Bridge Replacement Story: The Middle Stage
The elderly stone-sided Main Street bridge in Peterborough, New Hampshire, USA is being replaced, the very beginning of the project seen in VF Vol. 53 No. 3. The complete tearing down process shown here took several months. The final rebuilding stage, to take place in the fall & winter of 2021, is just starting as this is being written. The bridge is planned to be ready for traffic early next year, with all detail work finished by April.
These photos were made as the work progressed using the two Leica Illc cameras with 35 and 50mm lenses that reside in my small traveling bag, as described and shown in the previous article. Occasionally I found an Imarect finder useful for better control of maximum width using the 35 on some shots, such as the last one (figure 8 - with the finder frame slightly cropped in to agree better with slightly cropped machine-made prints such as these) where I wanted maximum coverage along with everything being kept straight and level in the frame. But I still prefer the brightline finders for action and general coverage, especially when using glasses. The 50 has good reach for middle-distance action, while the 35 is useful for both its wider angle and greater depth of field.
THE PHOTOS First, as shown in figure 1, by town request the larger top stones in the bridge's siding were removed and stored for replacement in the new bridge. Second (figure 2) the many cables that were channeled under the sidewalk of the bridge ready to be lifted out and attached to a massive red I-beam (figure 3) that spanned the river during the removal of the bridge. Then, after steel staging was placed in the river to support the machinery, the old concrete structure was broken apart the by jack hammers and shovels mounted on tractors (figures 4, 5, 6). Figure 7 shows the span nearly gone, and the temporary support structure underneath, which also had to be removed before the new construction could begin.
The final figure 8 shows the clear span of river water after the old bridge's complete removal, ready for the rebuilding to begin. Supports of concrete with steel re-bar are in place at both ends, while a new support system in the river is seen just being started. The new bridge will be of concrete poured into a form built over the span of water, and will look very like the old one, but will be wider to accommodate the increased traffic, and much stronger to help carry the increased weight of today's trucks and fi re-fighting vehicles.
THE STORY TO COME Rebuilding will require a whole new steel support system built into the river to hold a huge arched mold in place for the new concrete to be poured into, including a complex internal steel re-bar system which the old 1939-1940 bridge did not contain. Then, after the support system in the river is removed, and the new bridge and its end sections paved, and side walls completed, the bridge is predicted to be open for its first traffic sometime after January in the new year.
