Word: graton
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...recent engineering report says the bridge is "functioning with marginal, decayed components" and that "rehabilitation must be undertaken." Even an untutored eye can see the sag of the long wooden trusses that hold the roadway high above the water. Graton's eye is hardly untutored, though; he is the foremost expert in the world on the construction and restoration of covered bridges. With his son Arnold, he has built or repaired some three dozen of them...
Lean and slightly bent from years of work with hammer and saw, pick and shovel, Graton has sinewy, brown forearms and a powerful grip belying his 77 years...
...discussion, and argument, over restoration of the bridge. Everyone agrees it should be repaired and strengthened -- 2,500 vehicles are driven across it every day -- but there are strong differences of opinion over the extent to which authenticity should be preserved and whether the work should be done by Graton or the New Hampshire ! Department of Transportation. Things heated up in 1984, when a rehabilitation plan devised by Graton, using wood almost exclusively for the necessary repairs, was distributed. Public hearings on the Vermont and New Hampshire sides of the river brought out crowds of concerned citizens, many of whom...
...Graton, however, does not adhere to traditional techniques in matters of bridge building alone. He also prefers old-fashioned ways of doing business, and has always tried to avoid lengthy contracts, performance bonds, "pre- qualification registration," and other such modern advances. On one job, when Occupational Safety and Health Administration officials demanded that a safety net be suspended below the span on which Graton and his crew were working, Graton complied, in his fashion: he balled up a net and tied it in a bundle under the bridge...
With no decision yet made on the Cornish-Windsor bridge rehabilitation, Graton busies himself meanwhile with other projects. His route between home in Ashland, N.H., and various jobs sometimes takes him near Cornish, and he stops to see how the old bridge is holding up. On one such recent visit he studied it from a parking area that overlooks the span and is frequently used by tourists who stop to take photographs...