Pleasant Mills Footbridge Ice and/or Flood Damage

RednekF350

Piney
Feb 20, 2004
5,057
3,328
Pestletown, N.J.
We took the dogs out for a swim this afternoon in the Mullica and in the stream along the marked trail that leads from Pleasnat Mills to Atsion.
This is within the historic lakebed of the dammed section of the Mullica behind Pleasnt Mills Church and the location of the post I put together on Y-Buc Bill and his Harley stream crossings back in the 1950's.
Here is a link to the thread where I found the location of a well built footbridge on November 15, 2009.

http://forums.njpinebarrens.com/f14/search-y-buc-bridge-7016/

Today, we were surprised and disappointed to find a twisted footbridge with damage that will likely not be repaired any time soon. The bridge was built by the Meteor Motorcycle Club.
The bridge appears to have been built to withstand vehicular traffic, although it is only 4' wide. The pilings are closely spaced and the cross members and stringers are substantial.

It looks like ice heaving or ice heaving and the recent severe flooding caused the damage. The pilings are lifted and the decking is helically twisted to the point where you cannot stay on the surface. Flood deposited debris could be seen about 18" higher than the deck surface in the woods nearby.

Here is what we saw today:


roller.jpg


leaner.jpg


A lot of work went into that bridge and i don't see an easy way to re-drive or jet piles in that location.
If I had to guess, I would say the originals were jetted.
Making it more difficult would be the dismantling of most of the bridge decking and support system before resetting the piles.
Sad.

Scott
 

Y-BUC-BILL

Explorer
Mar 9, 2007
129
26
Major Damage

Thanks for the info Scott.To rebuild would be a major job.To rebuild with pilings ,seems a wasted effort..You have to get the piles in deep.Unless you have the proper equipment ,thats pretty hard to do in sand.
 
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