worrall_renovation

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About The Worrall Bridge

      The project began in early August, 2009 and has a completion date of July 30, 2010. The winning bid was $505,604 made by Daniels Construction, Ascutney, Vermont. The engineering estimate of cost was $863,215.
      For details on the condition of the bridge and the work to be done, click on VAOT Historic Covered Bridge Committee Notes above.
      Photos and commentary by Ray Hitchcock, Vermont Covered Bridge Society Area Bridge Watch.

View of the east portal and downstream side of the bridge.

A view of the work-site up Williams Road from Route 103.

Inserting the "I-beam" system that will support the bridge while it is undergoing structural renovation.

Saftey gear - what the best dressed bridge-watcher should wear.

NE portal. The wire basket in the right foreground is used to construct retaining walls.

Secondary wall construction.

Wall construction at the NE portal.

Preparing to construct retaining walls on the riverbank.

Work on the superstructure has begun with the stripping of the siding to expose work to be done. This detail shows the posts added to strenghten the trusses lacking secondary upper chords.

New dry hydrant installed.

crooked primary lower chord and peculiar member between the bottom chords under the westerly portal.

"New retainer wall.

Ramp, SW portal.

View of the south or downstream truss. Note the ramp structure at the west portal, an unusual feature among Vermont's covered bridges. Note the sistering in the truss. Note bottom chord.

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    Worrall Bridge crosses Williams River on Williams Road. Williams Road is clearly marked and leaves Route 103 to the north. After crossing the bridge, the road continues on to Brockway's Mills Gorge. There, the Williams River flows between sheer hundred-foot cliffs after dropping down a series of cascades. Sanford Granger completed the eighty-three-foot bridge in 1868, just before the Flood of 1869. The gorge must have been an awesome sight with the flood waters passing though it. The new bridge was very nearly lost.
    Over the years, the Worrall Bridge has been modified, perhaps because it was built without the usual strengthening secondary chords. The lattice has been reinforced by six pairs of seven by six-inch vertical posts and further steadied by iron rods and steel cables. As with many other wooden bridges, distribution beams have been tie-bolted under the deck system, and the stone abutments have been encased in concrete. There is a twenty-foot timber ramp on steel beams at the northeast end, that serves to drain excess road water away from the bridge deck.
     - From Spanning Time: Vermont's Covered Bridges

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