Assembly begins on Groton Street Bridge Project

We’ve mentioned earlier in our blog that we are currently manufacturing material for a large covered bridge going over the Nashua River in Pepperell, MA. For this job we are required to assemble the bridge at our Sidney, NY plant so it can be inspected and then disassembled and shipped for installation at its permanent location. Previous posts have shown the template work we’ve done for the bridge trusses and also how the deck panels were glued. Right now, we’re excited to share that we’ve begun the assembly process.

Before being moved outside to the assembly area, our finishing department drills holes and attaches the steel connections to the bridge pieces. This photo shows one of the glulam double beam assemblies. It will hang from the main trusses and provide direct support for the roadway decking and sidewalk framing. Una-Lam employees are about to load this beam assembly onto a trailer so we can drive it around to where it will be hoisted in place by a crane.

This photo is of a deck panel that is for the road edge. You can see the shear plates on the right side of it that are for connecting the curb and the railing crash barrier. This deck panel is waiting to go outside until the beam assemblies are in place because they will sit on top of them.

Here is a photo of the assembly area showing progress on placing the beam assemblies to date.

It’s hard to believe that when the bridge is complete it will be almost as tall as the large wooden silo shown in the background. It is over 33′ from the bottom of the floor beams to the top of the roof trusses. Check back often for more progress photos on the bridge assembly.