A Sad Sight

From: "dick & jeanette" rjwil@borg.com
To: "Joseph Nelson" jcnelson@together.net
Subject: Papermill Bridge
Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2000 17:12:12 - 0500

This is about the Paper Mill Covered Bridge in Bennington, Vermont. It is gone! That nice old historic covered bridge has been taken down.

It all started in the middle of December 1999 when I received an E-mail from a friend in Washington County, New York. All it said was "Paper Mill Bridge was burned on purpose this week." I got on my E-mail and passed this information on to other covered bridge friends.

Back come some E-mails, Bridge is OK, it was only a trash fire of rotten wood and roof pieces. I did not believe this, but I could not prove it. I called a person I know in Bennington and he verified what I knew was true. The covered bridge was removed in four sections, than cut up in about 10 foot lengths so it could be stacked up and taken away. He said the roof and roof parts were burned.

I had to see for myself. On January 6th, we made the over 150 mile trip to Bennington. What a sad sight that the beautiful red bridge over the falls was gone! Piles of Town Lattice Truss was stacked up on the sides of the road. You could see where the fire had been.

I went to the paper, the Bennington Banner, to see if I could get a clipping of the bridge being taken down. The paper did not report on the bridge being removed, so no one there knew the bridge was gone. We went to the nearby K-mart and the people there also did not know the bridge had been removed.

The bridge was removed very quietly and with no fanfare. How can this happen? Bennington has a replica covered bridge in the Henry Bridge only a little over a mile away. I just can't understand why they would want another replica. I am told the engineers said it could not be fixed. I can't agree with that. I have seen some pretty bad bridges brought back to useful service.

My feeling are that Bennington has lost something special. A replica is nothing like the old bridge. I fault the officials, the highway department and even the local paper for not bringing this deed to the public's attention. There is no record at all of the bridge being removed.

Bennington will have only one historic covered bridge. We can all hope nothing happens to it.

Richard Wilson
(President, New York State Covered Bridge Society)

Paper Mill Covered Bridge Gone
Photo by Richard Wilson
December 2000

Paper Mill Covered Bridge Gone
Photo by Richard Wilson
December 2000

Paper Mill Covered Bridge Gone
Photo by Richard Wilson
December 2000

A Conversation with Mark Cote, Covered Bridge Contractor

On the morning of December 17, 1999, in response to an e-mail from Dick Roy of the National Society for the Preservation of Covered Bridges, I contacted Mark Cote by telephone. Blow and Cote, Inc., General Contractors, of Morrisville, VT won the contract to rehabilitate the Paper Mill covered bridge. The e-mail reported that the Paper Mill Bridge in North Bennington had been purposely set on fire.

Mr. Cote explained that what was burned was the un-reusable material set aside after the bridge was dismantled, mostly from the roof. The construction team found that much of the bridge was rotted, the roof a total loss, Cote said. Roof leaks allowed most of the truss to rot beyond reuse; only nine truss members could be salvaged and these will be used in the new truss at the ends of the truss where the stress is least. Unfortunately, said Cote, they will be hard to see because they will be behind the splash panels when the bridge is completed. Good pieces from the original chords will also be used.

What follows is a portion of the transcript of the telephone conversation:

I contacted Mark Cote again on January 11, following an e-mail from Dick Wilson who had visited the site and found the bridge removed and its components cut and stacked into piles. The purpose of the call was to determine why the bridge was dismantled in this way. See "The Bridge is Gone."

Note: Blow and Cote were the contractors for the Henry Bridge in Bennington, and the Gates Farm Bridge in Cambridge, as well as the bridge in Irasburg. Mark Cote said that his company stockpiles pieces of the salvaged lumber left over from the projects for ultimate reuse. A recent purchaser was a local guitar maker. Maybe the CB societies might find a use for some of this stock in promoting preservation.

The Bridge Engineer Responds to Critics

Phil Pierce, the engineer who led The Vermont Agency of Transportation Covered Bridge Study responded, by e-mail, to the article by Richard Wilson entitled, "A Sad Sight." Mr. Pierce's response is recorded below. For Mr. Wilson's article, click "The Bridge is Gone" link above. Richard Wilson is President of the New York State Covered Bridge Society.

Hello Dick,

The longer I am involved with covered bridges, the more I find it fascinating how many people are interested in them. These structures truly have a strong following.

