Template work underway on Groton Street covered bridge project

Before Una-Lam employees fabricate material, our template department creates a full-scale plywood mock-up of the piece being produced. The template team carefully follows the shop drawings provided and marks connection holes and cuts to be made by finishing after the material is glued.

Some jobs only require a few templates, if they are smaller projects or if many of the pieces are repeated.

For the Groton Street bridge in Pepperell, MA, Una-Lam has created many templates including those pictured here in the mock-up of the side trusses. These trusses are 21′ deep and 92′ long and provide the main structural elements of the bridge span, supporting the roadway beams below and roof framing above . In the photos, only half of the truss webbing has been completed on the template, showing what an enormous and complicated project this is.