Bobbage bridge update

Strange name for a title, Bobbage, well if you have followed me for any length of time, you will know that Bobbage is what we call the thing that PB (Primitive Bob) does, he takes things that most would toss in the trash and makes the most wonderful (and wondrous) things with it. Today we will talk about the bridge he is building for us.

This isn’t just any bridge, not a small garden bridge, but one that will not only take foot traffic, but will hold up to trucks driving across it, one at a time of course. :)

This bridge started out life as a mobile home frame/chassis, it was about a mile away (as the crow flies), up a rocky mountain road, at the top of a steep 4 wheel drive driveway, PB helped tear this mobile home down to the frame, recycling much of the metal siding and decking. Once down to the bare frame, the friend PB was helping saw a problem (getting rid of the frame), PB saw a bridge sitting there, problem solved.

Now, many months later, he is well on his way to making this bridge something we can actually use. PB has been pouring reinforced concrete (soilcrete) walls to support the bridge, he dug down quite deeply, for now there are 3 walls, but there will be more added at both ends for support. The bottoms of the walls are 2 foot thick by 8 foot wide, they narrow down to just over a foot thick at the top. They are nearly up to the bottom of the bridge.

I was able to get around 20 pieces of rebar from a local hardware/lumber store at a steal of a deal because they were bent, curly, and generally less than straight, being friends & neighbors to the manager there didn’t hurt either… I got the yard guy to cut them in half for me, it didn’t matter one little bit that these were bent, as long as they fit in my pickup, I could get them home and PB could put them to use.

One thing PB added pretty quickly was some temporary decking so we can walk across it, though we aren’t using it as a foot bridge yet, it is quite sturdy, I feel very comfortable walking across it. We have had a couple of people who are more expert at this sort of thing look at it and they gave their thumbs up as to the design and strength of the bridge.

Here are some updated pictures of the bridge, enjoy!