Small bridge project

[Western]

I hope the photos work, taken with my phone. If there is interest I will post throughout the little project.

This is a small bridge I am helping my neighbor build. It only spans 14' over a wet weather creek. He wants to get his small Kubota across to work on a food plot, fill the feeder and such. We officially declared it a "bridge to know where"

In the photo is a view after we had located the best place, squared it up and began digging pier holes for the beams. Hit bedrock on two holes pretty shallow.

The structure it's self will be 8" 10lb I-beam (20') set a 5' apart or just inside his wheel width. The top runners will be 2 7/8" pipe set at "TBD", will depend on what my neighbor wants as decking. Choices right now are welded "catwalk" grate or treated lumber. He is leaning towards the catwalk so we will probably put a pipe every foot. So far the cost at this piont is right at $600, not to bad.

 

[Western]

This photo shows the I-beam in place on the piers.

At this point but not in the photo, I have 2 pipe welded near each end (3.5') and I-beam welded to base plates set in piers.

The intention is also to weld a crossbeam crossing under both I-beams parallel with the creek flow, with steel "legs" to the creek floor. This is almost like a raised cattle guard with the pipe set opposite of normal (running width not length)

 

[ayelvington]

Thanks for sharing! My neighbor and I are thinking of making a bridge out of an old mobile home frame. We have a lot of mud, and soft banks, so the traverse is much wider than just the stream. Please keep posting as you make progress.

 

[retiredmgn]

Looks like a fun project. Keep those pics comin'. :thumbsup:

 

[grnspot110]

I used an old trailer house frame for a similar project, works fine!

Keep the pics comin'! ~~ grnspot110

 

[Scrambler82]

Just asking… not an engineer.
Instead of building a bridge since the water problem is only there in the s[ring or wet season, would it be possible to use Crushed Stone with Piping ?

Lay in the pipe, pour on the stone, add some covering and some Stone Dust and pack.

Walla a road and yes a bridge but not some that involves piers, steel, and building of a wooden structure.
Future might want sides to retain the stone but that getting too far ahead.

Just thinking out loud or through my fingers.

 

[jml755]

uh, why didn't he just put down a small culvert? Cost would have been less than what you've got into it already with a lot less work. In the time you dug the pier holes, you could have had a culvert in, backfilled and graded. I paid $400 for a 42" x 20' steel culvert (built to state highway standards) delivered to my site. Backfill sand cost another $100 or so. And that little creek looks a lot smaller than what I was spanning.

 

[LD1]

Looks very nice so far.

Regardless of why you ecided on a bridge rather than a culvert, it should be pleanty strong enough with the beams you have chosen.

My only concern would be water eroding around your piers.

Good luck and keep the pics comming

 

[TripleR]

Interesting project, but I am too lazy, so we have just used 30" or 36" culvert and filled them in.

Even our county and state highway departments are replacing bridges that way now.

 

[Western]

Thanks for the reply's guy's, this is a "fun" project because it isn't mandatory, make since?

As far as culverts: (Background) We live on a dead end, the county road that leads to our places has 2 wet weather creeks that it crosses,(the one we are building over and another) both with 24" culverts covered in cement. Usually about 1-3 times a year we are "land locked" by high water and debris. I'm not sure how large the water shed or drainage is, but looking at Google maps, it's at least several hundred acres. I have spoke to our County Commissioner, he has told me his preference would be a bridge, but due to cost and traffic demands it wasn't warranted. Only 6 of use down here in the "hole".
We discussed a culvert and he wanted a bridge, largely since the creek holds water for quite a while after a rain, more so on his side of the fence. This "creek" has been over 8' of rushing water at times.

The multiplier in deciding the bridge was not $$,but reliability.

The piers we got to rock, initially he was just thinking about laying it across, but as we got going this project has evolved. We still have to build approaches on each side the will further strengthen the structure. On a perfect day I would have wanted full concrete abutments on both ends.

I don't think there is a "perfect" way to cross a creek, each situation is different and requires a little "tweaking" to accomplish the same goal.

I will try to document a little more later on the reason he chose this over a culvert. I think it is important so others understand our reasoning in our situation if they are contemplating a crossing of there own on the DIY theme. There are several factors that come into play that have to be addressed, which I'm sure we missed some

Our goal..Safety, reliability, FUN..

 

[EddieWalker]

Great project.

Add me to the list of those want to see more pics and updates!!!!!!

I day dream about building bridges. I'll probably only build one across my spillway, but I think about all sorts of places I "want" to build them.

It look like a VERY FUN project.

Thanks,
Eddie

 

[Western]

Eddy,

Went by your place last night about 12am to a small job in Longview.

Here is a couple of photos. Last one is poor, almost dark.

1st one shows 2 of the pipe cross supports welded in with the I-beam welded to the piers.

2nd one is the first few pipe cross overs welded on. We went 12" since my neighbor has decided on the steel catwalk material for deck. This will be a "stout" sucker for sure. Total weight of the bridge will be between 2000-3000lbs approximately.

