17 Suspension Bridge Renovation

We began the process today of completely taking apart the suspension bridge on 17.  My main goal here is at the very least to replace all the old rotten wood planks.  However, since the entire deck of the bridge is going to be off and all the steel frame and rails will be exposed, I am hoping to get some more serious welding repairs done in areas where the steel has cracked, stressed, or was previously repaired.  Lastly, we will be stringing new steel cables for guardrails, and if we get really ambitious, possibly even grinding off some of the rust on the cable supports and towers and putting on some fresh paint.

I have heard rumors that this is the only suspension bridge in the state of North Dakota.  I cannot verify this, but there certainly can't be very many.  Also, I am really unsure of the exact age of the bridge.  I will assume that the bridge was built when the golf course opened in 1964, as I am not aware of any other bridges that have ever crossed Cole Creek on hole 17.  However, if anyone has other information on the bridge, I would love to hear about it.

With that, I am also going to assume that the wood planks are original, making them close to 50 years old.  I also cannot verify that, but based on the condition of the rusted off and broken steel bolts that were holding some of the planks on, it wouldn't surprise me.

We all know that the condition of the bridge has struggled greatly in the last few years with the constant flooding, but once Andy and I actually started taking the thing apart, it became even more apparent that the decking on the bridge was primed for a serious disaster in short time.  I am glad we are getting this project tackled now and not waiting any longer.

After the spring flood of 2011.  Obviously our bridge has seen some rough times...

Bolts and planks starting to come off on their own.

There was some serious rot on some of the planks.  A couple
of them I was able to pound right through the wood with
a hammer, and one had rotted so bad on the end it was
barely connected to the steel cross brace underneath.

Andy and I started demolition of the old wood planks today.  We were expecting a tough fight, and we sure got it.  Not only were almost all of the nuts rusted and siezed to the bolts, but any nut that we were able to break loose ended up seizing onto the old rusted threads and broke the bolt off.  We finally settled on taking the plan we hoped we wouldn't have to take; getting out the generator and angle grinders and cutting the heads off of each bolt....about 225 of them.

Andy cutting off bolt heads.  We then used hammers and punches
to pound the bolt out through the bottom of the bridge.

After cutting off the first few bolts, we began to find some disturbing patterns.  Some bolts, once the grinder wheel touched them, would start spinning with the cutoff wheel.  I remember my jaw dropping as I stopped the grinder, grabbed the bolt head, and just pulled it out of the bridge.  At some point, I don't even want to guess how long ago, the bolt had rusted off inside the wood and was connected to nothing.  My estimate is that about 25%-30% of the bolts holding the bridge planks on had rusted off and were easily pulled out by hand.

On the left is a newer bolt that must have been replaced recently.  Beside
it are examples of the old rusted off bolts that we simply pulled out by hand.

By the end of our first day of work we managed to get all the old bolts out of the bridge, and have started taking off and removing the planks.  It is actually going much quicker than I had anticipated, but we still have a long way to go.  We picked a great time of year to get started on this since the ground under the bridge and in the coulee channel is now frozen, making it very easy working under the bridge as opposed to what it would be like in the mud during the spring or summer.  Hopefully the weather stays halfway decent in the coming week and we should be able to get it back together pretty quick.

Getting down to the skeleton.

The stack of new wood awaiting us once we finish demolition.