Holloway Bar Placer Mine - The Bridge

The tramway was used for a couple of years when needed, and always came through in the end - but after Alex, Christina's 80 year old father, had an incident crossing the McDame, it was back to the drawing board. There has to be a better way to do this.

Crossing the river using tired or tracked vehicles is tough for a couple of reasons. In addition to being dangerous, water is also hard on equipment. When it gets in wheel bearings it can cause a lot of problems. Lubricants turn to a grey sludge and quit lubicating, and then you start to have expensive breakdowns unless you're on top of the maintenance. And, as we're always thinking of the environment, the creek is a lot better off with less traffic through it.

So, an idea was hatched to build a bridge across the river. Scott's incredible timing and skills as a "master scrounger" (which, by the way, is an essential skill when you're trying to survive in the north or any place off the beaten path), led him to a couple of large frame rails, which would become the main structure for the bridge.

Scott also was offered the services of a welder - a very skilled welder who originally came from a south-Pacific island. Scott and the welder got to work - first putting the structure together, and then laying the frame into place across a narrow part of the river using heavy equipment (a couple of hoes acting as cranes). The bridge was secured with buried anchors and heavy cables, and legs to provide stability attached to the bridge's center. Most of this happened over about a ten day period.

Here's a partially completed bridge as seen from the road above. The bridge stayed in this state for a couple of years.

But, the project was long from being completed. One of the problems encountered was with the authorities. While most people could see the benefits of having a bridge both in terms of safety and protection of the environment, some government hurdles cropped up. It seems that you can't just go out and build a bridge, even if it's done right.

So, the project was on hold for a while. It took a couple of seasons to get things sorted around - but the final result is that the bridge was checked out by an engineer from Smithers and finally given the stamp of approval, finally allowing work to continue and the bridge to be completed.

You can't drive a truck across this bridge - it's just too narrow - but it will take foot traffic, and is just wide enough for the Holloway Bar Buggy - a Honda ATV with a small tandem trailer to haul supplies.

The water really rages under this bridge. In these pictures, you can get an good idea of how the bridge is supported. Heavy timbers are used for the deck, giving users a safe platform. The legs in the middle add some support and stability to the bridge, and also supply an interesting connection to the water - when the river is raging, you can feel it's power rumble through the bridge structure when you grab the handrails.

The driving force behind this bridge was access. Now, you can get in and out of the mine in pretty much any conditions. But, this isn't just an access issue - it's also a safety issued. Accessibility could also mean the difference between life and death - if there's an accident when the river is high, there was no way in and out of the property except by air (and helicopters are a bit expensive!) Now, you simply walk across the bridge, jump in your car, climb the hill to the highway, and within a couple of hours, you can be at the nearest hospital. It's still isolated, but at least it's now accessible. And that's a lifesafer.