Awarded a $135,000 grant Thursday by the U.S. Forest Service's Wood In Transportation program, the bridge project is the brainchild of Craig Rawlings, small wood enterprise agent for the Montana Community Development Corp.
Both are pedestrian bridges and will be built of small-diameter trees culled from local forests in the name of wildfire protection.
The second, 120-foot bridge - a cable-stayed structure - will cross Rattlesnake Creek at the end of Duncan Drive, connecting hikers and bikers with the Rattlesnake National Recreation Area.
The bridges are not, Rawlings said, "a one-time demonstration," but rather "commercialization projects" - proof that functional, aesthetic structures can be constructed from small-size trees.
"These projects will show people the possibilities," Rawlings said. "Bridges like these could go anywhere, from a golf course to a high-end second home to parks and campgrounds."
A manufacturer is retooling to make the necessary components and meet any demand created by the first two bridges, he said.
"They will market these products as high-end architectural structures," Rawlings said. "These won't be projects for do-it-yourselfers.
"These are bridges that take a qualified contractor to erect. That helps to preserve the value - to keep our margins up."
Rawlings' mission at the MCDC is to find uses for the small-diameter trees removed during hazardous fuel reduction projects - work intended to reduce the fire danger in forests throughout the West.
In the past, smaller trees were considered waste and were either burned as slash or chipped for use as hog fuel.
Now, at places like Travelers' Rest, Rawlings wants to show the potential value in even small trees.
Already, Travelers' Rest has a pavilion built of small-diameter wood.
Construction on the bridges will begin this fall and should be completed by the spring of 2005.
"We hope these demonstration bridges encourage others to use small roundwood material in unconventional ways," Northern Region Forester Gail Kimbell said in announcing the grant.
Competition for the Wood In Transportation grants was intense. In all, five projects were funded nationwide from a $350,000 pool of money.
Reporter Sherry Devlin can be reached at 523-5268 or at sdevlin@missoulian.com.
Editor's Note: The Missoulian did not run the complete story in the Missoulian paper today.
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