Building Bridges

About a month ago, crews began replacing the Northside Drive bridge over Peachtree Creek in North Atlanta (the old bridge was almost 100 years old). The work is being done by the same contractor who replaced the sections of the bridge on I-85 that collapsed as the result of a massive fire back in 2017 (it was actually Zach’s birthday! He and Shannon were stuck on the highway for several hours just a couple of hundred feet from the collapse!)

The bridge that is currently being replaced is about a mile from our house. In fact, it is on the primary route I use when I go for a run.

Many of you who will read this will know that my undergraduate degree from Georgia Tech is in construction management. I am still fascinated by any kind of building and construction. I particularly love watching concrete being poured and finished! So, I have loved watching the progress over the last few weeks. I’ll stop on one side on the way out and the other side on the way back. There are some details of the construction that I can view from the south that I cannot see from the north and vice versa.

It will also not come as a shock to those who know me that I often find one of the workers to speak with and to ask about the process. Before they began construction on the new vehicle bridge, they built a brand-new pedestrian bridge. I saw one of the workers with a set of plans and asked how the new pedestrian bridge would connect to the existing beltline trail. He looked at me and said, “Sir, I have no idea.” With drawings still in hand, he gestures toward edge of the new bridge just in front of us and continues, “my plans end right here, someone else will get it from here to there!”

Earlier this week, I met another worker who is a heavy equipment operator (which is a very skilled job on a construction site). He was donned in well-worn jeans, a tattered t-shirt, reflective vest and hard hat. His face was chiseled from many years of working in the elements. He had the beginnings of a ZZ Top beard. As we talked, he took a couple of long draws on his cigarette. He gave me an update on the project’s progress and what his role was in completing it.

All of the structural concrete has been poured. As I mentioned above, I LOVE concrete. Crude forms of concrete have been used for thousands of years.

Concrete is NOT cement (one of my pet peaves!). Cement is one component of concrete which also includes aggregate and water. When all three are combined, a chemical reaction begins the process of curing. As concrete cures, it gains the strength necessary to support the structure above.

This coming week, they will begin to set the steel beams in place that will reconnect one side to the other. After a new concrete surface is in place, traffic will once again flow from one side to the other in both directions.

You might be asking, “what does all of this have to do with politics and religion?! How does this help us prepare to respond to the outcome of the election?!”

We need to look at issues from multiple angles so that we can understand different perspectives.

We need to focus on the work right in front of us and trust that others are doing the same.

If we take time to stop and listen, we can learn a lot from others. We might even make a new friend.

While I continue to believe that most of us have far more in common than anything that might divide us, this election is clearly creating division among some. Those of us in the middle will need to build some new bridges that allow us to reconnect and move forward together.

The more we work together, the stronger we will become.