. The bridge rests on concrete substructures.
The Schaub variant truss is a take on the traditional Warren design, developed by Julius Schaub in 1901. While the original design featured a combination of pin and riveted connections, this bridge utilizes purely riveted connections, with no crash bars on the end panels.
The Schaub design offered a savings of material and a reduction of traditional stresses in truss members. Schaub considered it to be an ideal link between long pin connected spans and short riveted spans.
Today, the bridge is still used by railroad traffic. The truss has been reinforced and strengthened.
The author has ranked this bridge as being regionally significant, due to the unusual truss design.
The photo above is an overview.