# Curvy Bridge Build



## epic (Apr 16, 2005)

I've been working on a bridge since May. We are pretty much done with it and proud of our work so thought I'd share crapy iPhone pictures of the build in progress. This is a two man show, me and Whitebike. The hardest part probably was carrying the lumber in a mile from the road. We weren't sure if this build would even work at all. The build actually started last fall when we ordered custom cut lumber. We got 1/2" x 8" rough cut hemlock in random lengths. The idea being that it was ice and bendy and we'd laminate 4 lengths together to make the curve of our bridge.

Here's the first curve laid on top of the old bridge we replaced.







2nd curve we glued and clamped and also screwed it together from both sides.







Old bridge removed and supports installed. Hemlock cut into L shapes.







Built an on ramp the 8" tall strangers made it pretty high off the ground compared to the old bridge and decked it with 1" Hemlock.







We thought we were done, but we wondered could we bend teh wood tighter and make an S-curve?







Finished product has an 8 degree in-slope.







Product testing (did I mention the crappy iPhone pics?)







Then we came back for more and decided to make the S-curve. First side completed.







2nd stringer added we adjusted it's height to get a 20 degree banking since the radius is about half that of the other part.







Almost done.







Finished product.







Well, finished for now anyway.


----------



## Berkeley Mike (Jan 13, 2004)

Pretty dang cool.


----------



## Round2 (Jul 29, 2013)

Awesome !!!!!


----------



## qcanoe (Aug 27, 2004)

Very impressive!


----------



## Cotharyus (Jun 21, 2012)

Nice. You don't see work like that very often.


----------



## crank1979 (Feb 3, 2006)

Great work.

What life span are you expecting from the build?


----------



## epic (Apr 16, 2005)

crank1979 said:


> Great work.
> 
> What life span are you expecting from the build?


I don't know, we are hoping for at least 10-years. I forgot another step we also put waterproofing tape on top of the stringers so they won't get wrecked by water.


----------



## Trail Ninja (Sep 25, 2008)

Very nice work.
We'd give that 8 years (regulations) but 10 isn't unreasonable. You may have to replace some deck boards before that depending on your rainfall.


----------



## hankthespacecowboy (Jun 10, 2004)

Sweet work, guys! Very inspiring; certainly an idea to tuck away for future projects.


----------



## pinkrobe (Jan 30, 2004)

Nicely done! I wish we had better wood for building here...


----------



## thefriar (Jan 23, 2008)

Goregous work.


----------



## epic (Apr 16, 2005)

Another bridge build. 32' span. Outer beams are 3 layers of 2x10 Spruce and Hemlock. inner is 2x8. Decking is 2x6. The old bridge was sagged so badly that the deck was only 42" off the water. New one is 72"! Battery died on the camera before we were done, but here's a timelapse vid of work done yesterday.


----------



## radair (Dec 19, 2002)

Really nice work, Erik. Can you put some kind of water seal on to make it last longer? And what's with the tree inside the stringers on the time lapse? I kept waiting for someone to cut it down...


----------



## epic (Apr 16, 2005)

radair said:


> Really nice work, Erik. Can you put some kind of water seal on to make it last longer? And what's with the tree inside the stringers on the time lapse? I kept waiting for someone to cut it down...


There is a water seal. You can see the stringers suddenly turn yellow as we roll on the membrane to protect them. And yeah, we did cut down the tree though we considered leaving it in as it was there in the original bridge.


----------



## aero901 (Apr 11, 2012)

Epic, these are some great projects.

What material are you using for the water membrane and how much lifespan is it supposed to add to the beams? I would have thought something between the stringers and the decking would have trapped more moisture but if not I'll have to remember to do this in the future.


----------



## epic (Apr 16, 2005)

I'm not sure what it's called the hardware store guy recommended it. It is a sticky rubbery membrane (that doesn't stick well to rough cut lumber) that we placed on top of the stringers. Once the decking is nailed down the membrane is not going anywhere. We wanted to make sure water would not get between the layers of 2x's and split our stringers! FWIW, we used 2 gallons of glue and 20 lbs of nails assembling them. I think they'll hold for a while. What's really remarkable is how long the old bridge had held. It was about 15 years old and was made from trees not much thicker than my arm! I can't believe we were riding that thing. It even survived hurricane Irene!


----------



## plantdude (Dec 30, 2007)

Very cool. Nice work.


----------

