The Canada150 Bridge

DSWAC in conjunction with Fleming College - Haliburton School of Art + Design, completed a week long course on teaching students how to build a dry stone bridge.

A small creek in a public park in the municipality Dysart Et Al was chosen and approved for the site where the permanent foot bridge was to be built.

Ten students worked together with me, their instructor, on this ambitious project.

After the foundations were dug and built up with stone (and the undergrowth was cut back) an 8 foot wooden former was set in place.

The first rows of voussoirs were laid over the thick springers.

18 tons of beautiful stone material was provided by Vince Hammond Aggregate near Minden Ontario

On the second day, the water in the creek rose unusually high, due to the sudden release of a month long heavy rainfall backup in a reservoir upstream.

The water upstream had to be slowed down with plywood over a culvert or the former might have been washed away.

On the third day the class went on a field trip to gather 4 more tons of voussoir-shaped stones from the quarry.

Tight fitting shims in combination with closely aligned arch stones are essential to create the even compression and necessary friction to hold all the stones in place when the form is taken out.

There is no lack of excitement watching the form come out and the arched bridge being born 

Iris got the first underside barrel vault shot.

Work still goes on to complete the bridge on the last day

Including setting the parapet stones and the cobbled walking surface.

( Note the train and the jet in the background, an iconic triad of ways to cross land, air, and water. )

There's a job for everyone on a bridge.

We decided to call it the Canada Sesquicentennial Bridge.

Happy birthday Canada.

Well done students.

https://www.facebook.com/flemingHSAD/

Feile na gCloch 2017

This is going to be a wonderful gathering of the stone clan.
I look forward to seeing many of you there.

So our plan was...

So our plan, when we first positioned the wood form, for getting it out from under our newly built Haliburton Canada 150 Dry Stone Bridge later this week was to chainsaw the supporting 4x4s and have them drop away low enough to have the form drop too and then slide out easily.




Only problem is (as this illustration shows) the water level has risen a foot since Monday and now we'll need to use the chain saw under water!

Good Question.

Why aren't there any stones here, on this part of the bridge, sir?



Because Craig hasn't got his other row finished yet, son.



And Ted and Iris can't put their row on until Craig has put his two on the bridge.



And then, after that, we can put these two rows on.





And maybe by Friday all the other stones will be on the bridge.

Relationships

Stressing about a rocky relationship?  Take a lesson from these stones.They don't mind getting dumped. They're going to join up with all kinds of new ones and be lovingly placed into a beautiful stone bridge that's about to be built in Haliburton Ontario in the park this week.



And here is the centering (along with the students) that will form those new stone relationships to create a permanent structure for all the passers-by on the trail. 

Hoist away

How come rocks never look anywhere as big in the photos as they are in real life?
This huge chunk of granite had to be lowered into place using a tripod and a hoist.
It went in to make up an important section of foundation of the dry stone bridge abutment.
We could have never lifted it in without this tripod set up. 


 

Just as tripods are used to lift heavy motor blocks in and out of vehicles needing major repair, we 'motored' to get our heavy block into the bridge, in order to repair the damage from previous two days of continuous flooding. 

Bridging the Gap

A bridge to some,
where storybook stories happen,
invites all of us to span the time
between now 
and what will become...
- not just fancifully 
but actually possible 
using our imagination. 

A bridge to know
where special,
things happen along the way.
(Things just happen that way)

Friends and bridges like these 
are made, 
not by being 
professional or politically correct,
not by relying on modern adhesives 
or heavy machinery, 

Not by waiting for bridge financing 
or the banks narrowing 
our vision 
and trying to shrink our crazy stream
to something more fordable, 

Not by assessing all the risk factors 
and deciding it's too
expansive, 
too unregulatory chanciful, 

Not by imposing liability limits on our enthusiasm 
and making our babbling creek
some sort of impassible raging chasm.

But by building on and over
the same 
foundation of know 
how and when-to
that we've always intuitively understood. 

Learning how 
and knowing when the time is 
to make that creative connection,

And boldly bridge the gap.

And be only circumspect
in this respect
that we kindly ignore others who tell us 
'It can't be done'. 

Ten fun-filled days

Hands up everyone who had fun at the bridge workshop !

Great meals together

Cool refreshing stream to stand in while you work

Getting into shape while shaping stones

Lots of exercise

Beam balancing and challenging obstacle coursing

Barrel vaulting 

Powerful drilling

Lots of photo taking

Dollying massive voussoirs

Hoisting huge rocks

Getting rained on nearly every day

Learning to work as a team

Pitching 

Coping well

Cleaning up

And cooling off !

and Voila !

Happy Canada Day everyone !