Building Bridges

This farm is no different from the rest of our country. We have some crumbling infrastructure that needs to be fixed. Leaning barns, barns in disrepair, old shelters that need cleaning and renovating and bridges that need to be either straightened or replaced. One such bridge was replaced this past weekend.

Before - March 2016

This bridge went across part of our small pond, from the "island" to the "mainland". It had been leaning for a while and the treads were getting rotten. You could still cross it as long as you stepped on the ends of the treads that were directly over the supports, but that wasn't a long-term solution. So I set about doing demo on the bridge by removing the treads to assess the strength of the supports.

Rot is apparent on both supports.

As I was able to remove the treads by hand and didn't need a crowbar or pry bar, it was obvious that some rot had taken place and the nails weren't holding much anymore. It was time to get new poles to replace the old ones. So off to Agri Supply I went in search of 16 foot poles to span the area.

Using the trailer as well as the truck bed I got the two poles home and backed them into position on the island. After muscling the first one off the truck/trailer and standing it up in the spot I wanted it, I dropped it into place. PERFECT!

Next one, same thing. Placed it. Dropped it and... CRACK!  OOPS!!! That one had a big knot in the middle and it broke. In hindsight that was a good thing as that knot would have been a weak point and probably broken when it was least convenient, like when someone was crossing.

Oops!

Back to Agri Supply for another pole. They gave me another one without any questions, though I showed them the above picture so they'd know I wasn't taking advantage. I picked out the sturdiest, most knot-free-looking pole I could find. Once I got it back, it dropped in place, but not without "minor" incident. I heard a small crack when it hit the ground. It didn't bend or flex. When I turned it over and inspected it I didn't see anything. I left it turned over (to flex against the crack) and got to work attaching the treads.

It's Infrastructure Week!

I only managed to get the bridge halfway complete the first day. Two trips to the store for poles killed some of the progress.

A little more than halfway

I managed to finish it on the second day and now we have a solid, sturdy and wider (by 4 inches) bridge to cross. It looks crooked in the pictures, but that's the bumps and curves in the poles that I was compensating for.

We still have two other bridges to fix, but this one was showing the most wear and is used the most. The other two go off into the woods or areas we don't walk around in as often. I'll remove the old bridge supports soon and will eventually use them for garden borders or something like that.

On to the next project...