Bridge

Left: I dug out the bank level and built the form for the cement footings, they will be carrying all the weight of the bridge.

Right: I placed a 3' length of rebar at each inside corner and one 3' length in the middle of the form. I then placed bricks in and around the wire and rebar. I did this procedure in both footings to add strength to them.

Left: You can tell by the lack of day light that the pour took awhile. Most of all the work is done by hand and that includes mixing the cement.

Right: The footings (3' long x 2' wide x 4' high) turned out all right. I used two 17’ long x 10”wide x 2” thick boards. I nailed them together with galvanized 4” nails, to make the beams. I needed to raise the beams another 12” so I used these cement blocks, then I placed metal brackets in the middle of the cement blocks and cemented them in place, the beams sat in the brackets to secure them.

Left: The boards are 4’long x 9”wide x 2”thick, the string line helps me to keep the boards straight and looking good.

Right: The deck on the bridge is done, now I’m cementing my 8”x 8” post for the wall. I dug down 10” then placed the post in. I use bits of wood for bracing to keep the post plumb while the cement was drying. Notice the white drain pipe under cement footings.

Left: Wall is done, on to the next step.

Right: 2” perforated sock pipe was used for drainage, there are three drain lines in the foundation area, one on each side of the wood wall and one that runs underneath the cement footing. I used geotextile on the inside of the wood wall to add more strength.

Left: Sock pipe is buried in pea stone, I added 2.5 more yards of pea stone.

Right: It took 5 yards of medium size sand to bring it to the top of the cement footings.

Left: I used these 1’x 1’ cement tiles in front and a long the sides of the wood. I wanted to keep all material away from the wood so as not to promote rot.

Right: I used “ Allen blocks” to finish off the top edge, looks good.

Left: Another 3 yards of medium size sand to fill to the top of the Allen blocks some Rye seed then the grow blanket. This was done on September 10/01.

Right: When I took off the grow blanket on September 16/01 this is what I had.

Left: I repeated the same construction steps when building this side of the bridge including using Natures Gold in the top 5 inches of the soil.

Right: It was getting late in the season to grow grass from seed so I used turf. It could quickly get established before winter set in.

Left: Area is sodded and waiting to take root.

Right: Here is the finished bridge project.