Timber Frame Bridge

Volunteers team up to build NH's 55th covered bridge

CHESTER — In the high-stakes world of covered bridges, there's a little tension over who gets to claim the honor of the oldest bridge.

Most historians give it to the 1829 Haverhill-Bath Bridge in Woodsville, although there are some stubborn holdouts in Pennsylvania who claim the title for the Hassenplug Bridge in Mifflinburg, which was allegedly built in 1825. Sure, Pennsylvania.

There is, however, no doubt about what will be the newest covered bridge in the nation. It is going up in Chester, over the Wason Pond Dam. It will be the state's 55th covered bridge.

The town has teamed up with the Timber Framers Guild, an international nonprofit group dedicated to preserving the centuries-old art of building with massive beams cut and shaped for each individual structure. Based in Alstead, the guild takes on several field projects each year to offer hands-on training for its 1,500 members and newcomers and volunteers interested in learning time-honored, timber-building traditions.

Joel McCarty, the guild's executive director, said Chester's covered bridge project was a nice fit for the organization's educational mandate.

“It's kind of unique,” said McCarty. “There's a lot of repair and restoration work for timber framers, but there's not too many projects for brand-new buildings. That was one of the reasons the guild was interested.”

Still, it took a couple of years of planning. In early July, when McCarty sent out an email announcing the guild was good to go, members started packing. And timber framers from all over New England, Virginia, North Carolina, and as far off as Vancouver Island, have been chiseling and smoothing down freshly cut timber beams with the help of a crew of local volunteers.

“Everybody here is so knowledgeable and so nice,” said Chester resident Teresa Rogers as she chiseled out the letter C in a thick piece of pine. Rogers, a carpenter who teaches shop at a middle school in Billerica, Mass., picked up the job of carving the town name into a main beam.

“I came because I wanted to help out,” she said. “I thought I would be cooking, but apparently they found out about my cooking.”

Rogers came to the pond with her tool belt strapped on, but other locals stopped by to watch and thank the visiting timber framers.

Low Profile Deck building problems

For those of you who do not know what would keep a low profile bridge, a bridge within 12 inches of soil to be built. If you think seriously about a bridge that go closer to 12 inches on the ground, let me tell you something.

It will be very important to bridge the structural timber frame to hold at least 6 inches from the floor. Usually creates a major problem for each deck of wood, isIt will be built within 12 inches above the ground.

Here is an example of what I speak, we say you will use 2 x 6 4 x 6 beam bridge and structural support beams. Each of these components is at least 5 2.1 cm wide.

Our 2 x 6 beam bridge, and our 4 x 6 beams added structural support will be equal to 11 inches on their own. Once you have an extra inch and a half for our parquet add, you're looking at 12 1 / 2 inchtotal.

This means that the low-profile deck actually sit on the ground level by half an inch. This could cause problems, even when you remove the dirt from under the bridge. It would not be a bad idea, a drainage system below deck, low profile installed to prevent damage to the water to the structural frame.

If the low-profile bridge is not built correctly, you will be replacing the entire structure supported in a few years. Iseen too many low-profile bridges built by entrepreneurs inexperienced do-it-yourself and also, you do not know any better.

You can repeat what I was talking about. The first thing you need to remember is to ensure that the soil no closer than 6 inches from each timber and the second, note what you need is to ensure that water is not trapped by their low profile bridge.