Lean Bovine keeps feet high and dry
Volume 11, No. 48, July 27, 2006

Closing the gap: 21 Const Regt sappers at work on the new bridge.

ARMY Reserve engineers from Sydney’s 21 Const Regt used their skills to keep feet dry in Tumut during their Ex Lean Bovine last April.

The part-time sappers used their training time to construct a new pedestrian suspension bridge at Thomas Boyd Trackhead over the Goobarragandra River east of Tumut, replacing an existing steel wire rope bridge on the town’s popular walking track.

The sappers aim was to build the bridge in 10 days, and their first job was to assemble the towers and head-to-head stocks. The towers on the two banks were then lifted into position using the Regt’s Hitachi LX-120 front-end loader and Merlo off-pavement fork lift and temporarily secured in position while scaffolding was built and the 36mm cable stays placed across the bridge.

The overall length of the bridge from anchor point to anchor point is 72m with a 54m clear span between the towers. As the cables were pulled across the river using Mack trucks, the droppers were hung and secured.

This required good command and control from the NCOs but avoided the use of the flying-fox rig used in 1997.

Once the droppers were in position, the bridge deck was laid from both banks. When the two sides met there was only a 10mm gap which over 60m showed the accuracy of the construction team in the build.

CO Lt-Col Greg Nicholls said he was pleased with how his soldiers, who come from a wide variety of civilian occupations, performed during the exercise.

“The bridge was completed on two days ahead of schedule,” he said. “Walkers on the trail can now cross the Tumut River in two different places, with dry feet courtesy of 21 Const Regt.”