Bridge Replacement for the Paugussett Indy Link

2025: Marc Rowen and Jeff Belair 
on the new bridge

Two new bridges in one month! This one was a replacement for Scout bridge on the Paugussett Trail just north of Independence Drive. There was no way the old bridge was going to make it thru another winter.  Maybe not even another week. There was rot everywhere.  

2013: Bridge installed by Daniel Vigezzi & Crew
Troop 27

This bridge had been through a lot. It was originally installed in 2013 by Daniel Vigezzi and Troop 27 as an Eagle Scout project back when the Paugussett Trail was brand new in this part of town. But the land is very wet with lots of roots, and over the next few years the chosen route turned into a muddy soup during the wet season. 

2020: Bridge moved by Marc Santacapita & Crew
Troop 19

So in 2020 we shifted the wettest section of the trail with the help of more Scouts. Marc Santacapita & Troop 19 moved Daniel's bridge to the a new location, which is just below the confluence of two intermittent streams. This spot has been backing up and flooding a few times a year, with water flowing over the trail. The bridge was well-pinned, so it never floated away, but it obstruct the flow at times. 

2025: Patched by Mark Vollaro in 2024, the bridge
is super punky and trapping leaves and sticks

In 2024, we noted that the bridge was getting a bit punky, but it was late in the season and pretty cold when one of the beams cracked in the center, with one side of the bridge visibly sagging. Mark Vollaro administered an emergency patch to get it through the winter, which included a stack of cinder blocks under the cracked section.  We meant to replace the bridge in 2025 while the stream bed was dry, but ran out of time. It seemed this would be a 2026 project. But during a November trail monitoring check, I saw that sticks and leaves had packed in under the bridge due to the cinder blocks. It looked like a beaver dam under there, and the water was higher on one side. And the beams were punkier than ever. If the bridge didn't collapse on a hiker, a big storm might just blow it out. And the trail was likely to then be impassable. 

Terry designed a replacement bridge and spent
a morning getting lumber to the site with Teresa

So Terry Gallagher drew up a bridge plan and supply list, and we spent a Saturday morning getting the lumber onsite. It sounds simple, and it is, but it's time consuming. First there was the truck rental, then endlessly picking through boards at Home Depot to find good ones, loading the rental truck, unloading the truck, returning the truck (and gassing it back up), and carrying all those heavy boards down the trail. It took all morning.

Terry's plan called for heavier timbers than the original bridge, and for the bridge to be placed on 5x5s to raise it up and allow for flood waters to flow unobstructed. This should also give it the wood better air flow so it's less prone to rot. 

Mark and Jeff pulled decking off the old bridge

After we got the wood onsite, I put out a request for help to a core group of volunteers to start working on the bridge. Jeff Belair and Mark Rowen both offered to help, so the three of us met at the site and got to work.  Having Jeff there for a construction project is a huge help since he has a ton of carpentry experience and knows how to get things done. 

The old frame crumpled from rot when it was tossed aside. 

Jeff and Mark quickly fabricated the two beams and walked one end of each across the old bridge, then used them as planks while they unscrewed the decking off the old bridge. When they flipped the old bridge frame off to the side, both of the old beams promptly crumpled. So much rot! Hard to believe the bridge had still been standing. 

So much rot! This is one of the two beams holding it up

Mark cleared out the clogged channel

As I started cutting up the boards, Mark donned a pair of waders and started cleaning out the sticks and leaves that had dammed up there. I had removed a lot of a few days earlier, but there was still plenty to pull out of there. Mark was just officially appointed to the Trails Committee by the Board of Aldermen, so we joked that this was his initiation. The cinder blocks were temporarily left in place in order to support one of the beams while they worked on it. 

Jeff attached the frame spacers

Jeff somehow managed to keep his feet dry through all of this, which is a special talent. After assembling the frame, the guys set it on four 5x5 landscaping timbers, taking care to level them out with rocks. This was all going very quickly. 

Jeff and Mark raised the frame up on 5x5 landscaping timbers

While Jeff installed the decking at the speed of light, Mark dismantled what was left of the old bridge, and we carried all the old boards up to the road. 

Jeff installed the decking and then crafted steps
using left-over lumber

Once the decking was done, Jeff improvised a step on each side using boards that were left over. The old bridge decking was nearly level with the trail, but this new bridge decking was maybe 18" up. The steps were a great addition. 

It's done!

And just like that, the bridge was done! It took just over three hours to construct. It actually took longer than that just to get the lumber there. 

Teresa returned to fix a nearby tilted
section of bog walk 

But wait, there's more! The other issue I had noted during my trail inspection was a nearby section of bogwalk that had rotated and was now tilted at a sharp angle. It would be impossible to walk on if wet and slippery. It had been a problem for a few years because the supporting 6x6's "sleepers" were too short for the soupy mud there. But it had suddenly gotten much worse because a couple nearby small trees had begun to uproot, pulling up the ground under one side of the bogwalk.  I worked on that for the rest of the afternoon. I cut away the root balls from under the bogwalk and then added three landscaping timbers that were nice and long to spread the weight out across the muck. Much better!

A nice end to the day!