I want to provide some background on the situation at Paper Mill to address the issues that you raised in the material on Joe Nelson's site (and I assume in the Courier). I do not speak on behalf of the Vermont Agency of Transportation, or for that matter, the Consulting firm of McFarland-Johnson, that conducted the work in question (I have since left the firm). However, I was the leader of the work and take great pride in what was done.

I consider myself blessed to have been chosen to lead the Vermont Statewide Study on behalf of the consulting team. The in-depth involvement with 75 bridges provided a unique opportunity to carefully examine each bridge and help establish a plan for each bridge to help it survive indefinitely. There were a host of technical and non-technical issues that were involved and it obviously took a long time. Although I was involved in other projects during the 3-year duration of the Study, I did little else but wrestle with this fun project during any free time that I could find.

The Vermont Agency of Transportation was sufficiently pleased with our work to select us to provide engineering services under a follow up, but separate, contract for the work to be performed at the Hopkins Bridge in Enosburg and the Paper Mill Bridge in Bennington. As you know, the Hopkins work was completed a couple of years ago and I believe it was considered a successful project and was able to retain a lot of the original fabric of the bridge, while replacing deteriorated elements and a weak floor system.

Obviously, I learned all about the situation at the Henry Bridge that had occurred before we got started with the Vermont work. So when I became more involved with Paper Mill, I was especially cautious that we avoid a repeat of that situation. While I have not attempted to contact any of the officials in the project (State, Federal, or Local), I am confident that all would agree that each and every task required by the Federal government for a project using Federal funding was satisfied. If we had not done so, the Feds would not have released funding for it.

The project included all standard steps in an engineering project, complete with an extensive evaluation of the bridge, an evaluation of various alternatives to achieve the desired reopening of the bridge to vehicular traffic, consideration of all relevant cultural resource issues, intensive coordination with the Vermont Division of Historic Preservation, and involvement with the local community leaders. A televised public meeting was held to discuss the project and the proposed solution. The project took longer than anticipated and construction was delayed due to funding issues - situations not unusual for complex projects of this nature.

I'll try to summarize the condition of the bridge at the time of the Study as follows: The bridge had deteriorated to such an extent that a bypass structure had been erected a number of years earlier. Local people had used the roof of the bridge as a diving platform into the adjacent deeper pool of the dam for a long time. Unfortunately, the access to the top of the roof was provided by kicking off roof boards and shingles directly above a truss near mid-span of the bridge. Although attempts were regularly made to repair the roof, the result was a leaking roof above a truss at the worst place possible on the bridge. The long-term leakage had so badly deteriorated the condition of the truss top chord that it had collapsed in bearing a total of over 2 inches at the time of our work. While Mr. Cote (VP of Blow & Cote who are the contractor's selected to rebuild the bridge) noted in this thoughts as recorded on Mr. Nelson's web page, that he felt the bridge would not collapse as a result of the condition of the top chord, I urged some sort of action by the either the Town of Bennington or the State of Vermont to stabilize that deteriorated portion of the top chord until the contract was let to rebuild the bridge. I had watched the chord gradually crush more and more, each time I visited the bridge over the course of our work. The AOT agreed with my assessment and the AOT designed the metal braces that were installed a few years back.

The worst part of the bridge was the bottom chords. Previous work (I believe in the 50's) had attempted to "strengthen" the chords during their replacement by the use of split ring connectors (large metal bands similar in nature to a wedding ring, 4 inches in diameter and about an inch wide by 1/4 inch thick) [good intentions, yet ill advised]. To install these connectors, the ends of the lattice members that already were perforated with the usual arrangement of trunnels had been routed to accept the connectors. The resulting condition of the ends of the lattice resembled Swiss cheese (none of which was directly visible without careful examination of the bridge). Further, the ends of many of the lattice had been broken by ice so that they were ineffective in the transfer of floor loads to the truss. The poor condition of the lattice was addressed previously (again, mostly in the 50's I think) by the addition of a lot of "sister" lattice members. The result was the loading of the bridge with a lot of excess weight from the inordinate number of sister members.

