Stone Arch Bridges

Category: Maintenance

  • Stalter Bridge

    Maintaining Periodically Submerged Stone Bridges

    Stone arch bridges when submerged during severe floods can easily sustain serious damage. Here are some ways to prevent and mitigate the possibility of major flood damage.

  • Hewins/Elgin Road Culvert

    The Point of Repointing

    Repointing is a maintenance item required for old stone structures. Regular repointing not only seals up the mortar joints and generally improves the condition of the structure, but can also prevent severe damage.

  • Elk County Stone Culvert

    Protecting Culverts from Streambed Erosion

    While scour barriers play an important role in protecting structures, large-scale streambed erosion can also cause problems, and render a simple scour barrier inadequate for the job.

  • Looking through the 112th Road culvert

    The Width Problem

    A narrow stone arch bridge need not be replaced for functional reasons. There are numerous options for widening whereby the historic original is preserved and the road improved for less cost than a full-fledged replacement would be.

  • Young Street Culvert

    The Impact Problem

    Stone bridges are particularly vulnerable to impacts by traffic, as the individual stones are easily dislodged. In this post, we investigate ways to prevent this type of damage from happening.

  • 271st Road Plum Creek Branch Bridge

    The Waterway Problem

    Stone arch bridges that are simply too small for the stream being crossed are fairly common. Structures like this require extra maintenance to ensure stability. A good long-term fix is to improve the stone bridge itself.

  • Washed Out Roadbed

    Fill Work on a Stone Bridge

    Fill work on a stone arch bridge is best done cautiously, as the fill tends to play an important role in the overall stability of the bridge. Here are some tips and possible pitfalls for this type of maintenance.

  • Wilson Bridge

    Pointing Rubble Masonry

    Due to the lack of standard joint sizes in rubble masonry, repointing is a careful job requiring constant adaption to the masonry’s needs. Here are some ideas to help the job go smoothly,

  • Rolling a Stone

    Cleaning the Stones

    Cleaning stones either for maintenance reasons or construction should be done carefully so as not to damage the stones. Stones have a natural weather-resistant coating that should be respected.