After talking to some teachers around Fluvanna County High School, I realized that there is a further need for easy access to the Woodlands's trail system. For a better explanation, the Woodlands is a vast trail system created and run by FCHS SGA. Created during the pandemic, it was meant to allow people to escape indoors and go out into nature. Featuring a continuous creek and rolling hills, it also has some challenges such as this unstable rocky pathway. This provides a risk of injury for Fluvanna County High School's older teachers and Cross Country students, along with senior members in the local community.

After we transported the materials back to my grandparent's house, we started the "prep work." This included material assessment (how good of condition was the lumber and did we have everything we need), measurements, site preparation and leveling, cutting, and prototyping. The first design consisted of having to cut the 2x12s from Better Living into 12-foot-long boards. Then, using the leftovers, we created the perpendicular braces for the bridge (2 27 inches and 1 30 inches). After this, we prototyped the design by putting it together loosely. After seeing it was square (meaning, straight on all sides), we cut the 48 boards we needed and placed them on the bridge, and tested its strength.

The next day we went down to the construction site, and we prepared to level it. After some measurements and reconsideration though, we realized that our design was too large and too long for the building site. We decided that the firmest foundation was ON the rocks when we built the bridge to stretch BEYOND the rocks. We had to go back and make some quick changes.

We went back to the bridge and we decided we needed the following changes:

• The bridge originally spanned 22 feet; we only needed it at 16.

• We wanted to build a step on the side to make the step up not so exerting

• We needed to recalculate the location of the decking boards and diagonal cross braces

• The 30-inch perpendicular brace needed to be cut to 27 inches.

After making some more cuts and measurements, we were finally ready to get started with transportation and building!

First, transportation of the large and numerous boards was made efficiently possible by FCHS SGA. We were able to get the lumber down to the site (about .25 miles) in 30-45 minutes.

That same evening, I went down there and we bolted the runners together, along with the perpendicular braces. We then placed the bridge onto the site spot to test the stability of the rocks. After about 1-2 hours, with some moving of the rocks to create a firm foundation, we were able to start screwing in the cross braces. 

Once these were finished, It came down to 2 final steps. First, we wanted to place an endcap at the end of the stair step. The only issue was that the rock that the bridge was sitting on had an upwards corner poking into the endcap. We had to compensate for this by chiseling away a corner of the board. 

The final step was screwing in the decking boards, which went without any problems. After 4 months of preparation, planning, prepping, and measurements, the bridge was officially finished on March 6, 2023!