A study of the geometry of the bridge (depth of trusses to their span length) in comparison to the dozens of other similar Town Lattice bridges in Vermont and surrounding areas clearly indicates that the bridge was inordinately shallow. It should have been a least 2 feet deeper to be compatible with other surviving Town Lattice bridges. I have no answer as to why it was built so shallow, yet it was plenty clear that the bridge was so badly misshapen and distorted due to the overload of the trusses. Indeed, our Study analysis indicated that the bridge, even if in good condition, was overloaded by its own weight and had no reserve capacity for live load.

Therefore, after an exhaustive analytical evaluation and consideration of alternatives, it became clear that the previous misuse of the bridge provided no chance to retain much of it for use in a replacement structure. However, the plans were prepared to retain as much of the overhead bracing and some of the short lattice members at the end of the bridge, (which were not brutalized by the installation of the split ring connectors).

The capacity of the bridge was required to support 20-ton trucks. One should keep in mind the situation that this is the middle of three covered bridges in a row along the stream and the bridge would be used by traffic, often disregarding any load posting signage.

Being sensitive to the desire to avoid use of supplemental steel support members or large glue-laminated members which have been used at other locations over the years (often to the abhorrence of preservationists), we spent a lot of effort to develop plans to rebuild the bridge with all sawn truss members. Although I recommended the use of a deeper truss to give it a better chance to serve well into the next century, we were directed to maintain the geometry of the existing structure.

The floor beams of the rebuilt bridge are of glue-laminated construction due to the inability to design them using currently established practices and allowable stresses for sawn members in a size that could be installed in a town lattice bridge. Glue-laminated floor beams have been used regularly around the United States just for this reason.

I hope this summary provides the meat to address the concerns of preservationists. As an engineer challenged to help prolong the lives of these unique structures, I pride myself on the care and attention to detail that they deserve, while at the same time, insisting that the public be protected by the use of conventionally accepted engineering practices. While we can debate the issue that these fine old structures have served well for a long time, the fact remains that the engineering evaluations of them often find serious distress and overload. So what's wrong with the engineering, one might question. We cannot, and I will not, disregard the history of my profession in its commitment to the paramount interest in public safety. If I chose to go my own way and develop my own standards and practices without regard to the guidance of earlier engineers, I would be subject to immediate attack by other engineers and the lawsuits of people wronged by the collapse of unsafe structures. I take my responsibility as a Professional Engineer very seriously.

There is always room for disagreement or differences of opinion among experienced Professional Engineers, just like all professions. There may be a Professional Engineer out there who would propose that a different result was possible. In my 27 years of service, I have attained a lot of confidence in my engineering judgement and I have rarely had anyone challenge it. And, in my 8 years of obsessive involvement with covered bridges, I have found that the small number of covered bridges which obviously require few engineers to be involved with them, coupled with the relatively small number of experienced timber engineers, leads to a relatively small number of engineers with actual experience with them. It is my opinion, that covered bridges represent an especially difficult engineering challenge and deserve unusual care.

I have devoted an inordinate amount of energy to the challenge of finding the "apparent" reserve capacity of these structures. Unfortunately, the small number of covered bridges in the United States, in relation to the total number of bridges, have not previously fostered much attention to research of the engineering issues related to them. Hence, my current work on the preparation of a textbook devoted to the engineering and construction of covered bridges. I am continuing my quest to help preserve them using conventional means and methods and avoid the use of unnecessary steel and glue-laminated components.

The work on the Paper Mill Bridge included the involvement of a large team of professionals. Each person involved fulfilled a role and the result met all requirements in place by the Feds and State. I am disappointed in the perception that the engineering of this bridge let down some that cherish these structures. And I am hurt personally since I have put so much of my heart into this work.

You are certainly entitled to your opinions. I ask that you consider the challenges of engineering related to these structures. If it was easy to handle, everyone would be a covered bridge engineering expert.

Sincerely,
Phil Pierce

Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2000

Hi Dick, I am pleased if my ramblings have offered any help. Your latest note included a couple of thoughts that I have attempted to address herein.

Regarding the notification of the locals, I can only note that when the Contract was underway to provide engineering services to the Vermont Agency of Transportation for the work at Bennington, the local officials were apprized of our work and they obviously attended the Public Meeting, again with local television and press. Now that the design engineering contract is completed, the follow up is being handled directly by the Agency who will be providing construction observation services (I think), since McFarland-Johnson was not contracted to provide such services. If no special notification was given in the local press, it was unfortunate, but not the responsibility of the design engineer.

