we may have made this point before: in st helens it rarely rains, but when it does, it pours. case in point: yesterday we got 42 mmm in 24 hours, and that makes it a real challenge to channel the water into places where it can be managed and does not do too much damage. hence the dry creek bed, basically a channel, lined with rocks, that is typically dry, but directs the water around the house during these rain events.
that, however, means we need a bridge across the creek bed, however dry it may generally be. it’s one of those jobs i don’t really enjoy: not too difficult, but with a sufficient amount of trickiness to make it hard to get it to look right.
it still had to be done. the timber for the bridge had been cluttering up the shed for a bit, and i had the plans ready. sort of. a router table would have been nice, i could have designed the whole thing in fusion 360 … instead it was going to be pencils, measuring tape and hand tools.
three fairly chunky beams will carry the weight, with three cross beams providing lateral stability. these are a bit offset to ensure the design provides a bit of torsional resistance. that’s it, not too complicated.
the bigger issue was always going to be to fix the bridge to the granite boulders on either side of the creek bed. i hope these boulders have done all the settling they want to do, and won’t move much going forward. a bit of measuring and cutting was still required to ensure the bridge was (mostly) level and flat on the boulders.
that’s it for now. next comes the decking; I’ll use the same ekodeck flame fighter we use for the deck in front of the house. that should look nice and will not burn if (when!) we get a bushfire. i’ll also build a handrail so people won’t have an excuse …