Will Truax

Swung by the Purdon again the other day because I’d heard it was scheduled to be closed for the coming month to allow for repairs.

I was both curious about what was in need of repair and to learn a little about the resume of whatever entity was chosen and contracted to execute them.

Though it was a few days into the scheduled closure no one had yet mobilized.

Most definitely not a Howe.

No George, I cannot and do not agree.

For all the reasons I already spoke to on this DSCB thread in earlier discussion.

I've worked enough of these rehabs to know that a design team that chooses to know and understand these bridges can easily achieve a weight limit carrying capacity their clearance capacity might demand without a systems replacement that turns a though truss into a caricature of itself. A mere decoration that staddles a stringer bridge with a load rating far in excess of anything that will ever fit through it.

Such absurdities are why the new "Guidelines for Rehabilitating Historic Covered Bridges" were put to paper and made available for download in the cyber-sphere -

https://www.nps.gov/hdp/CoveredBridgeGuidelines2019.pdf

A bit more of a direct route to Dela's story, this kid is my hero for the day!

https://www.mynbc5.com/article/4-year-old-makes-sign-to-warn...

The needle is threaded! The Bailey Bridge which will serve as shoring to relax Bridgeport's Trusses to allow repair and replacement of compromised sections of timber during the rehab process has been emplaced >

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/omkach0ga75mrow/AADD5U_-qZtf9_QJZ...

It was the middle span that was lost, my guess is that is about long missing siding.

I saw it when it was in storage, (we stowed the parts of the east span of the Bell Ford across the aisle) if memory serves it wasn't stacked all that well but it was certainly in the dry there in the Turkey Barn.

Any loss to rot would've had to have happened before it was dismantled and put into storage.

Though in this record this bridge holds a differing name, stats in the record and the like appearance of the windows and the piers suggest they are one and the same.

This closer image also includes a panel-plus long section of Truss-Work Framing, enough to suggest type.

https://dmr.bsu.edu/digital/collection/BrackenFamP/id/705/

1831

I did a little digging and found the name and the builder's name and edited the entry accordingly.

An overview (and better images) can be found here > see pg's 20 & 21 > http://tiny.cc/85qj2y

I'm surprised the Bridgewright wasn't already represented here on the database in that he, like his son, had a long prolific career including multiple Railroad Bridges.

George, I spent a fair amount of time in your area while engaged in a preservation project on the Bertolet Saw Mill at the Daniel Boone Homestead, (I also spent seven months just over the MD line on a bridge restoration) in that time I familiarized myself with many Berks Bridges, including this one and others that have already been PennDOT'd.

Beyond the loss of the rare example Berks County typology Lower Lats, my secondary issues with this tact are that on other bridges where both the Abutments are replaced and the bridge is steel-stringerized, the workmanship on needed repairs to the truss framing tends to be poorly executed. (Look to Pine Grove none so far to the south as an example) On top of those concerns the added costs and much higher totals of this systems replacement approach adds to the sense for many that bridge rehabs are overly expensive.

It is the more harm than good finished product that concerns me.

George, I wasn't being quite so literal.

They have been driving this approach for six decades now, That being the case I routinely transmute the agencies name into a verb as a bit of word-play in describing the steel-stringerization of wooden bridges

No they won't be "Saving as much of the original wood as possible" They will be PennDOT'ing it with their go-to Steel-Stringerization.

A needless sixty year failed experiment, (some bridges are now on their third set of steel decks & stringers) which is almost an absurdity. Ask a systems knowledgeable engineer to design rehab of a framed wooden floor system and you'll get a 10-ton rating, ask one who is not knowledgeable about such framing and they'll tell you it can't be done, and that a structural system which has carried traffic for a century and a half (this coming summer) needs to be replaced.

It's particularly sad in this instance being that there is a hyper-regional variation of interwoven Lower Lateral Bracing unique to Berks County and this rehab will eliminate yet one more of these rare examples from our shared Transportation Heritage.

Literally, up from the ashes! http://youtu.be/dbn8ZhP7UGA?a

And the WW&F is still working to raise abutment money https://fundrazr.com/NarrowBridgeAhead?ref=ab_5GWwLW8Nen95GW...

Source material which cites the Permanant Bridge as being "Remodelled" in 1850

Proceedings of the Engineers' Club of Philadelphia, Volume 34 Published in 1917

http://tiny.cc/ivu3oy

I shared Palmer's own words on the permanence of impermanence in this blog entry - https://bridgewright.wordpress.com/2013/01/30/at-the-beginni...

And this bridge was not lost to fire, it was removed for the rise of its arches being inappropriate for the railway its replacement would share with highway traffic.