Building a footbridge

[radair]

I recently designed & built a new bridge in one of our town's conservation lands. It was a good project that went pretty smoothly. Here's a pic of the old bridge that was replaced.

 

[radair]

First my son and I started off precasting a couple of concrete abutments in my garage. Something to do on a rainy weekend, anyway. Here's the form with rebar and anchor bolts:

 

[radair]

And here's a freshly poured block:

 

[radair]

My BX is awesome. We swung the old bridge out of the way and set the abutment....

 

[radair]

...then set the old bridge back on, ready for the following weekend.

 

[radair]

We prefabricated a steel skeleton at Importech, a local imported car repair shop. I used 26' steel bar joists for stringers and welded on horizontal and diagonal bracing. Here's the last piece of wood sill being bolted down:

 

[radair]

This bridge came complete with a VW axle and radial tires. We were bumming it didn't have some hot alloy wheels.

 

[radair]

I towed it to the site, then got behind it and wheeled it into place, using the old bridge and pipe rollers for the last bit (after removing the VW axle).

 

[radair]

Then we cribbed it up and cut out the old bridge from underneath.

 

[radair]

We propped up the new bridge long enough to set the other concrete block: