Another week has gone by and progress has been made in the form of the long awaited bridge. We are now at the point (end of March) where the work was estimated to have been completed. As I have pointed out before, this is a huge undertaking. The scale of the materials and work needed to upgrade this relatively short section of retaining wall is staggering. The hard part is gaining access a long way from any roads and from the opposite bank of the river.
A panoramic shot of the bridge abutments. The bags of gravel are to help protect the near abutment from the strong spring current.
The bridge with decking newly installed. According to the orange paint, the capacity of the bridge is 27,000 lbs. I’m surprised they are still working in pounds.
A view of the bridge deck and western abutment. On the far bank, a distinct geological layer change can be seen, about a third of the way from the top. The lower grey shale layer is from the time Weston was covered by a tropical sea.
A view of the bridge from the south.
This is literally a ‘bridge to nowhere’ as the span is there to provide access to the opposite bank for the crane rather than to cross the river. Now the actual work of building the retaining wall can begin. It will be interesting to see how they go about removing the existing wall while stabilizing the slope.
Friends of Raymore Park 