Regarding other means of rehabilitating a covered bridge, yes there have been many instances of the addition of supplemental steel or glue-laminated components. And yes, there have been instances where the original timber floor has been removed from within the covered bridge with a replacement floor system to support vehicular traffic, independent of the original timber trusses. However, with the passage of the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966, there are fewer acceptances of these actions. The Vermont Agency of Transportation, in conjunction with the Vermont Division of Historic Preservation, directed us to avoid these actions. Supplemental systems would have been tolerated, if absolutely necessary, but removal of the floor and substitution of an independent floor would not have been accepted.

The historic preservation issues related to this are complex and I do not profess to be an expert with respect thereto; however, I am strongly opposed to the removal of floor systems with installation of an independent floor for structural and practical reasons. First, the self weight of a bridge, in combination with the substantial snow loading in Vermont represent a loading on the bridge that is often substantially heavier than the loading from vehicles. Therefore, removal of the loading of vehicles from the trusses does not necessarily relieve them in any substantive way. The trusses, if expected to still support their own weight and the roof, would still require major rehabilitation in many instances.

Second, the regularly scheduled bridge inspections, mandated by the Federal government, are focused primarily on the components that support vehicular loading. If an independent system is installed that relieves the trusses and overhead structure from involvement with vehicular loading, it might lead to reduced attention by bridge inspections. If that was the case (and I admit that there are differences of opinion in this regard), the trusses might suffer from increased neglect. If so, this action risks elimination of a regular reminder of the need to maintain the entire bridge.

Considering the potential of the installation of supplemental members beneath the existing structure (including a timber floor) raises another critical issue: that is hydraulic opening, i.e., the area beneath the bridge for passage of flood waters. The Paper Mill Bridge has a very small area beneath it for water -- in fact, one has to stoop to get under it and a large portion of the span is over a sandbar. To install new members of sufficient size to offer any real support, they would have to be quite deep. Therefore, the bridge would have to be raised so that the bottom of the new beams would be no lower than the existing bridge components. However, the east approach is already quite steep and increasing its grade was considered unacceptable. The close proximity to the intersection limits the options.

So, if we cannot add supplemental members beneath the bridge, how about adding them inside? There are a few bridges around wherein supplemental girders have been added and connected to the trusses so that they hold up the bridge from within. There are structural disadvantages related to this action by limiting the accessibility to the trusses, which aggravates the ability to continue to maintain and repair them. But more importantly, in my opinion, the affect on the look of the inside of the bridge is awful. When I cross through a covered bridge, I am most interested in seeing the trusses that hold it up, not some other add-on system (again -- my opinion).

Again, I state with conviction, that all rational options were explored for this bridge, before the final solution was selected.

I commend the Agency of Transportation for their willingness to expend fairly substantial sums in support of the covered bridges in the state. The Statewide Study was the most extensive and exhaustive study of its type ever undertaken in the world. Further, the follow up investments in an attempt to find the "hidden reserves" that some of us believe exist, are without equal. In addition to the more routine aspects of this work, the VAOT authorized and funded the following actions:

• The removal of a few of the original lattice members which were tested at Virginia Tech to ascertain their actual strength for comparison with values obtained from national timber specifications for average members of the same species and grade (I am unaware of any other similar tests of covered bridge components);
• The most extensive testing (at MIT) ever undertaken in the world, (to my knowledge), of full size trunnel connections of typical configurations used in Town Lattice trusses, and the most extensive computer simulation of the behavior of a covered bridge supported by Town Lattice trusses, using complete three-dimensional modeling, ever undertaken in the world (again, to my knowledge).

My eight plus years of involvement with the covered bridges in Vermont, working for the Agency of Transportation, has been inspiring. Yes, we all have regrets for past actions, and no one professes to be perfect, but I think the Agency has demonstrated remarkable national leadership in their support of the covered bridges in Vermont. I am proud of them and the part that I have played in this work.

