The Bridge over Redwater River
The Bridge over Redwater River
"You want me to raise two pieces of land in the middle of the river to be the foothold of the pier?" Looking at the rolling river, Lotus asked, "Are you going to build a real bridge instead of connecting the ends of the river banks with a pontoon bridge?"
"Well," Roland unfolded the paper in his hand and said, "Considering the impact of the river, both pieces of the land need to have a certain volume, and in order to slow down the impact, they need to be processed like this."
"This is... the shape of a boat." Lotus moved her eyes back to the drawing.
"Yes, to be exact, it's in the spindle shape." He nodded. "As long as it's parallel to the flow, it has the smallest impact on the front. The problem is, Redwater River is nearly 10 meters deep. Can you make the bottom of the river rise?"
"It's not hard to do that, Your Highness," Lotus answered, "Just leave it to me."
To be safe, the vessel that responsible for carrying the witch was the Littletown, and the large cement hull was sailing smoothly in the river. The helmsman was still Lightning and the sail power was provided by Wendy.
However, Wendy had been trying to avoid him whenever she saw Prince Roland for almost a week. Until today, Roland finally saw her raise her head and look at him as usual. He even heard a soft whisper of Wendy saying "Thank you", when he passed by her while boarding the boat.
"You'll have to give this credit to me." Nightingale in the Mist whispered in his ear and giggled.
The Littletown soon left the dock, heading toward the center of the wide river for Carter had pulled up the rope on both sides of the river banks, and the two red clothes tied on it was the expected location to erect the pier. When the concrete boat reached the first point, Lotus stood on the edge of the boat and began to cast her power.
The surface of the river suddenly looked like boiling and it started to surge, forming a "hill". The gravel, grassroots, and silt appeared in the rolling water, and the water became turbid.
In this case, Roland thought that her ability was not only to transform the solid ground but also the water. And, it was easier to enhance the water surface, as compared to the loose gravel. Although the rising river immediately rolled around, the river bed had already raised a little.
After a long time, a bunch of green-gray soil appeared on the surface of the water, and as it looked very soft and released an awful smell, the crowd could not help but cover their noses.
However, it was a good fertilizer in Roland's eyes. For hundreds of years, fish and other aquatic creatures, skeletons, aquatic plants, and the feces of the people had been deposited into the soil. If it was not that it was inconvenient to transport, he would rather use these soil to fertilize the soil. Unfortunately, it could only be manually shoveled away and thrown directly into the river.
After each layer that they cleared enhanced a level of it, he could finally see the solid-brown soil, and the process was kept repeated until both pieces of land were completely trimmed.
Roland expected the process to last for at least a week, but simply carrying the land out of the surface also meant that it could be used directly, and the flow of the river would continue to take away the sediment. Even the spindle type of land would not last for over 10 years without protection.
Roland summoned for Karl Van Bate, took out a charcoal pen and started drawing and talking about the next step how to consolidate the ground surface.
"What do you mean by digging the groove at the edge of the land and pouring it into the cement?" The minister of construction today was pointing at the drawings and asked.
[He's indeed an outstanding member of the King's City Mason Guild,] Roland thought with satisfaction, for he simply reminded him with a few words and he immediately understood his intentions.
"Yes, each length shouldn't exceed five meters, and the depth was controlled within about one meter. The witch will drop the groove down to a meter depth after filling it with cement, so repeatedly, it'll form a cement wall that was directly pierced into the riverbed." This blueprint was figured out by Roland when he saw Lotus' ability. Since she could control the ground from descending the bottom, then it would be possible to bring the structures into the ground.
"Your idea is so ingenious," Karl said, "and in this way, it'll be blocked by the wall that was tightly wrapped even if the river washed the outer soil away.
Roland nodded. "The key point is to control the sinking of the overall height. The bottom would not pack tightly if it were too little, and it'd be a waste of cement, causing deferment if it were too much. You'll be in charge of it."
"Yes, Your Highness," he answered. "Counting the dredged silt and soft soil, I reckon the whole height should be about 12 meters."
"Other than that, please don't cover the center of the ground with cement after the walls were completed as I'm going to plant some flowers on top of it." Prince Roland ordered.
"Plant... flowers?" Karl was shocked.
After all, these walls were not leak-proof and the wall would leave a uniform gap if it were under segmental construction. Planting the grass would be the easiest way to stabilize the soil—the vegetation could balance the water-content of the soil and reduce soil erosion, especially the long-rooted weeds Leaf transformed could ensure the soil firmly solidified.
After simply explaining the soil conservation with the plants, Roland turned to the busy workman by the river bank. "How's construction of bridge approach currently?"
"It's laying the cement pavement," Karl said, "and it should be completed this week."
According to the plan, both sides of the bridge were piled by the rubble cement, similar to the city wall of the Western Region. Building itself was not difficult as long as the positioning and measurement work was done. The bridge slope was seven meters higher than the ground and it was connected with the city's streets through a long gentle slope with radians. With the height differences between the embankment and the water surface, it should be able to form 10 to 12 meters height, and it was basically enough for the use of the boats from the inland river."
The main bridge was only half completed and the frame was being tested on the shore—due to the span was not large and the load was very low, Roland was not worried about its reliability although he knew nothing about the bridge construction. The 30 centimeters high I-beam was a solid guarantee in the absence of the eight generation of overloading. Even though it was crowded on the bridge, it was impossible to break the steel beam. Not to mention from the processing to the assembly of welding were single-handedly arranged by Anna, the probability of shoddy construction was extremely low.
Similarly, its installation was also very simple, it was directly transformed into lightweight by Hummingbird before Lightning carried and installed it into place after the three-span main bridge was completed the pre-making.
The north and south sides were really connected as a whole, when the steel bridge that was standing on Redwater River could be used by two four-wheeled carriages to cross side-by-side.
"Even the greatest masons could hardly to come up with such a magnificent bridge." Karl sighed, looking at the wide, sparkling lake, "Your Highness, what's the name of this steel bridge?"
Roland contemplated and said, "Let's name it the Redwater Bridge."