Hendersonville, NC – March 23-29, 2025

We had 9 weekly volunteers and 4 leadership volunteers at the jobsite, and 2 cooks back at the camp. Our volunteers came from Ohio (DAO), Pennsylvania, Virginia, Illinois, Indiana, West Virginia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. 

Prior to our weekly volunteers arriving on Sunday, 3/23 we had a few of the leadership crew preparing the bridge site and getting ready for the bridge work.  This entailed excavation and clearing, digging the footers, and spreading gravel for the Workshop tent.      

On Monday, 3/24, concrete forms and rebar cages were built while other volunteers worked on pile driving. At 10:00 a.m. the work stopped, and everyone attended the Resilient Bridge Building workshop given by JZ Engineering. There were approximately 75-80 people from the community and local organizations that attended the workshop.  It was very informative with many good questions and discussions.  A light lunch followed.  

 On Tuesday the volunteers poured the concrete foundations and worked on filling rip-rap. By Wednesday they were ready to set the steel beams and remove the concrete forms. On Thursday and Friday, the bridge deck was added, and the volunteers began adding the curbing. A crew of 6 volunteers continued to work on Saturday to complete the curbing, form approach concrete, place riprap, and grading.  

The highlight of the week was how the neighborhood receiving the bridge came to help build the bridge, and how the community pitched in and saw to it that our volunteers received lunch!  

Our plans for the upcoming week include pouring concrete and removing forms once the concrete is dry. They will also be removing the culverts that were placed for temporary crossing. On Wednesday and Thursday equipment will be moved to Ashe County, the next bridge project site and cleaning up the surrounding area around the bridge. The dedication of the bridge is planned for Friday, 4/4.