ashes, ashes, all fall down

     It was difficult finding a title for this blog. I couldn’t find any Grateful Dead lyric dealing with bridges, certainly not fallen bridges. There were no ashes, but the bridge definitely fell down! The first week I was living in the small village south of Champasak, this bridge collapsed. I was outside watering the plants along the front fence, when I heard a large truck coming through town. This was making much more noise than any other vehicles that pass us by. I noticed neighbors running to the street to see what was happening. Well, a large semi-truck with two trailers was passing through Ban Wat Luang Kao! We watched the truck safely pass over the town bridge, thankfully, the structure was steel. The bridge into the town of Champasak, however, was not so fortunate.

THE DAY AFTER - LOOKING FROM ONE END

THE DAY AFTER - LOOKING FROM THE OTHER END - TRUCK LOWER LEFT

     

     This bridge, on the south end of Champasak, crosses Huay Phabang (stream Phabang), with a posted sign reading weight limit 15 tons, and no trucks allowed. Well, full fuel trucks use this bridge, large busses use this bridge, it is the only bridge crossing this stream. The stream was spanned by two steel trusses. The problem was that only wooden beams connected the steel trusses, and these easily broke from the weight. The truck had come, loaded full, on a slow, bumpy road on the other side of the hills. The truck was empty as it attempted this crossing. The driver was ok, but the bridge would take an indefinite time to fix.

BRIDGE REMOVAL PROCESS

STEEL FRAMEWORK REMOVAL

OLD BRIDGE REMOVED - READY TO BUILD NEW BRIDGE

    

     The problem, as my town villagers saw it, was that when the rainy season comes, there will be no way to get to Champasak, Pakse, and the rest of Lao. The road on the other side of the hills is impassable during the rainy season, and this bridge is crucial to road travel for thousands of people. A new road is being built from Champasak to Wat Phou, but is not finished, and the bridge across this stream is nowhere near being built. A detour was made around the collapsed bridge, down the stream bank, across the stream, and up the other stream bank. This worked ok, but would be covered by water during the rainy season.

NEW BRIDGE ALMOST ACROSS STREAM

FINISHED WITH FRAMEWORK

FINISHING TOUCHES - READY FOR USE

     

     We were told the bridge would be repaired in two months, and it was finished in four months, which is actually quite quick for this country (bureaucratic bullshit and the Lao work ethic, make doing anything extremely slow in this country). I was able to watch this process from February to June, from the removal of the old bridge to the building of the new bridge. The detour was a mess, loads of gravel were put down, but it just got packed into the soft red dirt. Crossing the stream by detour was a challenge for motos and bicyclists. Fortunately the rainy season had not really begun, and the bridge was passable before the first rain storm washed away the detour route.

DETOUR ROUTE AFTER FIRST RAINSTORM

     

     I enjoyed watching the bridge removal process and the rebuilding, because most of it was done by hand. Very little machinery was used, other than an automotive jack, pulleys, ropes, and human energy. The broken wooden beams were carried up the bank, the twisted steel frame was torched into pieces and carried up the bank. The new bridge was assembled in pieces and pulled across the gorge with ropes and pulleys, and lots of people. An amazing process to watch!