Our Preserves are under continual attack from the increasing intensity storms, and our volunteers are kept busy cleaning up the aftermath of wind and floods. The July 25th storm saw Valley Creek rise five feet in four hours with just an inch and a half of rain at the Valley Forge gauge. The creek rose two feet out of its banks in OLC’s riparian Preserves. Trees were toppled and the bridge over Cedar Hollow Run at its confluence with Valley Creek was lifted off its foundation and moved downstream. Another threatened storm could sweep the bridge away and close the popular trail along Valley Creek and Cedar Hollow Run completely.
Preserve Manager Tim Magee was quick to the rescue! As shown in the photo, his axe made short work of the fallen box elder tree (and another ash tree across the trail in the northern section of the Preserve). The bridge repair, however, required a more engineered approach!
The bridge was built by Eagle Scout Jack Fields in 2010, to a design by former OLC Board member, friend and Trout Unlimited stalwart Pete Goodman. It consists of three 24 foot beams braced underneath and held together by the planks that form the top walking surface. Those beams rest on sections of telephone pole rescued when the Preserve was acquired in 2000. The problem was twofold: the beams were floated out of their slots in the pole at one end, and the pole itself had lifted off the bank.
Tim performed a temporary relocation of the bridge while he and Preserve Chair Ray Clarke assessed the situation. They concluded that really, really long nails were required, and Tim took no half measures at Home Depot!
The starting point was four-foot rebar lengths hammered through the telephone poles to hold them to the bank, supplementing the bars already in place. The photo shows Tim with one bar half way through. Then the heavy bridge was levered back into the slots (just visible in the photo), and the beams toe-nailed into the poles with twelve-inch spikes in place of the much shorter bolts used in a previous repair. Finally, to insure against the now unlikely event that the bridge would be lifted off in future floods, the end of the bridge was cabled to a nearby tree.
Now Preserve visitors can be sure that the bridge will be there when they arrive at the creek confluence! And the good news, of course, is that OLC’s Preserves are doing an important job in the local flood control system, with wide flood plains that allow the run-off to spread out, slow down and keep the floodwaters off the roads and our homes!