Bridge Project Status

[centex]

I started a post a year ago about a bridge project. The project is finally close to completion so I thought I would document it. I will start by showing some before pictures followed by a few progress pictures and finally some after pictures.

This first picture is looking West to East across a big washout at the bridge. The washout is 50' across and 6 to 8 feet deep.

 

[centex]

This is a view from the other direction. The bridge is located behind the clump of trees and brush at the top of the photo. There is a big bowl shaped washout that is 8 feet deep starting a the rocks in the foreground. I had moved many loaders full of rocks in to start filling in the washout.

 

[centex]

This is the same view as the last but with the brush cleared. It is about 125 feet from the start of the rocks in the nearest washout to the bank on the other side of the creek.

 

[centex]

The bridge had a concrete wall that someone had built in front of it many years before in order to dam up the creek behind it. This was the reason that the bridge had washed out. I got much good advice on how to remove the wall from this forum.

 

[centex]

This is another view of the wall. It was 20 feet wide, 8 feet tall, and 1 foot thick. I demolished it using a much modified electric jack hammer that I bought from Harbor Freight for $400 and then had to spend another $400 to replace the motor with the one from the Bosch tool that they copied. I could find no way to use the tractor to help with this part of the job.

 

[centex]

This is the same view after I had competed about half the demolition work. I bought some pump jacks to use for a scaffold. They were well worth their cost and were the only practical way to get a scaffold next to the bridge due to the very uneven bottom of the creek.

 

[centex]

In this view the washout on the east side of the bridge has been filled in. I dug and moved about 90 cubic yards of fill to compete this side and moved many very large bolders using the tractor. The bolders are to the right in the picture.

 

[centex]

This is a view when I had gotten about half way across the washout on the west side of the bridge. This side required that I dig and move about 400 cubic yards of fill.

 

[centex]

This is the picture that is missing from the last post.

 

[centex]

In this picture I had finally bridged the washout and could drive the tractor across the bridge. I had only moved about half the fill needed to finish this side; however.

 

[centex]

This is the view from the same spot as the first picture in this series and after I had moved approximately 500 cubic yards of dirt and too many large rocks to count. All that is left to do is to bring in some road base, and crushed gravel and too plant grass to control errosion. I tried to plant rye grass in the late fall but we had a drought all winter and it did not grow.

 

[centex]

This is a downstream view of the completed bridge. While the bridge was used as a dam, the water flowing over it filled in the underside of the bridge with sand and dirt so I had to dig that out. I had to do this mostly by hand as I had 6 feet of head room under the bridge and the sand was full of large roots from the trees that had grown up on the downsteam side. I used the tractor to haul out the dirt and to help pull the roots.

 

[centex]

This is the last picture and it is from the same viewpoint as the 5th picture.

 

[fishman]

Don, removing that concrete wall looks like it took a LOT of work. The finished product looks great. Hope we don't get a 20 incher like a few years back and wipe it out.

You are a persistent son-of-a-gun that's for sure! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[BillG_in_TX]

Don,

That was quite a project! And it looks great now that it's finished.

As I recall, you're on North Rocky Creek near where it crosses US183, right? I noticed the last time I went down that stretch of road that there is quite a drop in elevation going down to that creek crossing. I'll bet you get a LOT of water moving through there in the springtime. It's no wonder you had such a big washout problem. Is that an old highway bridge?

 

[raynman]

Don,

Great Job, it looks great! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[RobS]

That's got to the be most impressive TBN bridge so far. Nice work and quite a lot of it! What was the bridge taken out of service previously?

Thanks for all the pictures /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Nasty135]

WOW that is quite a JOB!! But it has to be worth it!!! And not too mention the feeling of accomplishment!!! Being able to access your property from across an abandon Concrete bridge ,AWSOME JOB!! and well done... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

I have a natural stream feeding through my property that has 4'-5' high banks on either side feeding into a 2 acre community pond and am considering damning about 3' with 2 overflow drains at different levels and building a bridge to cross over it ?? It would be a fun project!! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

Once again great job!!!

 

[MarkV]

Don my dang back hurts just looking at and imagining all the work you went through with that project. Thanks for posting the follow up photo's. I remember the original discussion and have wondered if you were able to get that wall out. Amazing job!

MarkV

 

[centex]

"As I recall, you're on North Rocky Creek near where it crosses US183, right? "

Yes I am right there where it crosses. In the early 1960's they widened and straightened 183 and built the current bridge. The old bridge on my property was abandoned by the state in 1969 by then Governor Preston Smith (remember him?) and the person who owned the land at that time walled up the bridge to dam up the creek. The creek usually flows at a good pace for 9-10 months a year and in good years it flows all year. It ran good for two years but last year we had a severe drought and it did not rain much at all from last Feb. to this Feb and the creek dried up last July and did not start flowing again until last Monday. The creek takes a U-turn just past my property so when it floods it backs up on my land. It is usually not too bad but every now and again we get an 8 or 9 inch rain and it floods bad. I think the reason for the major washouts though was the constant 9-12 month steady flow of the water over the dam/bridge. Once it starts washing out around the concrete it is just a matter of time until it gets bad. Especially in the Spring when the creek runs fast. The occasional flood just makes it worse. I found big chunks of asphalt from the road a couple of hundred feet downstream so it is clear that the floods do a lot a quick damage. On the positive side the erosion of the creek sides unearthed some prehistoric bones and after just a week of the creek flowing there are already fish in it. They were holding in srping fed holes upstream. I have to buy some more fish soon so I can get back to my main love of fly fishing.