Bridges!

The streambed was dry enough this week to backfill around all the bridge abutments and do almost all of the finish grading.

Many of the bridge approaches had eroded so severely that the trails approaching the bridges had to be raised a foot or more. The photo below shows the upstream approach to the 3rd bridge, an area that was chronically muddy and where the trail was crumbling into the stream.  The regraded trail looks perfectly normal in this view. 

But look at that same stretch of trail viewed from just downstream of the bridge in the photo below.  Notice the trail marker and bench next to the bridge abutment--the bench is now below the level of the finish grade.  Obviously, the bench will be removed and the area filled to bring the grade up to match the surroundings.

The biggest excitement this week was the arrival of the bridges from Alabama.  They arrived very early Thursday morning and were off-loaded to the staging area near the utility towers.

The photo below shows the 5th bridge (the one closest to the south lake) being placed. Once the exact location for the bridge was determined, the contractor marked the places to drill and began the process of bolting the bridge to the abutment and making sure it was level. By the time rain stopped work on Friday, the 5th and the 4th bridges were done.