Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 5624 | Snowmobile VERMONT from failing completely. All of the repair scenarios being considered relied on the stone center pier remaining intact. The fear was that in addition to the physical and environmental damage from a collapse, that the center pier would be damaged beyond repair. VAST met with Secretary of Transportation Chris Cole, who acknowledged the importance of this trail to Vermont as a whole and dedicated agency resources to help solve this problem. In conjunction with the state, an emergency project was put together to stabilize the bridge in advance of VAST’s repair project. During the following weeks, the project progressed quickly and evolved along the way. The original plan was for VAST to hire a contractor to install temporary shoring to support the listing spans. Without the opportunity to bore into the riverbed to find ledge or adequate resistance for new piers, it was deemed less risky to remove the spans entirely. What was originally a VAST project to temporarily shore the failing pier, became a VTrans project to remove the two spans being supported by the failing pier. When the bids came in for the project, Constructors Inc. Crane Service (CCS) was awarded the job. They began by building a temporary road down to the north abutment. To get the cranes in position, a causeway needed to be built out into the river. Truck load after truck load of stone was delivered to the shore and used to build up the causeway. At one check, the channel was almost 27 feet deep. After more than 150 loads of stone, the causeway was ready to use and the crane was moved in to position. Spanning the Decades of Disrepair Before the bridge spans could be removed, the center pier first needed to be armored with stone. There was concern that the river had eroded material from around the pier and that without the weight of the heaviest span, it could shift. The crane used a converted truck dump body to slide stone gently around the pier. After a few attempts and some adjusting, the crew got into a rhythm and secured the pier quickly. The next step was securing the spans. The first crane was used to support the heavy span and a second crane was mobilized to pluck the other span. Once the rigging was set and the spans supported, the crew began separating the two sections and cutting the rail still on the bridge. The cutting was a slow process, but when it was finished, the crew cleared out and the crane operator began to lift the span. It took little time for the crane to lift the span and gently place it on the landing pad alongside the trail. With the first span out, CCS founder and owner Raymond Chauvin arrived on site with pizza and the crew took a quick break before driving around to the far side of the river to work on the next span. The heaviest span was found to be heavier than initially anticipated. The crew had to cut sections of rail off the bridge to get it down to the safe operating limits of their crane. Ultimately, CCS was able to get the weight down and the second span was put directly on the trail. With the big cranes demobilized and sent off to other jobs, the smaller crane was brought in to remove the damaged pier. Bridge 68