EMIGRANT - Major progress is being made at Carbella Bridge in Park County as crews install the two trusses that will hold the final bridge deck.
"This is one of the trusses that’s going to hold the bridge up," said Cody Ham, owner of Battle Ridge Builders. "We brought in this 300-ton crane, it came out of Houston. And it’s called a VMAC, so it has a package on it that turns it into a 600-ton crane, and it’s potentially the largest crane in Montana right now."
Crews have been at the site about 14 miles southwest of Emigrant since January. Ham says installation of the trusses is a major step in construction.
"This is a major portion of it. This is, dollars-wise, about 50% of the project. And it’ll occur over the course of about two weeks," he says.
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Wider and stronger than the original truss bridge that washed away two years ago in Yellowstone River flooding, Ham says it’s been built to 100-year flood standards.
"The bridge will be stronger. It’ll be HL93 rated which is the same as a highway bridge. So there won’t be limitations. You’ll be able to take semis and everything over it," Ham says.
"But it is a wider span so there’s a larger opening underneath the bridge to allow more water through," he added.
Ham gave a rundown of what’s to come next:
"We’re bolting the bridge together. This bridge has about 5500 bolts and we’ll put those in over the course of probably two weeks until we’re complete with it. And then we’ll lay a pan decking—a metal foundation—all the way across it. Then we’ll pour a concrete deck on it," he says. "So, it’ll have a concrete surface to drive over when it’s all done."
"So about eight weeks from now, we’ll be pouring concrete on the deck and ten weeks from now you can drive over it," Ham says.
For more information on the historic Carbella Bridge rebuild, visit the project website.
