New Access In Pisgah National Forest

Massive Sakrete Project Helps Bring Access Bridge to Remote North Carolina Park’s Waterfalls

Spanning more than 500,000 acres of hardwood trees, whitewater rivers and tumbling waterfalls, Pisgah National Forest of Old Fort, North Carolina offers visitors miles of beautiful trails. Attracting thousands of hikers annually, Pisgah National Forest is known for its Catawba Falls, a 100-foot waterfall surrounded by picturesque Appalachian scenery.

Originally the waterfall was only accessible by rock-hopping across the Catawba River. Although the river is typically low enough for hikers to scrabble across exposed rocks to reach Catawba Falls, rising water regularly made the route impassable and dangerous.

Over the past four years, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), in conjunction with McDowell County, NC State Parks began devising a solution to improve hiker safety and grant easier access to the breathtaking falls. With assistance from a federal Recreational Trails Program Grant, the Forest Service initiated a plan to reroute the Catawba Falls Trail. To eliminate the need for a hazardous river crossing, the Forest Service also included the construction of a new bridge across the Catawba River to the falls.

The Forest Service selected contractor Travis Greene, owner of TAG Contracting, Inc., to build the Chestnut Branch Bridge. Located approximately a mile and a half up a foot trail near the base of the lower Catawba falls, the remote jobsite was a challenge to Greene’s crew.

“The access to the bridge was horrible,” explains Greene. “We couldn’t get a big skid-steer or mini hoe near the dam and realized we’d have to use a rock bridge to get the building materials across.”

The project called for concrete abutments for the bridge but getting materials up the steep trails seemed unfeasible to achieve with a ready-mix truck that would typially be used for jobs of this scale. As a native of western North Carolina, the project had a special meaning to Greene who had grown up near the falls. Determined to stay on schedule, he searched for a solution for the bridge’s challenging jobsite. Greene turned to Dirk Tharpe, a concrete expert and trainer for Sakrete, who recommended Sakrete® 5000 Plus high-strength concrete mix. The two then set about finding a way to deliver the bags of pre-mixed concrete up the steep trail safely.

“Using his John Deere Mule, Greene transported the bagged material in small loads from the bottom of the trail,” explained Tharpe. “The job required a total of 1,440 80/lb. bags of concrete for the bridge footing and end abutments which totaled more than 30 pallets.”

Without the need for heavy equipment, the individual bags of concrete could be brought to the jobsite without disturbing its natural surroundings and surpassed the minimum strength specified by the United States Forest Service. Greene said Sakrete 5000 Plus was the ideal building material for the Chestnut Branch Bridge, delivering superior durability and faster strength gain than normal concrete. An added benefit to using Sakrete bagged concrete in such a remote location was that it made cleaning up the construction site easy by simply disposing of the empty bags. The trails remained pristine throughout the project

“It’s easier to stay in spec with pre-mixed bagged concrete,” explained Greene. “Trying to eyeball sand, stone, and cement is not consistent, especially considering the volume of concrete the project would require. By the end of the project we mixed and placed about 32 cubic yards of concrete.”

With Sakrete 5000 Plus, Greene was able to easily maintain a high level of quality control, ensuring each batch of concrete was free of inconsistencies or contamination that would have otherwise plagued a jobsite crew mixing raw materials. The pre-mixed bags of concrete added much-needed simplicity to the challenging project, allowing Greene’s crew to maintain batch-to-batch consistency and stay in spec with ease.

The Chestnut Branch Bridge has truly made a difference to the Pisgah National Forest improvement efforts. “Now, thanks in no small part to Sakrete, more hikers are able to enjoy the magnificent Catawba Falls without the hassle of a potentially dangerous river crossing,” added Greene.

Learn more at https://www.sakrete.com or call the Sakrete Technical Services Experts at 1-866-SAKRETE.