The wood deck has been installed. It consists of panels of treated boards which are glued together, and are bolted to the beams. Each panel spans three floor beams, except for alternate panels at the ends. This allows the panel ends to be staggered for greater strength (not obvious in this picture). The metal strips were placed to prevent cracking in the blacktop pavement which was placed on the deck. Wood was used rather than concrete to keep the weight on the bridge as light as possible. Since the legal load limit on the bridge is three tons, the additional strength of concrete is not necessary.