Day 4 – Start of a Bridge

Wednesday November 21, 2018

It was mostly overcast and a little cooler than the previous day.

After breakfast, devotions and reviewing the plans for the day, we drove to the job site.

Roger finished the railing work then assisted with the other jobs.

Spencer and Bernie finished touching up the bare spots on the bridge and railing with green paint, while Braeden and I started mixing cement and pouring the concrete pad at the home side of the bridge. When we were half finished, Spencer, Roger, Justin and Bernie helped finish the concrete work.

With the concrete work finished, we started nailing of the 2×4’s for the deck of the bridge.

Bernie checked the curve of the 2×4’s to make sure that the crown of the boards were facing up.

Braeden handed the 2×4’s to Spencer and Justin and supplied them with nails, laid down the tar paper on the beams under the 2×4’s and occasionally straightened the deck with a sledge hammer.

I lined up the 2×4’s on end and then Spencer and Justin nailed the boards together.

When we were almost finished for the day, the local channel 9 fox news stopped by to interview us. A film crew from the local news station arrived in the afternoon to find out about the progress of the bridge and the story was later shown on the local evening news. The link to the story is:

https://wtov9.com/news/local/bridge-repairs-in-progress-for-residents-along-little-grave-creek

As we were packing up a short conversation with one of the homeowners that will benefit from having a new bridge. I had seen pictures of the damage to the original bridge which had been damaged by a flood and he told me that the damage had gotten worse by the erosion of the water. Before the bridge could be rebuilt the walls of the creek had to be shored up with rocks to avoid erosion in the future. He also told me that the concrete in the creek which was used as an emergency access, had been poured in the 1930’s.

I took a picture of his truck as he crossed the creek to get to his house.