What’s the widest & heaviest thing that will be driven across it..ever?? That..determines how wide & how beefy it has to be.! (2) 18 wheeler flatbeds side by side(welded together to be 16 ft wide)..would handle about anything that can go down the highway! Definitely sounds like a clear span bridge is what you need though. Not culverts
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Building a bridge
- Thread starter RootConservative
- Start date
If you build a bridge, pay particular attention to your abutments, if the bridge will eventually fail in flood conditions if not properly supported. We built a log truck bridge on some timberland in Maine and used Bolt-A Bins filled with conpacted gravel for abutments, and they've held up to 6 years of 150 ton log truck traffic.....
https://www.bigrbridge.com/product/bolt-a-bin/
Also check your liability insurance; sometimes they won't insure a property with a bridge on it. Mine won't, so I put in a 54" culvert.
Elkbane
https://www.bigrbridge.com/product/bolt-a-bin/
Also check your liability insurance; sometimes they won't insure a property with a bridge on it. Mine won't, so I put in a 54" culvert.
Elkbane
ryanh487
Senior Member
Even with a clear span bridge, I would anchor some telephone poles or concrete piers at each corner with a heavy beam across them for the bridge to rest on as opposed to just laying it on the dirt over either bank. Otherwise as stated above erosion will eventually lead to one or both ends falling in the creek.
grouper throat
Senior Member
We built a bridge on our property around 20+ years ago. It is made out of large I-beams and cross ties, each side's foundation is cement and rebar. We have been running mid size tractors over it forever but I would be scared to run a skidder/loaded log truck over it.
I would probably consider 3 culverts if it is as small as you describe and would have a rock base.
I would probably consider 3 culverts if it is as small as you describe and would have a rock base.
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Wayne D Davis
Senior Member
Im demoing a single wide 60 ft trailer now. Not sure where you need it but the frame is free to take after demo is completed.
Wayne D Davis
Senior Member
RootConservative
Senior Member
The heaviest thing it needs to support is the excavator used to build it. After that a tractor or lime truck.
RootConservative
Senior Member
Where is the demo taking place? I'm down in South Dodge county.
Go gators, I've done both bridge and culvert. The pipes wiil be your simplest and cheapest option. That mobile home frame spanning 30 feet wont hold up an excavator with any size to it. Even after you have it in place you still have to then deck it.
You can pull up a watershed chart to estimate your pipe size. Or Im sure there are pipes already crossing said creek near your property somwhere close by. You could probably check out google earth and find a crossing nearby. Then just go talk to the landowner and see what size pipe they've got. Id use multiple smaller rather than one big pipe.
You can pull up a watershed chart to estimate your pipe size. Or Im sure there are pipes already crossing said creek near your property somwhere close by. You could probably check out google earth and find a crossing nearby. Then just go talk to the landowner and see what size pipe they've got. Id use multiple smaller rather than one big pipe.
Jack Ryan
Senior Member
I built this 10-15 years ago.
https://smg.photobucket.com/user/JackPatrickRyan/library?page=1
40 feet long, 12 feet wide.
https://smg.photobucket.com/user/JackPatrickRyan/library?page=1
40 feet long, 12 feet wide.
ryanh487
Senior Member
I clicked the link. It took me to your photobucket account. I now have more questions than answers.
RootConservative
Senior Member
One thing that really concerns me with culverts and erosion is my creek has active beavers. I break up dams regularly and trap them. I also run traps for coyote year round. I never eradicate the beavers I catch enough that they move off my property and then a year or two down the road come back. As Elkbane suggested I e-mailed my insurance rep to find out if they will drop coverage if I have a bridge.
RootConservative
Senior Member
Just spoke to my insurance rep and they will drop coverage on my property if I put a bridge up. He sent me where it's listed in my contract. They allow temporary bridges installed by logging companies that carry their own insurance and remove the bridge after logging has ceased. Also, heard back from my neighbor with the excavator so I could look up weight of it. He has a Caterpillar 330B the listed operating weight is 74,300 lbs. I think that is more than the Spreader trucks they use to spread lime. I can always call and find out. So the curve-ball came in and my wife would kill me if I got our policy dropped for me building a bridge to satisfy my own need to build one. Therefore it saddens me to say but I think I'm going to have to put in a culvert, bring in more stone and fill. Or I can leave it as it currently is with just stone and not have access to that side of the property seasonally when its flooded. For those that have put in culverts. Why do you use several smaller ones rather than one large one? I have culverts on my 3 acre fish pond I had dug the year after buying the property three of them they are 32" and they are spaced 10 feet apart. They allow water to escape the pond normally only after hurricanes and go into a seasonal cypress low area. I call it my cypress seasonal pond. Also, I spoke with my neighbor as Dbender suggested and he doesn't have a bridge over the creek because the creek is his property line. I also looked at google earth and don't see any bridges on the same creek other than a DOT clearspan bridge on the main highway a couple miles down the road. Everyone's ideas have been great so far and let me check on things before I did something stupid and lost my insurance.
Jack Ryan
Senior Member
Culverts are noting but a big pain in the rear. Leaky dams at best.
Didn't it go to a gallery of bridge building pictures? Starting with tearing down the old one and putting in the new one from the footers up to driving the truck and boat across it?
It should be a gallery with in the over all PB gallery called "bridge".
Jack Ryan
Senior Member
You'll have a never ending head ache with beavers and culverts.
Ask me how I know, I LIVE on Beaver Creek.
Core Lokt
Senior Member
Me too LOL!! That MC pic/gif was something else.....
ryanh487
Senior Member
Culverts are noting but a big pain in the rear. Leaky dams at best.
Didn't it go to a gallery of bridge building pictures? Starting with tearing down the old one and putting in the new one from the footers up to driving the truck and boat across it?
It should be a gallery with in the over all PB gallery called "bridge".
Nope, wasn't a dang thing about bridges lol
Jack Ryan
Senior Member
I copied the link from the bridge gallery and I guess they just auto send ya to the front page full of junk I never did anything else with. BUT on the LEFT of there, you should see a list of galleries and two or three from the top is one called "bridge". It is sort of a photo history/how to picture list of how I built a bridge in my drive way. DIR.
Jack Ryan
Senior Member
I only got one from Gogator that I see.
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