The Rainbow Bridge

Old Dogwood has a seasonal creek that divides the property 1/3 on the “other side” of the creek and 2/3 on the driveway side of the creek. The “other side” is heavily wooded and the wild side. From about May through December, the creek is dry with white sand in the bed which varies from a few feet deep to over 10 feet deep in the area we call the “Grand Canyon of Dogwood.” From January to April it often has a small stream of water trickling down about ankle deep in most places. The creek rises quickly during a heavy rain, up to several feet deep.

Soon after we acquired Old Dogwood, we realized we needed a way to easily cross the creek, dry or wet. We also wanted to take equipment and the mower to other side. To do that, we needed a bridge. We decide to build a rainbow or arch-type bridge to span 25 feet across the creek with a seven foot width. Like with nearly everything these days, bridges are for sell over the internet. A nice fellow, Frank Petersohn, in Sechelt, British Columbia, Canada had a rainbow bridge design for sell via the internet. Browse his website at http://mathemati.ca

We gave Frank the bridge dimensions we wanted and that it should support 1600 pounds. He modified his design accordingly, cut the lumber to size with the correct angles for assembly, provided the hardware to hold it all together and assembly instructions. The only lumber not provided were the planks as those were standard size and easily purchased at any lumber yard or home improvement store.

The bridge pieces were shipped by freight to us and delivered to our gate at Dogwood. On our usual route from Highway 290 to Dogwood, there is a small wooden bridge over a creek. The bridge is not marked with a load capacity. When the freight truck driver got to that bridge on his way to deliver our bridge, he refused to cross the unmarked bridge for fear it would not hold his truck and his load. He called his dispatcher to find him another back road route to Dogwood.  The bridge was transfered from the freight truck to our truck for the 50 foot drive from the gate to the garage.

We decided to build the bridge in the front part of the property and built most of it during December 2003 when there was no water in the creek and the weather was not too hot to work hard. Before the building could begin, concrete footers were constructed on both banks to support the bridge. Frank’s site shows in detail how those were to be constructed.

We did this by digging a hole 2 feet wide, 6 feet long, and 2 feet deep and filling it with cement. Each footer required 12 80-lb bags of cement. Getting 12 8-lb bags of cement across the creek was a challenge. Each bag was wheeled over and pushed up the bank in a wheel barrow one at a time. To wet the cement, we strung three long garden water hoses from the well house, across the property and across the creek to the footer location. Rebar was added to the wet cement slurry for strength.



Form for the footer





Moving one bag of cement across the creek




Mixing cement in the wagon

 

Autographed cement footer





The bridge was then constructed per the designer’s recommendations. By Christmas 2003, we had an attractive bridge and a way to drive across the creek! It has served us well over the last seven years and remains sturdy. It official opening ceremony with family was in February 2004.



Trusses built





Official Openning Ceremony





Just water under the bridge





Go  to Frank’s site, click on photos and the Dogwood bridge is featured in the third column, the fifth picture down. http://mathemati.ca/1_24foot.html

The bridge was a big project, one of the first of many at Old Dogwood needed simply to make the place more habitable and easier to get around. However, today, if we drive the mower or ATV over the bridge, we cannot complete the loop and cross back at the other end of the property because we do not have a bridge in the back of the property. That is about to change and we hope to complete the next bridge project by the end of 2010. It is a different type of bridge and will be built from different material. The Cedar Bridge Project has been underway for two years but the construction phase soon begins.