A Bridge Too Far - Calling All Engineers

[Kyle241]

Yes, the movie is excellent, one of my favs. The reason for this post though it to see whether there are any engineers and/or possibly architects on board who have any experience with bridges. This is a long shot but we found a property that is of interest and it made up of the following:

12 acres
300+ft on a salmon river
3 hole golf course
In-ground pool
Very private
Borders major sustained forest privately corporate owned

Issue is the house is on the side of the river where the road is not. Currently there is a foot bridge - check this out:

And there is a 'back road'...more like a trail that leads to the property. This is something that needs maintenance which would not be a chore with a decent tractor however the road crosses the privately owned corporate piece of land. It's been used for decades however it is not deeded and thus access could be retracted anytime even though a good lawyer may argue squatters rights or something to that affect.

There is access to cross the river in the deed by vehicle however I am not a fan of spoiling the river and salmon pools (they are threatened already). Plus in winter, crossing a river is not a good idea. I would love to build a bridge and the property would be incredible however my first guess is the cost is upwards of $100,000-200,000 at least and I am probably way off on that. The bridge would have to be approx. 100ft long and be able to support/handle emergency vehicles.

Again this is more of a curious posting rather than something that we would execute on as cost is prohibitive on the bridge I am sure.

 

[Mousefield]

Yes, the movie is excellent, one of my favs. The reason for this post though it to see whether there are any engineers and/or possibly architects on board who have any experience with bridges. This is a long shot but we found a property that is of interest and it made up of the following:

12 acres
300+ft on a salmon river
3 hole golf course
In-ground pool
Very private
Borders major sustained forest privately corporate owned

Issue is the house is on the side of the river where the road is not. Currently there is a foot bridge - check this out:

And there is a 'back road'...more like a trail that leads to the property. This is something that needs maintenance which would not be a chore with a decent tractor however the road crosses the privately owned corporate piece of land. It's been used for decades however it is not deeded and thus access could be retracted anytime even though a good lawyer may argue squatters rights or something to that affect.
There is access to cross the river in the deed by vehicle however I am not a fan of spoiling the river and salmon pools (they are threatened already). Plus in winter, crossing a river is not a good idea. I would love to build a bridge and the property would be incredible however my first guess is the cost is up wards of $100,000-200,000 at least and I am probably way off on that. The bridge would have to be approx. 100ft long and be able to support/handle emergency vehicles.

Again this is more of a curious posting rather than something that we would execute on as cost is prohibitive on the bridge I am sure.

Can't answer about the bridge but we had to fight and spend big bucks (lawyers) to get a right of way through our neighbors property, at the time the 200 acre piece was owned by a big US forest company. Reason we even got that was our place had been an old homestead and had some history and paperwork regarding the road. A neighbor uses the same road but only has a license to use it, it is yearly and can be canceled with 30 days notice. They have looked at selling their home on 10 acres but who'd buy it? So I would be really careful, as you suggest, about having that "(road crosses the privately owned corporate piece of land)" as an access road. We do have, on paper, a public road to our property, however we would have to build the roads and build a bridge over a creek/gully that is 40-50 feet deep and about 200 plus feet across (1/2 million ++?), all would have to be to highway standards so that will never happen..

 

[MichiganIron]

The construction of the bridge is probably not your biggest challenge. I'm not familiar with where you are in Ontario, and how waterways are manged there, but permitting the bridge would probably be a challenge. Since it appears to be an open waterway, permitting for the foundation work could get tricky. There are wildlife issues, sediment run-off and containment, impacts on marine breeding, and possibly an Environmental Impact Study.

The engineering for the bridge needs to respect all the requirements for the waterway. The structural design will be dependent on what you are allowed to do for foundations to determine span lengths, grades, etc. That is what will drive the cost of construction. Then you need to determine what Design Code the bridge will be governed by.

In short, there is a good deal of research and paperwork to get through before you can even get close to budgeting construction cost.

 

[Baby Grand]

Great movie; fantastic looking property.
Be happy in your work! - Colonel Saito.

 

[houstonscott]

Lone Star Bridges (La Grange,TX)

hs

 

[zmjc]

... and possibly an Environmental Impact Study.

Indeed. I'm in Ottawa (eastern Ontario), and I would like the city to install a raised or textured crosswalk at the busy road at the local park - but the city doesn't like doing that, because they have to spend tens of thousands of dollars on environmental assessments before they can do that, thanks to provincial law.

A 10000 sqft building is being built next to my office. The owner says he had to spend around ~$100k on reports before even applying for a building permit.

I don't think a mere mortal could ever dream of having a bridge built...