Thanks for your consideration of these remarks, sincerely made. Phil

The Paper Mill Covered Bridge Reconstruction in Photos - March/February

March 23, 2000

Joe,

I talked to Mark Mackintosh again today (3/23/00). He is the VT agency of Trans. Civil Engineer who is overseeing the construction of the Paper Mill CB. The down-river truss (D/R), 80% of the lattice is finished, and about 50% of the top & bottom chords are done. They have stopped working on the trusses now so that they can work on the abutments, and pour the base-plates. The west baseplate (on the side across from the mill) has been poured. Work is progressing on the east baseplate, and they should be pouring the concrete tomorrow. Then they will be working on the back-walls of the west side, and the east side back wall next week. While the concrete is curing, they will resume working on the trusswork-- that way there will be no downtime, and construction will continue.

I was informed that they will be lifting the trusses into place approximately three weeks from now. Mark will E-Mail me when he knows for sure, and I will pass it on to you as soon as I get it.

When the trusses are complete, this is what will probably happen: The D/R truss (the one on top now) will be lifted off and put on the side of the road, then a tractor-trailer with a 80'extened trailer will be put in place. Then the up- river truss (U/R) will be lifted and put on the trailer. Then it will be brought onto the bailey bridge, and lifted up with two cranes, and put into place. Then it will be braced to the bailey bridge so that it won't tip over. The process will be repeated again with the D/R truss. Mark figures that it will take at least one day to do this, maybe two.

Mark figures that approximately 15% to 20% of the old bridge will be reused in the new bridge. They will be using as many diagonals under the flooring as possible, about 50% of the ridge beam was salvageable, and about 50% of the top lateral bracing was also salvageable. They will be using as much of the side boards from the old CB as possible too. The new bottom chords and truss end beams are treated with the same material that telephone poles are treated with. That makes them much darker that the rest of the truss.

Later,
David

Photo by David Guay
March 23, 2000

Check out the camber on the top truss.

Photo by David Guay
March 23, 2000

Neat picture of the men working on the east baseplate and abutment taken through the old cog wheel.

Photo by David Guay
March 23, 2000

This is the west baseplate already poured and curing. The backwalls will be poured next week.

March 8, 2000

Photo by David Guay
March 8, 2000

The new truss is laying on top of the finished truss. The finished truss will be the Up-River Truss when the bridge is being assembled.

Photo by David Guay
March 8, 2000

A view of the new timbers being placed to be assembled next week.

Photo by David Guay
March 8, 2000

This a view of the completed truss with the new truss being laid out on top of it. You can see the camber by looking at the trunnels. Neat..!!

February 22, 2000

Photo by David Guay
February 22, 2000

Driving treenails (pronounced "trunnels") with sledge hammers. The treenails are made of white ash, and the lattice and chords are of treated southern white pine.

Photo by David Guay
February 22, 2000

Drilling treenail holes through the top chord.

Photo by David Guay
February 22, 2000

The Town Lattice truss laying down, with the top chord closest to the camera.

The Paper Mill Covered Bridge Reconstruction in Photos - April

April 7, 2000

Joe,

On Thursday April 6, the down-river truss was lifted and put into place and then anchored to prevent it from tipping over. On Friday April 7, the upriver truss was lifted and put into place. They were in the process of putting some cross beams on the tops of the trusses to connect them when I left at 3:00 p.m.

I ran into Dick Roy today, and Dick Wilson was there yesterday all day. Lots of CB talk both days. Lots of fun watching the workers do their jobs, and they are good at it.

Later,
David Guay

Photo by David Guay
April 7, 2000

Photo by David Guay
April 7, 2000

Photo by David Guay
April 7, 2000

Photo by David Guay
April 7, 2000

Photo by David Guay
April 7, 2000

Photo by David Guay
April 7, 2000

April 7, 2000

Hi Joe,

I got over to Bennington to see the first truss of the Paper Mill Bridge moved over the river and set on the abutments. It was done in a very different way. They put the truss on a big truck, then drove the truck and truss over the Baily Bridge, then a crane on that side and a crane on the other side picked the truss up and set it down on the downstream side. Here is a photo of the truck with the truss on it.

By the way, the next job Blow & Cote are doing is the Fuller Bridge in Montgomery, VT. They talked repair, but they said it will be built like Paper Mill. Looks like it will be a new bridge also!!!

