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..