HOME PHOTOS ON THIS "UNDER CONSTRUCTION PAGE" WILL BE FORTHCOMING   Where to start ... With an eye for incorporation of existing resources toward the construction, a suitable location must be found for the bridge construction site. In this case, that was an existing footbridge within Sedalia's Centenial Park. The underlying construction of the foot bridge contained existing steel beams as the major support members, which could easily be adapted as the foundation for the Covered Bridge construction project. We incorporated their use, saving us many thousands of dollars in construction costs.       Need that funding ... Funding was an ongoing, and though related, separate issue conducted by both construction volunteers and others not directly involved in the physical construction phases of the bridge. ALL funds collected, regardless of origin, were "pooled", and initially applied to only bridge construction. However, as new funding sources were explored, the "Walkway of Memories" brick sales became a major source of funding for both the bridge construction and the "walkway" construction. View     Timber, lumber and custom cuts ... Lumber was a major concern. Long beams, not commonly available through normal "commercial" means, had to be located. These timbers were absolutely essential, and the very core of our constructions' success. The only way to procure such lengths of heavy timber, was through a saw mill which would provide custom cuts from selected trees. This entire process is very lengthy, so our orders for cut timber had to be accomplished very early in the planning process or the necessary timbers would not arrive in time. Final delivery, of necessity, took many months. View     Foundations are first ... With both the Covered Bridge proper and the "Walkway of Memories" concrete foundations had to be constructed. This involved, among other things: Preparing the land, construction of pouring forms, procurement and installation of rebar and, of course, a source of concrete to complete the foundation processes. Due to unfavorable weather conditions, this process took several weeks. View     Design of the Bridge ... Before construction could commence, there had to be a design for the bridge. Long hours of research and subsequent measurements, exacting archetectural computations and, of course, the drawing of the construction plans were essential to the project. This phase of the construction took months, but was completed "behind the scenes" while other portions of the project were moving forward. From these design efforts came the lists of "bill of materials" required for construction. It was from these "bills of materials" that the final estimate of overall cost was determined. View     Details, details, details ... The intricacies of this bridge construction were monumental in number. Heavy equipment and operators had to be contacted and scheduled. Arrival dates and times of lumber had to be coordinated. Estimates of nails, screws, hardware, concrete, availability of electricity, volunteer labor availability... all these items and many more, had to be "worked out" and coordinated to the nth degree. View     Measuring progress ... With weather conditions, availability of materials, volunteer labor resouces and supporting funding all interwoven at the same time there had to be a way of measuring progress, not only from a visible stance, but from an internal position as well. Weekly meetings were necessary to help all involved volunteers keep abreast of not only the progress, but areas of the project that might need attention. Everyone performed the tasks for which they had volunteered, and they did it on time, within budget and with amazing speed and accuracy. View     Keeping the information flowing ... Donations from interested citizens were a continuing source of necessary operational revenue. Those donated citizens were kept informed of the progress of the Covered Bridge construction via publicity efforts of the group through local media and speaking engagements. This publicity campaign helped keep interest in the bridge's construction at a high level within the public eye and assisted in funding efforts. View     Title TO BE CONTINUED ... View     Title TO BE CONTINUED ... View     Title TO BE CONTINUED ... View     Title TO BE CONTINUED ... View     Title TO BE CONTINUED ... View