DIY Bridge

[rScotty]

By his sarcastic remark to my previous post he will not understand your post......

Well, that's sad. Those doglegs at property boundaries are kind of a giveaway. Especially with a road involved. But I didn't know myself until it happened to some locals. It can mean that the creek was moved laterally on one side of the road of the other, and the ditch next to the road makes a convenient path for a low-flow seasonal creek - until the ditch fills in & a few good rains come.
And that can take years...or decades.

About 200 local newcomers to our rural area also bought & built believing that the roads and the stream they saw were the same as they had always been.......oops, not.....

It was never difficult, but now it is easy to look up an address on Google Earth Pro, go up to View, and activate the Historical Imagery slider. That shows what the address once looked like. Images go way back to 1930 in some places. Here we are remote, but still have images to 1980s.
Amazing.
You can bet that I'll be looking at those historical views next time I look at some property.
rScotty

 

[deezler]

Sorry, I somehow missed the pics prior to requesting.

Looks pretty solvable. I'm somewhat envious of your excellent stash of free gravel that you now get to harvest.

My 2c (certainly not an expert) : When you see the water flow get to about as low as it ever gets (summer drought?), start digging with a proper machine. Straighten the flow path back out; dead straight - you might also have to reorient your driveway a little to get a fully perpendicular crossing. Scoop the channel out nice and deep, it's ok if you make a bit of a pond (it'll fill back in if so). But you probably want to carry out some depth a ways downstream as well if the topography supports. Carve the creek bed into the width that you feel comfortable building a bridge over. Well protected (big rock armored at a minimum) bridge abutments/supports with a deck height at least a foot above where you would ever expect to see water. This should let a huge volume of water go smoothly underneath, and if it ever gets high enough to also go around, whatever is then going around should at least be pretty calm flow, compared to the torrent that will be running properly under the bridge in your nice deep creek channel. So the excess flow could then run over your driveway on boths sides without hurting it or preventing travel.

If you do it right, the bridge will look like overkill 99% of the time, and during a flood, you'll say phew!

 

[garymartin63965]

It almost looks like the creek is doglegging at your driveway. I’ve seen people just build a concrete crossing, no pipes. Sometimes those hold up for a fairly long time.

It might end up that we go that route. There are several concrete slabs/low water crossings upstream and downstream that have been there quite awhile. I think just dredging out a lot of the gravel (at my driveway & below) and straightening out the creek will help tremendously.

 

[garymartin63965]

Aerial view sort of shows you didn't pay attention to creek channel over the years and allowed it to dogleg down the road instead of yearly maintenance to keep it where you want it... Water is like electricity it takes path of least resistance.... A little creative tractor work and some layers of coarse gravel and a shallow area where you want the water to flow is simple one day project...

Bridge or culverts or ford is long term solution ....

I haven’t been able to do much maintenance of the creek over the last 20 years. Partly because it is someone else’s property & I have a 30’ wide easement from the county road to where my property begins just east of the creek. We could park our cars/trucks close to the county road and wade the creek or use the four wheeler to go through the woods to get to the highway & then back to our county road. I even walked it a few times because it’s only 2-3 miles. Now the wife and I are retired and worried about getting emergency medical treatment.

 

[garymartin63965]

It sounds like this whole area isn't very much higher than the creek. Again a sketch or map of the drive and creek(s) would be helpful.

Your are right airbiscuit. From the east bank of the creek to the west, on my driveway the ground only drops 25” at its lowest point.

 

[airbiscuit]

So, is this your primary residence now? How many days/year is it currently impassable?

I think people are getting a better idea about your situation, so hopefully comments keep coming in. Maybe post more pics and a few more map views? Maybe one that includes the county road, the easement and your property lines?

 

[Rockbadchild]

If you are going to dig the creek bed for a bridge that's probably fine but for culverts, I would advise against it will only fill back up with sediments and your culvert will end up half full of dirt within a few years...

 

[2manyrocks]

Would your neighbors allow you to straighten the creek bed to get rid of the dog leg?

 

[airbiscuit]

1. So, is this your primary residence now?
2. How many days/year is it currently impassable?
3. Does the stream flow North to South or South to North?
4. In the areal photo, the stream bed is amazingly straight. Was that path created by man or nature?
5. Can you move that dogleg upstream or downstream so the creek flows straight across your driveway?
6. When the water is high across your driveway, is the current still, slow or swift?
7. Can you move your driveway to an upstream or downstream crossing?

Lots of questions I know, but related pieces of the puzzle.

 

[WranglerX]

I haven’t been able to do much maintenance of the creek over the last 20 years. Partly because it is someone else’s property & I have a 30’ wide easement from the county road to where my property begins just east of the creek. We could park our cars/trucks close to the county road and wade the creek or use the four wheeler to go through the woods to get to the highway & then back to our county road. I even walked it a few times because it’s only 2-3 miles. Now the wife and I are retired and worried about getting emergency medical treatment.

Check with "property rights" attorney you may have more permissions/authority to do repair work on easement than you think, and also you might be able to force other property owner to share in costs..... I also have a 40 feet wide 300 feet long easement across my property to 5 acre property behind me, fortunately for me, I own the "back property" also....

Property Easements: Overview

Learn the basics about property easements---what they are, how they work, types of easements, and more.

www.nolo.com