Tehachapi Mountain Trail Association – Trail Bridge Construction

The Tehachapi Mountain Trail Association is a nonprofit organization which operates 32 miles of hiking and mountain biking trails year-round. The 650-acre property is located in the foothills above Tehachapi, CA and offers local residents and enthusiasts from around the area an area to exercise and enjoy nature. TMTA is able to operate through yearly memberships that allow the association to hold insurance as well as continue to maintain and build new trails year-round. After completing a separate project for TMTA in Winter 2022 for CM 420 Construction Service Learning, the President, Brandon Griffiths approached me with the idea of building a new bridge on the property. The scope of this project included building a timber frame bridge to span over a perpendicular trail and cutting a new trail so that hikers and cyclists could also pass under the bridge. All materials were provided through donations from TK’s Pizza and Pasta and Build Group Inc. The approval process for the bridge took longer than expected and the project as a whole was almost cancelled. Once approval was granted, the construction phase took 3.5 days to complete, and the remaining funds were donated to TMTA for future projects.