Dick Wilson

Photo by Dick Wilson
April 7, 2000

April 20, 2000

Dick Wilson & Joe Nelson,

Marikka and I went over to the Paper Mill CB work site again today. The floor beams seem to be in place, and they are using the old cross-braces from the original bridge to brace the new floor beams. Under (I believe) every other floor beam there is a long iron rod that goes from outside one truss, all the way through to the outside of the other truss. I think this is like a turnbuckle that can be tightened as needed.

The new floor beams do not go through the lattice like the originals did. Instead they are notched and rest on the bottom chord between the bottom and lower secondary chords. I would say about a third of the bottom cross-bracing is done. Things are really starting to take shape now.

David Guay

Photo by David Guay
April 20, 2000

This first picture shows the new floor beams, and the old cross braces being used.

Photo by David Guay
April 20, 2000

This is looking west to east.

Photo by David Guay
April 20, 2000

This is looking east to west through the trusses.

Photo by David Guay
April 20, 2000

"Bridge man" David Guay.

April 20, 2000

Hi Joe,

I went to the Paper Mill Bridge yesterday and just missed Dave Guay. They are moving right along with the construction. The floor beams are in and they are glulam. They are large, very large. The first block of floor boards was being installed. It looks like they are building the floor elsewhere, and trucking them in in large blocks. The floor beams are just setting on the bottom chord. I don't like this, I think the old timers had a better idea of having them rest on both chord members. One of the photos shows a couple of the lattice timbers from the old bridge that they used. You can see how much bigger the new planks are. So much for the bridge being a replica of the old one!!! They are nothing alike.

Till my next visit,
Dick Wilson

Photo by Dick Wilson
April 20, 2000

Photo by Dick Wilson
April 20, 2000

This photo shows the planks salvaged from the original bridge. Notice how much smaller they are than the new build. Dick Wilson

The Paper Mill Covered Bridge Reconstruction in Photos - May

May 2, 2000

Joe,

The flooring is installed, but has to be secured to the floor beams. Mark Mackintosh the project engineer described the process that Blow & Cote will use to secure the flooring.

The Tie beams are being installed, and should be finished by tomorrow at the latest. They are using new lateral bracing, and some lateral bracing from the old bridge. Mark said that there is a possibility that Blow & Cote could start working on the ridgepole and rafters by the end of the week. He also said that approximately 50% of the old siding will be reused when the time comes to do that work. He also said that the new bridge will look just like the old Paper Mill covered bridge when it is finished.

David Guay

Photo by David Guay
May 2, 2000

This first picture shows the tie beams with the old & new lateral bracing

Photo by David Guay
May 2, 2000

The Paper Mill cb with Blow & Cote truck inside, the tie-beams & lateral bracing being installed.

Photo by David Guay
May 2, 2000

Some of the old lateral bracing waiting to be used.

Photo by David Guay
May 2, 2000

The flooring all laid out, but needing to be secured to the floor beams.

Photo by David Guay
May 2, 2000

May 2, 2000

Hi Joe,

I did a program on covered bridges for the Hoosic Falls Historical Society on May 2nd and we took a ride over to see the Paper Mill Bridge. The Floor has been installed and the overhead bracing is being completed. This overhead bracing is where most of the old wood is used.

Dick Wilson

Photo by Dick Wilson
May 2, 2000

Photo by Dick Wilson
May 2, 2000

A side view of the Paper Mill Bridge from Bennington Falls

May 9, 2000

To: Dick Wilson, Joe Nelson
From: David Guay

Hi guys, I went over to the Paper Mill Bridge again yesterday, and was pleasantly surprised to see that almost all of the rafters are done. Mark Mackintosh {VAOT Structures Engineer] looked over my Paper Mill history of construction book, and he said that he liked it. Here are some more pictures.

Per Mark Mackintosh: On the 8th the original ridgepole was put up, but about one-third of it had to be replaced, as there was rot in the top of it. New roof rafters were installed with some of the upper knee-braces to help with line-up. A little over half of the knee-braces were salvaged. Of the rest, some had problems with splitting through the center, making them structurally unuseable, and there was rot and damage also. The cross ties and the diagonal bracing is done and approximately half of that was salvaged. The floor is all in, but not all bolted down yet. That will be completed when the roof is done.

