Eight Air Force Academy cadets, their professor, and about ten U.S. Forest Service workers sweated side by side last week, pouring concrete, hauling 500 pound beams, and battling swarms of black flies about a mile past Maroon Lake in the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness.
The U.S. Forest Service recently partnered with the U.S. Air Force Academy to replace a damaged bridge at Maroon Lake, and cadets studying civil engineering took the lead on the project - and did much of the heavy lifting.
Professor Stan Rader and his class of eight cadets began this project last fall when they surveyed the site and began the design process. He said the partnership with the Forest Service is unique and mutually beneficial.
“The forest service really needs help with their budget, and the Air Force Academy really needs help with getting real-life projects for their civil engineering cadets,” Rader said.
This real-life project involves replacing a bridge over fast-moving white water above Maroon Lake, on the popular scenic loop. The Forest Service continues to rely on volunteer help as more than half of its budget is spent on wildfires, and cadets like Hannah Sponseller are willing volunteers.
“So this is a very unique opportunity in that we get to see the entire thing come together from the very first day to the completion of the bridge,” Sponseller said.
The bridge sits about a mile into designated wilderness, which means the cadets had to build the bridge using only “primitive” tools, with no power tools, and they had to hand-carry in all the materials. One of the biggest challenges was bringing in four, 500-pound beams, called stringers. Senior cadet Dan Gaynes is the project lead.
“Hauling this beam is a lot harder than we thought,” Gaynes said. “It was a lot more difficult, a lot more turns in the trail, literally, than we expected.”
It took eighteen people, including cadets, Forest Service volunteers, and even Forest Service desk workers, to carry the beams the mile from the trailhead to the bridge site. Professor Rader sees some room for improvement next time.
“It would’ve been better had we marched in cadence like the military does but we kind of stumbled and brought them in,” Rader said.
The cadets said the experience has prepared them well to adapt to unforeseen situations and work across agencies. Most will graduate and take jobs as civil engineering officers, whose work involves maintaining runways and designing and building military bases around the world. The wilderness setting also provides some unique challenges of its own.
“Yesterday I came around the corner and I was within thirty foot of a bull moose,” Rader said.
The new bridge will be completed and ready for public use by the end of the week.
