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Hayes Bridge

So for my extra study last year my elective consisted of a project called Hayes Bridge. Not knowing really what the project was going to be all about and definatly didnt realise how hands on the course was going to be. It really put things into perspective on how much you can learn whilst out of the classroom and actually using your hands to design and build a bridge. Our first couple meetings were general discussions on how were going to plan and approach such a mammoth task!

We broke the project into stages.

• Health and Safety (boring but has to be done)
• Felling of the Sycamore and Ash
• Early stages of design
• Selected design chosen and developed
• Metting with club 101
• Meeting with Structural Engineer
• Numerous meetings with group
• Construction of bridge!

So currently to this day we have almost finalised all the design and structural issues relating to the bridge. The next stage will be on the 18th July when the bridge should hopefully be constructed and 2 weeks later be finished!

Our client for this project owns and large plot of land in Hayes, Stone in Staffordshire and requires a bridge to gain safe access to the woods nearby. The bridge will also help the users of club 101 gain access to the surrounding countryside to help them in their days out.


So, here we are on site of the Hayes. This was taken last year and since then, the timber has been air drying in a well ventilated stack effect. The stacking effect drys out the timber which is required when cutting and building with the natural wood. The day was hard in manual labour and with no machine tools all of the trees were cut and carried by hand, to an open space outside of the woods about 50 yards away. With the largest of trees measuring 10m in length and 350mm in diameter. This one trunk took about 10 hard working malnutritioned students to carry!


Here shows the existing bridge or if you call it a bridge! But this is basically the only means of access into the nearby woods. The bridge which will be built in mid July would really benfit the community and not just the owner of the land. Due to the small community being so close, many people would find use of this bridge.

The bridge was designed to act as a meeting point aswell as a continuation of walkway from one place to another. We, the designers were left with an open brief by the client to design and communicate a bridge which would reflect the materials and community. We wanted the bridge to not just provide a walkway but also be accessible as a small promenade for those who would enjoy to stand and reflect in that area of the Hayes. This meant the overall footprint of the bridge would have to be larger than normal, and the design would have to be worked into the landscape rather than a linear cut into the earth.



Our design consisted of a 'Z' shaped primary framework with a secondary framework overlapping creating a strong rigid structural platform. This will then hold the reclaimed timber planks which will act as the walkway over the bridge. Small pieces of Ash timber will be used on the 'wings' of the bridge which will also be availble to walk upon. The primary structure will in some places be exposed to show the construction side of the bridge but also shout out the fact that the bridge is made entirley of timber.

As this bridge is taking up a lot of our time and were doing it on a voluntery basis, i've recently applied for a little sum of money on the 'o2 think big' application. This will help us with a small grant on costs such as travel costs and food.

We are students afterall!