I have told my neighbor about TBN, Hope that "city slicker turned country boy" joins in the ruckus. Hey! even has overalls so he should fit right in

 

[Western]

Duh! forgot the photos in the previous.

 

[David Devuono]

I'd probably tie a chain to a nearby tree so it does not float away.:laughing:
I have a low area with a concrete culvert. Its about a 100 foot causeway. Some day I am gonna make like a train trestle. I remember my dad making a bridge over a bay at the cottage. We had fun for years playing on it.

 

[Western]

I'd probably tie a chain to a nearby tree so it does not float away.:laughing:
I have a low area with a concrete culvert. Its about a 100 foot causeway. Some day I am gonna make like a train trestle. I remember my dad making a bridge over a bay at the cottage. We had fun for years playing on it.

Funny you say that, I was kinda hoping it would "float" over to my side of the fence since possession is 9/10ths of the law. I think tomorrow I will weld 10, 55 gallon drums under it, what do you think?

 

[Western]

Below is a photo of my "culvert" project from 5 years ago.

I had a County road guy stop by and give me advice on a culvert, also had the help of the bulldozer operator who has put in ALLOT of them.

Since I had such a steep approach from one side I went with a 48" culvert. The dozer operator pushed and pulled dirt to try and mix what little clay I had to build up a base. We placed the culvert and then started with the dirt, 6" increments then water and rolling, (My place is sandy to a sandy loam.)

After that I formed the top and apron with 1/2 re-bar set at 16" center with cement at 8" ( I wanted to be able to take a full cement truck over later) The day after the pour it started to rain, we got almost 15" in 4 days. We where flooded, heck ft worth was flooded. It was 3' over the culvert drive. I am not in the 100yr flood plain and this event will likely never happen again.

And so it sits, my $6500 gorilla. This creek isn't much till it get's aggravated.

 

[jml755]

.....
The multiplier in deciding the bridge was not $$,but reliability.
On a perfect day I would have wanted full concrete abutments on both ends.

I don't think there is a "perfect" way to cross a creek, each situation is different and requires a little "tweaking" to accomplish the same goal.

The culvert I installed (pic in an earlier post) actually replaced a small wooden bridge that wouldn't support a tractor or truck. I considered a replacement bridge but in discussions with the county when I called for a permit, I found that a culvert would be cheapest and easiest and much preferred by the County with jurisdiction over the Drain I was crossing. Took all of one day to complete and a lot of that time was sitting around waiting for the culvert delivery or admiring the completed job.

As for reliability, I would dispute that a bridge would be any more reliable than a culvert. If the water gets to be 8' in that creek, it's going to cover both types of crossing. I wouldn't worry about full abutments either, maybe some rip-rap, which I installed on the upstream side to prevent any erosion (just happened to have a pile of broken concrete laying around):thumbsup:

You're right, each situation is different. Further downstream, I'm considering a crossing where the creek is closer to 10' deep and that will probably be a bridge. It's just for people and horses so a couple of oaks may just "fall" across the creek one day.

Anyway, have fun on your project.

 

[Western]

The culvert I installed (pic in an earlier post) actually replaced a small wooden bridge that wouldn't support a tractor or truck. I considered a replacement bridge but in discussions with the county when I called for a permit, I found that a culvert would be cheapest and easiest and much preferred by the County with jurisdiction over the Drain I was crossing. Took all of one day to complete and a lot of that time was sitting around waiting for the culvert delivery or admiring the completed job.

As for reliability, I would dispute that a bridge would be any more reliable than a culvert. If the water gets to be 8' in that creek, it's going to cover both types of crossing. I wouldn't worry about full abutments either, maybe some rip-rap, which I installed on the upstream side to prevent any erosion (just happened to have a pile of broken concrete laying around):thumbsup:

You're right, each situation is different. Further downstream, I'm considering a crossing where the creek is closer to 10' deep and that will probably be a bridge. It's just for people and horses so a couple of oaks may just "fall" across the creek one day.

Anyway, have fun on your project.

JML,
Thanks for your input, I wish now on mine I would have used rock instead of my native sand, but was assured buy the a fore mention crew I would be fine, go figure.

As far as reliability, I may have posted that with the wrong meaning, We are "overbuilding" the bridge for reliability, not that a culvert would be less reliable if you don't mind an occasional water crossing.

 

[Qapla]

I thought about using a bridge on our driveway but culverts worked out to be the better way.

I used 36" cement culverts that come in short sections and each one has a bell for another to fit into. I placed 30# felt over the joints.

This has worked for 30 years as our main drive.

I recently used some more of them for a drive that across a ditch that runs through our property. (we had extras we kept for many years)

The best part - the culverts were free. They were left over from a building that my Dad worked on.

 

[Western]

Had some time to add to the project.

We got the center I-beam in, little of the top deck and the approaches cut, welded and concreted. We still need to build the center beam forms and pour around the center columns.