PuckNPirate
New member
I bought some property about 2 years ago that is accessed by crossing a creek. At the time when I was purchasing I wasnt thinking about how much it was going to cost to put in a culvert large enough for this size creek. As time went on I realized that I was going to have to do something. After getting a few quotes from site guys to put in a culvert i started researching the option of building my own bridge. After searching and searching on the internet and reading forums i figured i would use 48' flatbed trailers. My creek is approx 12' at water level and about 30' wide at ground level. I purchased my first flatbed for $3k including delivery and it included 1/4" steel plate to cover the existing rotting deck that the guy had laying around. After spending hours torching off landing gear and other items; I poured 6' x 2' x 2' footings on either side of the bank with about 4" of gravel below them for compaction and to help distribute the weight. I welded up a rebar cage and embeded 1" thick steel plate for the trailer beams to sit on. After the footings were poured we used a mid size track-hoe to pull the trailer across and set in place. The trailer is 102" wide. I was thinking this is going to be wide enough but not the case after we decided to build our house. A year later I am installing yet a second 48' x 102" trailer. With experience now the second moved a lot faster. The deck was completely rotten on this trailer and it didnt come with any steel so I lucked out and traded a friend the axel (tires and all) for 2-1/4" x 16' red oak deck boards. The answer is yes to your question "are they heavy?". I figured this would hold any load, dump truck, concrete truck, etc.... The trailer beams below are at 1' OC. For the footings on the second bridge i used concrete waste blocks or "bunk blocks" which are 5' long and 30" x 30". They weight about 4000lb each. I used a 6000lb lull to set them. The awesome part about the bunk blocks is they only cost $20 each from your local concrete plant. The only draw back to them are is you have to have a way to haul them and a way to unload them once they arrive.
I am attaching a couple photo's that i have on the computer now and I will post the others later. If you are thinking about building a bridge your not crazy. When i started telling people i was going to build a bridge they looked at me like i was crazy. Sometimes i felt a little crazy but it turned out great. I couldn't be any happier. I plan on taking the steel deck up on the other trailer and putting wood down like the other next year but for now it serves its purpose. Hope this is helpful if you are thinking of building a bridge. I did read a few post on tractorbynet before building mine and it was encouraging to know other people are out there doing the same thing, having the same vision, going through the same problems.
I am attaching a couple photo's that i have on the computer now and I will post the others later. If you are thinking about building a bridge your not crazy. When i started telling people i was going to build a bridge they looked at me like i was crazy. Sometimes i felt a little crazy but it turned out great. I couldn't be any happier. I plan on taking the steel deck up on the other trailer and putting wood down like the other next year but for now it serves its purpose. Hope this is helpful if you are thinking of building a bridge. I did read a few post on tractorbynet before building mine and it was encouraging to know other people are out there doing the same thing, having the same vision, going through the same problems.
