Bridge question

Renze · Feb 10, 2020

Two years ago i filed the building permit for a 60 ton bridge over a canal for a friend of mine, at the waterways council. Even though he will only use it to reach a pasture on the other side, they wanted a permit.

I calculated the load capacity of a prefab inverted T shaped retaining walk of 500 euro a piece, it could handle the vertical load by a margin of 5. Then i calculated we needed 4 IPE 400 beams, yet the demo contractor selling used I beams only wanted to sell all 9 of them, so he ended up putting them 6 inch apart and welding flat strip between them, lengthwise.
I took generic (worst case) footing ground pressure ratings for our area, and with the 2 by 4 yard footing of the cheap prefab retaining wall section, again exceeded the margin by far.

Water council agreed, so he built a bridge for 1000 euro bridgeheads, 2000 euro steel and 120 euro engineers fee

sarti · Feb 10, 2020

I emailed a wooden bridge co. and told them I wanted an 8'wide with 16'span bridge that would support 8000lbs
and they said I would need 6--6 x 12 SYP treated beams for this

tractorcrazy · Feb 20, 2020

Loggers cut a road up over a hill in my woods at the bottom is a creek they never used a culvert just filled it in .the creek dries up in the summer well that fall when the rains started it washed out. It was about eight foot deep by ten foot across I bought a used culvert I layed it in the bottom and then started laying logs next to it with my grapple then threw in dirt then more logs then more dirt until it was at the desired height works really well and pretty safe to cross. The logs were pretty much just a filler it would of took a lot of dirt if it wasn't for the logs. Thanks Rick

pmsmechanic · Feb 20, 2020

I live in irrigation country with water being delivered by canals. When a farmer want to cross the canal with his center pivot he has to install a bridge for every tower that crosses the canal. Some of the more simple effective bridges I have seen are just salvaged truck frames. They are already fastened together at the right width for traffic. They aren't hard to clean up. The frames can usually be bought for scrap prices which makes for a very reasonably priced bridge. It's not hard to make a nice looking bridge for very little outlay in time and money.

Deere Dude · Feb 20, 2020

sarti said:
I emailed a wooden bridge co. and told them I wanted an 8'wide with 16'span bridge that would support 8000lbs
and they said I would need 6--6 x 12 SYP treated beams for this

A friend bought a 8' fuel storage tank and cut the ends off and rolled it in the watershed. Seems to work for home use. I think he paid $500 for it. Then just add dirt for the run on.