Storytown Creek Bridge Project

Here is how the day started, the bridge hanging off the back of my branco. All was well with the universe at this point.

This is about 20 minutes later, when it all started to go to hell. My neighbor customer failed to do any of the site prep, and I was homicidal at this point. First I popped a trailer tire, then the whole truck axel rolled under. It got stuck on a stump, and couldn't take the force. You can see it is no longer centered under the middle "W"

An hour later we had it back up on the axel, utiliazing only a small jack and the spare timbers. My neighbor showed up at about this time and asked "How's it going?"

About five minutes after that, I punctured a sidewall on one of my branco tires on another small stump. With much coaxing, the customer walked back up to his house and got his tractor to help.

About three house later yet, we had it across the creek, but got stuck on the old bridge that he had not removed yet. It actually came in handy up til this point, as it gave us something to skid the new bridge across. This shows my friend Andy hooking up the gator to assist the tractor in moving the thing the last couple feet.

This is the final resting place. It took some tweeking to get it ligned up with the boardwalk, but it came out well centered and level. A check of the known measurements showed no deflection or narrowing of the top clearance.

So there it is, my biggest project to date. I am happy with the outcome, despite the pain I endured. Next time I will charge twice as much.