Engineers remove temporary bridge in Kirkuk province

By Sgt. David Strayer 109th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment U.S. Division-North Public AffairsJuly 13, 2011

Engineers remove temporary bridge in Kirkuk province
KIRKUK, Iraq – Soldiers of 74th Multi-role Bridge Company, 36th Engineer Brigade, use a front-end loading excavation vehicle to pick up pieces of a temporary Wolverine bridge in southern Kirkuk province, June 20, 2011. Engineers removed the temporary... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

KIRKUK, Iraq " Soldiers of 74th Multi-role Bridge Company, 36th Engineer Brigade, along with support from Company C, 1st Special Troops Battalion, 1st Advise and Assist Task Force, 1st Infantry Division, recovered a temporary bridge from southern Kirkuk province, Iraq, June 20.

Soldiers emplaced the bridge early in Operation Iraqi Freedom to allow freedom of movement for U.S. and Iraqi forces throughout southern areas of the province.

Soldiers of 15th Brigade, 12th Iraqi Army Division, who now use permanent bridges several kilometers down the river from the removed bridge, attended the operation to witness the removal of the U.S. Wolverine bridge system.

Unlike many bridges emplaced by U.S. forces and donated to local governments during Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn, the Wolverine bridge is a piece of equipment accountable to a unit, and must be recovered so it can be used for training.

Because Soldiers from a separate unit emplaced the bridge several years ago and the engineers did not have the Wolverine vehicle system necessary to remove the bridge, Soldiers needed to develop a plan to effectively dismantle and take away the bridge.

“This was not your typical bridge removal mission,” said Capt. Miguel Solla, commander, 74th Multi-role Bridge Company. “The Wolverine bridge system that we were tasked to remove would usually have a vehicle that is meant to offload and emplace the bridge, as well as remove and reload the bridge.”

Without the Wolverine vehicle designed to emplace and remove this particular bridge system, the engineers devised a hasty plan to accomplish the mission, relying on ingenuity and their engineering expertise to get the job done, Solla said.

“To accomplish the mission, we separated the bridge by disconnecting the trusses that keep the two halves together,” said Solla. “We then chained the bridge to the bucket of our front-end loader, and emplaced large rollers to stabilize the 6,000-pound piece of the bridge, as the front-end loader served to counterbalance the opposite end of the bridge that was suspended over the river during the removal process.”

After removing and dismantling the bridge, engineers loaded the pieces for shipment and return to the U.S.