Despite the cold and rainy weather this past week, Army ROTC cadets aimed to complete a project that has been years in the making.

The cadets replaced the original footbridge across Clear Creek, which is located in Pammel Woods, in the northwest corner of campus. The new bridge will be more accessible, as well as safer for their weekly training exercises and for common use by students.

Spanning 45 feet across the creek, the bridge was designed by Iowa-based Snyder and Associates and specifically designed to allow two lanes for cadets to cross in full gear during training.

Equipment and support were provided by the Facilities Planning and Management staff at Iowa State, while the provost’s office and College of Liberal Arts and Sciences provided the funding for the project. Members of the Iowa National Guard 224th Engineer Battalion came out for the week to assist with the bridge.

ROTC cadets were encouraged to help with the bridge construction.

“The bridge had been falling apart for a couple years,” said Jacob Bruce, junior in chemical engineering and AROTC member. “And we have a program, basically, that involves any fixing up around the areas that involves us.”

Bruce credited the idea to build the bridge to Christian Stornello, who sought the help of a local company to get the original blueprints built.

“Over the past couple years, we have coordinated with some university entities and we were able to get it all hammered out,” Bruce said. “Then when I took over, we had to do a lot of getting the lumbered ordered, and stuff like that.” 

Part of the old footbridge can be seen under the newly constructed bridge. The footbridge was built approximately 30 years ago as an Eagle Scout project that aimed to prevent erosion caused by people who climbed the banks to cross the creek.

“Over the summer, we had a couple people out here with chainsaws and they cut up the old bridge,” Bruce said. “It was essentially just a telephone pole with 2-by-4s nailed to it.”

Lauren Arner, freshman in pre-computer science, has been volunteering her time to help construct the bridge during the past week.

“I definitely think it will make getting across this water a lot easier,” Arner said. “We actually had some people come across it while we were still working on it earlier. But it will also help when we are doing things in Pammel Woods and make easier access [across the creek].”