Burr Arch Covered Bridge: Installing the Famed Burr Arches
That time had finally arrived! It was time to install the arches. So much time and heart had gone into the arches that it was exciting to see a reward soon coming. The timbers proved more difficult than I had anticipated. They had now been off the form for more than a month and had been stored outdoor the entire time. While installing the first arch, we found that the first one had sprung in the last three feet of the timber. This in turn pushed up the tangent point that was established on the drawings. I wanted to do keep the arches as much as a true arc as possible. We forced some of the spring back and eliminated nearly all of the error. We then used the forklift to place a load onto the arches and bolted them. This created upward thrust from the arches to the panel posts, and in essence, placed most of the load onto the arches. After a couple of days of hard work, all the arches were installed and load bearing! This was the pinnacle of the project.
While we were tailoring the final quirks of the project, Dennis and Brian started to build the wing walls of the abutments with river stone. The roofing crew was soon to come and during this phase was when channel ten filmed for their live at five show.
