High water

Heavy rains last week put the bridge to its first real test of its foundation. Several inches of rain pushed the water level of the creek up to within a few feet of the bottom cord of steel. All went well. No damage or undermining found. Very happy.

Bridge construction update, temporary deck.

Here are a couple photos that show that i have installed a narrow wooden deck on the bridge. With the weather getting cooler and winter on the way, I wont have time to cut and prepare all of the heavy timbers for the full deck. That will have to be done next summer. So, until then, to get use out of all my hard work so far, I went for a temporary decking for my 4 wheel ATV.

This will be a big help during the heavy spring rains and high water. Crossing the creek in high water has been near impossible since my old bridge was washed out.

Next year I hope to redeck it for heavy traffic, like the big truck in the background.

Bridge in location

Finished moving bridge over the piers yesterday. Now waiting for the rain to let up so I can jack it up and level it out. Then its time to anchor it in place and work on the decking.

Bridge on the move

Today was a good day. The bridge is now resting on its concrete piers. It was manual labor with a ratcheting chain winch and two comelongs. I used the dozer as a fixed anchor point only. The move and positioning of the trusses was too delicate for brute diesel power.

I spent all day on the move, inch by inch it crept outward over the abyss. Help arrived in the afternoon when my son returned home from school and lend me a hand to finish the work. Im greatful for his help. Im blessed with two near adult sons that I lean on from time to time.

The work is far from done, as now I have to finish the positioning and anchor the bridge in place. Then its putting in the beams and deck.

Second truss is up!

I had some time on Labor Day to work on my bridge. The second truss is up and aligned with the first. Some more bracing needs done and all the cross framing needs added to give it rigidity. Then the path has to be cleared up to the creek.
The plan is to drag it up to and then across the bridge abutments and over the creek with my dozer. More to come!

Bridge progress

Here is a photo of the first steel truss being lifted into its upright position.


The next photos are of the work around the pier and abutments in the creek.

I will be working more on it today!

Just wanted to let you know about a blog that is an inspiration to my bridge build here.

http://bridges2thefuture.blogspot.com/

Working on my truss bridge again.

Really I have been working on it off and on all spring into summer. But I thought to post an update on where Im at with it. There are to efforts going on at the same time, pier construction and truss fabrication.
Im in the first stages of laying out the scrap metal to see what the trusses will look like and make changes where needed. I then have to cut all the pieces to fit together and make ready for welding.



Most of my work has been on the center pier lately. Adding height to it in order to bring it level with both bank abutments. Laying courses of free salvage concrete blocks and filling in the center of the pier with rocks and rubble from the creek, I have built a solid center load bearing structure. Both the ends are made from 55 gallon barrels filled with rock and covered in concrete. Im thinking about covering the long faces of the pier with brick to match the abutments.