Last year, the Virginia Council of Trout Unlimited initiated a campaign to conserve, protect, and restore cold-water streams in the valleys and mountains in the Interstate 81 corridor which stretches from Bristol, Virginia/Tennessee 325 miles north to the West Virginia border above Winchester. In the time since then, Engineering Solutions has designed aspects for several projects in the campaign. (Read more about the campaign and our initial work in Pendleton County, WV here.)

We recently worked on other projects, including a bridge over the Unnamed Tributary to Little River and Fox Run.

The bridges and box culverts were designed and constructed by others and brought on site. Engineering Solutions was contracted to design the bridge abutments to support the prefabricated bridges/box culverts. Site location limited the materials that could be used for design purposes. A typical bridge abutment would require a cast-in-place concrete footing, and sometimes a concrete retaining wall. However, a concrete truck would not be able to drive to the location of the pour in the allotted 90 minutes after mixing. Instead, we thought outside the box for solutions that did not require cast-in-place concrete and could be brought to site on a truck or made on site.

Unnamed Tributary (UNT) to Little River – (Photo 1) This is a prefabricated box culvert. The box culvert is supported by Redi-Rock retaining wall. The wall/abutment is supported by a compacted stone reinforced with geogrid. All these materials could easily be brought onsite by a truck.

Fox Run – (Photo 2) This is a prefabricated steel bridge, designed by others. The bridge is supported by a precast concrete beam on top of a Redi-Rock retaining wall. The wall/abutment is supported by a compacted stone reinforced with geogrid. All these materials could easily be brought onsite by a truck.