From Leo's journal as mentioned in a previous post:

If you’ve driven around King County, WA, in the last five months, there’s a good chance you drove right over me.

I’m in the research phase of my project and have been underneath, as well as above and beside, many of the county’s inventory of bridges with a variety of Bridge Unit personnel.

I’ve been soaking up all the different perspectives—environmental, design, engineering, historical, maintenance—that I can about the many different kinds of bridges in the many different settings that we have here.

Last week, for example, King County Bridge Unit Engineer Jesse Jose took me out into the remote forest in eastern King County to visit the site where the Sunday Creek Bridge is being rebuilt, using funding from a federal grant.

Environmental Engineer Ron Melnikoff also joined us on the trip so that he could observe all of the environmental codes are being met concerning the creek during construction.  

The bright red trusses delivered to the site from the Ohio fabricator were being busily assembled by the construction crew. Six pieces assembled into two trusses will be set into place by a 100-ton crane, and span the creek.

I am consistently impressed that all of this major construction occurs over a pristine creek with a leave-no-trace mandate intended to preserve our natural resources.

It’s a challenging project to design elements for these very tiny bridges, but I’m inspired by their rural settings and the effort that goes into designing and building them.

When my research phase ends, I will begin designing artwork to be incorporated into a manual for short span bridges that are being rebuilt over the next 19 years.