Later,
David

Photo by David Guay
May 9, 2000

Photo by David Guay
May 9, 2000

Photo by David Guay
May 9, 2000

Photo by David Guay
May 9, 2000

May 18, 2000

Joe,

I got to go under the bridge today to see what Mark Mackintosh was talking about with the bolts that secure the flooring sections to the floor beams. All of the bolts were in place through the flooring, but have not been tightened up yet. Not sure when that will be done, but all the holes that the bolts go through will be covered with the big heads of the bolts.

This system will make it very easy to replace any bad sections of flooring as the years go along. All that will need to be done is to take off the nuts under the bridge, and take the bolts out, and then you will be able to lift the whole bad section out, and put another one in, and then rebolt it to the floor beams.

In one of the pictures, you will notice that there is a branch of a tree nailed to the end of the ridge pole. I was told this is done to honor the trees that were used in the building of the bridge. Apparently it is a custom that carpenters have done for generations. I think it is a fitting tribute in this case also.

The workers were busy installing the last of the upper knee bracing in the rafters, and should be done with that today. The wood for the roof is scheduled to be there by the end of the week. The roof will be covered in grey sheet metal, the same as was used in the Coventry CB.

I was told that the completion date is to be as close to July 1st as possible. The workers seem to think that is a reasonable target.

Yours in bridging,
David Guay

Photo by David Guay
May 18, 2000

Notice that there is a branch of a tree nailed to the end of the ridge pole. This I was told is done to honor the trees that were used in the building of the bridge. Apparently it is a custom that carpenters have followed for generations. I think it is a fitting tribute in this case also.

Photo by David Guay
May 18, 2000

The workers are installing the nailing strips that the side boards will be nailed to.

Photo by David Guay
May 18, 2000

This shows how the bolts are attached under the flooring, and the attachment fits into a groove that has bee cut into the side of the floor beam. When this is tightened up, it will secure the flooring to the floor beams.

Photo by David Guay
May 18, 2000

This is a real nice shot of the groove that has been cut into the side of the floor beam so that the flooring bolt assembly can be fitted into the groove and then be tightened up to secure the flooring sections.

Photo by David Guay
May 18, 2000

This shows the tops of the bolts that secure the flooring to the floor beam. These bolts will be secured to both sides of the floor beam underneath it. Grooves have been cut in both sides of the floor beam and the bolts are attached to both sides of the beam.

Photo by David Guay
May 18, 2000

This shows the size of the head of the bolts used to secure the flooring. After the bolts are tightened, the bolt-hole will be filled in so that moisture won't get into it.

May 26, 2000

Joe,

I went over to the Paper Mill on May 26, and saw that they have started the sideboards installation on the down-river side. They painted the sideboards Barn red, and it looks great. The top knee braces are almost done, they still had six or eight to do. They have started putting the roofing boards on the west end of the roof, and have started putting the nailers for the sideboards on the upriver side also.

Later,
David

Photo by David Guay
May 26, 2000

Photo by David Guay
May 26, 2000

This shows the up river side with the nailers being installed. This end still didn't have the top knee braces in it yet.

Photo by David Guay
May 26, 2000

Shows the siding really nice from this vantage point.

Photo by David Guay
May 26, 2000

Just a portal shot that looked nice.

The Paper Mill Covered Bridge Reconstruction in Photos - June

June 3, 2000

Joe,

Went to the Paper Mill on Sat. 6/3, and found that all the top knee braces are completed, and the roofing nailing boards are all installed. They haven't started the siding on the upriver side yet.

The storm that went through the night before did no damage to the bridge, but a big birch tree was blown over down river from the bridge, and it now blocks the little trail that is used to get shots of the bridge and falls. Other than that, all looks okay.

Later,
David

Photo by David Guay
June 3, 2000

This shows the roofing nailing boards completed.

Photo by David Guay
June 3, 2000

This is a nice shot with all the shadows from the truss & roofing nailers.

Photo by David Guay
June 3, 2000

This shows the siding, and all the roofing nailers on the down river side.

June 15, 2000

Joe & Dick & Jeanette,

The installation of the sheet metal panel roofing started this morning. They had just brought up the first piece when I got there. The roofing material is the same as was used at the Coventry CB. All the seams will be crimped onto the one next to it, and there is no nails used to install it. That way no water is supposed to be able to get in.

