Avid Trails is building the Bonneville Shoreline Trail (BST) high above Bountiful, Utah. There are many creek crossings, including a 45 foot span across Holbrook Canyon. Access to this remote canyon is extremely limited, so we built a bridge offsite, and had it airlifted to its final location. We don’t do this for every bridge, but when it’s required, we call in the Black Hawk!

Bridge engineering and fabrication by our friends at Bedford Reinforced Plastics. Helicopter logistics and coordination by the insanely talented team at Alpine Mountain Construction. Forever appreciation to the City of Bountiful for helping us airlift the bridge, and for all the excellent trail construction projects along the way. And special thanks to Jim Rendek for video production, countless contributions of crew and equipment support, and just being a really great friend.

Assembling the 45 foot bridge in the staging area about a mile below the installation site.

Setting the gabion box footings at the bridge site.

Before the bridge could be flown in, we had to first airlift in four tons of stone to fill the footings.

While the gabion boxes are filled with stone, deck boards are flown in.

Deck boards come to a soft landing.

And here comes the Black Hawk with the bridge. The downward wind from the rotor wash was bananas!

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