The squirrel bridge design
While the Nutty Narrows Bridge is very beautiful and ornate, many parts of its design are not actually functional and do not help the squirrels. For my bridge I decided to eventually go with the simplest rope only design as the most functional:
Even with this simple bridge, actually making it happen was far from easy.
Because the bridge crosses the roadway, I needed to get the right of way permit approved by the city.
City council talked to me, city mayor talked to me, the director of public works talked to me and the city engineer talked to me. They told me in order to put basically a rope across the road between the two trees, I would need to apply for something called the ROW (right of way) permit. While they seemed somewhat supportive, the demands for the ROW only kept piling up. I needed to get approval from the neighbors/property owners. I had to submit design documents and traffic management plan for the construction period. The work can only be performed by a licensed contractor with a special city of Duvall endorsement on their license (which is basically another tax that the city of Duvall collects). I needed to talk to a licensed arborist to confirm that tying a rope around the tree will not harm the tree. The tree on my side was deemed not large enough for the rope, so the city suggested I install a pole. But pole can fall to the road, so I also need to install cables and safety anchors to permanently support the pole for the public safety. And then they told me that I need a concept design and safety review and all engineering computations for the squirrel bridge to be computed a signed by a licensed civil or structural engineer of the state of Washington.
This has created a new challenge. I contacted ~ 80 engineers, basically every structural and civil engineer in the king county. Most were not interested, some said they only design bridges for large public projects and not take on projects less than a few million dollars. Others said they just work on engineering small private custom design houses and don't know how to design a bridge. A few said a bridge like this is basically not possible to do safely. They told me it is hard to account for wind storms, snow loading and heavy rains. One told me I need to consult with the city on how to design the proper signage for the proposed 2" wide, 16' of the ground bridge properly to make sure human people don't try to use it. I think if you are a human who sees a random rope across the road above in the trees and immediately decide to walk it, the signs will not effectively deter you anyway, but what do I know. Another engineer complained that designing such a bridge will be very risky for the liability reason, because there are no existing approved municipal codes defining what a safe squirrel bridge even is. Does he think the squirrels will fall off the bridge and open a class action lawsuit against him? A third engineer said such a bridge would require very expensive wind tunnel testing of the prototype before construction to make sure the vibration issues are accounted for. Another one told me that the squirrel bridge is too risky, because there are no existing municipal rules and standards on squirrel bridge safety, the liability of building such a thing would just be unacceptable. Finally, I was told it would cost "multiple thousands" for just the design, even if they discount their rate for a good cause.
Eventually I found an engineer who agreed to consult me on the per hour basis, paid his retainer fee, created the design (with some generous help from the AI) and submitted my project for review by the City of Duvall. It took more than a month of negations, two rounds of administrative reviews, and two rounds of engineering reviews, but finally the city run out of reasons why my project was not acceptable and they kindly issued me my right of way permit ROW-26-67.
I do like public safety and I'm all for it, but I am also pretty sure there is more red tape, more documents, and more reviews, and approvals and checks and balances needed to build a squirrel bridge in this country, than what you need to start a new major war in the middle east. It is not even a joke. It is actually the truth. In the meantime the brave US military destroyed all of Iran's nuclear capacity and even more of Iran's elementary schools, the prices skyrocketed and global events marched on at a literally break-neck speed, and I just got permit valid for a year to construct my rope between two trees.
The squirrel bridge ropes attachment
The squirrel bridge ropes
The permit application with the redacted address.
the construction >>>
douglas b squirrel memorial bridge
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