The builders have added small braces that are bolted to the bottom half of the upper knee braces. This is supposed to help in keeping the town lattice trusses from moving. You know sometimes you can see the truss in later years it looks like it wavers in and out, and isn't straight anymore. This is supposed to prevent that. The builder said that it wouldn't have been that much trouble to use wooden pegs to do this instead of nuts & bolts. He also said that it would have looked a lot better too.

They were installing the vertical boards inside of the portal on the west end. They are trying to use as much of the old boards as possible.

The horizontal siding is done on both the down river & upriver sides now. A worker was adding a last coat of paint to it this morning. It really looks nice. Was also informed that the bailey bridge next to the covered bridge should be removed sometime this summer.

Visited the Bennington Chamber of Commerce office in the Veterans Park, and was informed that the person there had NO knowledge of anything Official being planned for the opening of the Paper Mill bridge. I gave her a card to E-mail me if anything is planned.. I will pass anything along as soon as I receive it.

Later,
David

Photo by David Guay
June 3, 2000

This shows the roofing nailing boards completed and the roofers installing the first piece of roofing on the east down river side.

Photo by David Guay
June 3, 2000

This shows the machine that makes the roofing sections. A big roll of metal is fed through the machine shaping the edges so that they will fit together, and cutting it to the proper length.

Photo by David Guay
June 3, 2000

This shows the workers installing the vertical boards inside the west end portal.

Photo by David Guay
June 3, 2000

This shows a worker installing the small braces onto the bottom of the upper knee braces. Notice that all the small braces are held in place with four nuts & bolts.

June 27, 2000

Joe,

Marikka and I went over to see Paper Mill Bridge last Saturday. I would say that the bridge will be done by weeks end. There doesn't look like there is much left to do except maybe installing the vertical side boards on the west end and painting them & the portals.

I haven't heard anything from the chamber of commerce in Bennington as of today about anything being planned for the opening.. Maybe they won't do anything like when they opened the Henry Bridge.

Talk to you later,
David

Photo by David Guay
June 27, 2000

This is the east portal all sided and ready to paint.

Photo by David Guay
June 27, 2000

This shows the roof done, and the west end vertical boards that still need to be installed.

Photo by David Guay
June 27, 2000

This shows the east end with the vertical side boards installed and roof finished

Photo by David Guay
June 27, 2000

This shows the upriver side with the beams installed on the floorboards to ensure that cars stay in the middle.

Photo by David Guay
June 27, 2000

This is the down river side showing the beam on the floorboards It must be at least 8" X 8" or larger.

Photo by David Guay
June 27, 2000

This is looking west to east with the upriver side showing and the daisies blooming.

The Paper Mill Covered Bridge Reconstruction in Photos - July

July 7, 2000

Hey everyone,

Got this today from the Bennington Town Manager. Pass it along to whom ever you think might be interested.

The Grand Reopening of the Paper Mill Bridge will be on July 13 at 4:30pm.the Gov as well as other dignitaries will be present. There will be a horse and carriage to carry people across the bridge.We anticipate a very positive celebration and would welcome your attendance.

According to Mark Mackintosh, "The State has set a final inspection/acceptance date of Wed. 7/5/00. The town is going to do paving and the State should have the temporary bridge removed in anticipation of the Official Grand Opening with the Governor present on 7/13/00. There may be a few touch up items next week even after our final inspection meeting."

Later,
David Guay

July 13, 2000 - Paper Mill Dedication

Photo by David Guay
July 13, 2000

This is a nice shot of the portal with new guardrails and fresh asphalt leading into the bridge.

Photo by David Guay
July 13, 2000

Same portal, but from the other side of the road showing the Absence of the Temporary Bridge. The area where the temp bridge used to be has been landscaped and seeded. Looks Soooooo nice without the Ugly temp bridge there.

Photo by David Guay
July 13, 2000

Governor Dean addressing the "Throng" of onlookers for the Official Grand Opening Dedication. The "Ceremony" lasted a whole 10 minutes.

Photo by David Guay
July 13, 2000

A horse & carriage coming out of the Paper Mill Covered Bridge carrying Governor Dean and other dignitaries.

Photo by David Guay
July 13, 2000

It is so nice to be able to get a photo from this angle and NOT have the temporary bridge in the viewfinder.

Photo by David Guay
July 13, 2000

A nice photo of the inside of the covered bridge as taken from the carriage as it passes through.