Soldier's Bridge over the Demer

Bailey Bridge over the Demer built in the 1950s.

This place was a crossing of the Demer between Werchter and Rotselaar. Until the 1940s this was a small crossing, called the "Barge". A wooden pontoon, pulled with an iron chain, was fastened in the riverbed. The current so-called "Soldier's Bridge" was built in the early 1950s by engineer soldiers as an exercise.

It is the Bailey bridge type. These are steel truss bridges designed by the English engineer Donald Coleman Bailey (1901-1985). The type was designed in 1940 as a military emergency bridge that were often built especially at the end of and after World War II. It is a type of truss bridge made up of panels and crossbars that are connected to each other. They were designed to be built on manpower only as a temporary bridge. In Maldegem a Bailey bridge has been preserved, built at the end of the Second World War. The current bridge over the Demer has green painted half-timbered beams and a wooden planking as a bridge deck.

DE HAAN A. & VANORMELINGEN J. 2013: Designation file anchorage 'Demer- en Laakvallei between Aarschot and Werchter', final designation 4/02/2014. Agency for Immovable Heritage, Brussels.

http://www.baileybrug.info/Algemeen-Wat.html (accessed 27 March 2014)

Paul Van den Broeck