Prototype concrete forms for bridge abutments.

[craigolio1]

Hey all.

What would forms have been made from in a lumber rich area like British Columbia. I have a bridge that I’m building for which I can’t find any decent pics that offer enough detail to show where the form lines would have been.

One abutment was built in the 30’s and looks like your typical bridge abutment with a couple of wing walls. I figured it was probably formed with dimensional lumber like maybe 2x10?

 The other end was rebuilt after a washout when the bridge had to be extended. The bridge itself stood on a wooden crib that was filled in, and then at a later date (sometime in the 80’s) that wooden crib was protected by a poured concrete retaining wall with wing walls either side. I wondered if it would have been formed with plywood? Perhaps that would have been too weak and dimensional lumber would have been used?

Both pours were about 16’ tall and 22’ wide, not including the wing walls.

Thanks for the insight.

Craig.

[Angus Shops]

I would imagine plywood for work would have been typical by the '80's. Anything earlier than the 60's would have likely been 'board formed'. My uncle was in the forest industry in BC and was involved with the large scale introduction of plywood as a common building product. As a demonstration of its utility he built a new house (rather grand) in which plywood was used extensively for both structural and aesthetic purposes. If I remember, the house was built in the early 60's, maybe late 50's.
Geoff

[craigolio1]

Thanks Geoff.

[Jim Costello]

Standard 8' x 4' sheets of plywood was a commercial product from the late 1920's,( 1928 says wikipedia) so logic would have it that it would have been used as formwork in the 30's and later.
Certainly dimensional timber was used at the same time, depending on the type of structure, location and contractors  construction preferences.

Jim

[aikorob]

late 70s---early 80s

standard concrete forms are plywood bolted to a metal frame.......which is bolted together on the outside to make up the total form.
snap ties (what we called them....maybe there was another formal name) to keep the forms spaced out

similar to this http://www.sciglobal.com/steelply_modular_concreteforms.php

[Cajonpassfan]

Hope the pics below are useful. The bridge (in Cajon) was built in 1939. Note the rough treatment of the base, with concrete squirting out. 2x10’s sound about right to provide stiffness and to contain the pour; plywood forms are a product of a much later era. The coloring is also important I would think.
Otto K.

[OldEastRR]

I would guess the concrete oozed out of the bottom of the piers was below ground level when it was poured -- the waterway has washed away the dirt. For the nitpickers, it's a "weathering" process they can use to indicate an old pour.