Building a tractor bridge, long-ish span

   / Building a tractor bridge, long-ish span #12  
Since your creek bed gets 4' deep, I doubt if you can afford a 4'-6' diameter culverts. The 24" ones are $1000+ for a single 20' stick. (you said you wanted to get your bridge above the water flow line IIRC). And based on the width you have to deal with, I'm not sure this is the best alternative for you. Seems like a great idea on the surface, but I think there are more draw backs than pluses.

And if you don't install enough of them to carry all of the water flow, they will erode/wash out at the first major instance. (ask me how I know).
 
   / Building a tractor bridge, long-ish span #13  
I have on my property a little gully that flows a small amount of water during the winter. I have some I beams that were given to me for free about 25 years ago. My son and I thought it would be fun to drag a couple of the I beams out into the woods to make a bridge across the little gully. We would then connect it into our system of trails. But after reading all the threads about building bridges here on TBN I'm a little worried. The bridge would only be for foot traffic but what I'm worried about is the abutments. Right now any erosion of the sides of the gully is inconsequential. But as soon as I put some concentrated weight on the sides all sorts of bad things can happen. Not much water flows through the gully and when it does flow it is only for a short period of time. But the gully was cut by water sometime in the past and may see high water flows for brief periods. The upshot is that what I thought would be an easy seat of the pants type of job is instead something that is going to require more planning than I thought. It's great that there are so many folks here who have experience with bridge building and related water works stuff. I think that what I'm going to do if I build the bridge is to use "ecology blocks" for the abutments. They are cheap and heavy. Heavy enough to stay in place and provide a good and stable place for the ends of the bridge. And If I go to all the trouble to drag heavy cement ecology blocks into the woods I will make the bridge wide enough to drive my Yanmar YM2310 across. The I beams I have are certainly stout enough to take the load.
Eric
 
   / Building a tractor bridge, long-ish span
  • Thread Starter
#14  
Since your creek bed gets 4' deep, I doubt if you can afford a 4'-6' diameter culverts. The 24" ones are $1000+ for a single 20' stick. (you said you wanted to get your bridge above the water flow line IIRC). And based on the width you have to deal with, I'm not sure this is the best alternative for you. Seems like a great idea on the surface, but I think there are more draw backs than pluses.

And if you don't install enough of them to carry all of the water flow, they will erode/wash out at the first major instance. (ask me how I know).
You are correct on wanting to have the bridge above water line, but based on the width and depth of the erosion over time, I was thinking of doing a pair of 18 or 24" on the bottom, then stacking a few more to create a series of pipes to provide plenty of flow.

For reference, my driveway at the road is state DOT controlled, and about 10 years ago they had my neighbor use a 18" culvert for their driveway, and for mine they spec'd a 24", though I am a bit downhill from the neighbor.
Neighbor on the other side has had their driveway for a few decades, but its a 12 or 15".

I have been out at the property (we do not live there currently, but are building a house) during and after a period of rain where we got about 12-13" in a 24 hour window, and the flow when I was out looking looks like a single 18" or 24" ought to handle without a problem. For reference, back to the east where there is much better erosion control, the dry creek bed is about 2ft wide and less than a foot deep (lots of sun and grass in this area, so it is much more like a small ditch) I can also get a 36" culvert near me for $1200 or so, so I may go that route, then a pair of 12" for overflow, and that should be more than plenty - and easy enough to clean out if I ever have to.
 
   / Building a tractor bridge, long-ish span #15  
You are correct on wanting to have the bridge above water line, but based on the width and depth of the erosion over time, I was thinking of doing a pair of 18 or 24" on the bottom, then stacking a few more to create a series of pipes to provide plenty of flow.

For reference, my driveway at the road is state DOT controlled, and about 10 years ago they had my neighbor use a 18" culvert for their driveway, and for mine they spec'd a 24", though I am a bit downhill from the neighbor.
Neighbor on the other side has had their driveway for a few decades, but its a 12 or 15".

I have been out at the property (we do not live there currently, but are building a house) during and after a period of rain where we got about 12-13" in a 24 hour window, and the flow when I was out looking looks like a single 18" or 24" ought to handle without a problem. For reference, back to the east where there is much better erosion control, the dry creek bed is about 2ft wide and less than a foot deep (lots of sun and grass in this area, so it is much more like a small ditch) I can also get a 36" culvert near me for $1200 or so, so I may go that route, then a pair of 12" for overflow, and that should be more than plenty - and easy enough to clean out if I ever have to.
If you can get the 36" for $1200, I'd jump on that quicker than Tomcat jumps on a cat in heat. AND..the 36" will give you more than twice the compacity for flow than a 24". Be sure to use some hard clay or other material to bury it so it won't erode around the mouth of the culvert at high flow.

Now the question is will it be long enough for you?
 
   / Building a tractor bridge, long-ish span #16  
I put 60 feet of 30 inch plastic culverts in, (like the state uses for roadways) but it lowered the bottom of the ditch too much, and didn't have enough coverage above the culvert to be able to handle the type of weight I wanted to put across it, so at some point I am going to rip it out and bite the bullet and use 24" concrete culverts. However, since I may retire before that happens, I may not need the wide driveway for my company truck, so it all may go away!
David from jax
 
   / Building a tractor bridge, long-ish span #17  
Good day! I have some property with a winding dry/wet weather creek that I need to cross with the tractor. I can cross on the east side of the property, but I dont always want to have to drive the extra distance to get around to the west side of the property.

Here on the western side, the area I want to cross is at the edge of the property the creek starts going north/south, so the crossing area I need to span is closer to 35ft, and is about 4ft deep. The creek bed itself in this area is widely spread, and not very deep, but I want to get up above the whole water shed area and onto solid ground on both sides, and that portion of the property is only cleared about 15ft wide with lots of trees, so I cannot simply move over and cross the creek directly without removing several trees.

The creek bed is dry most of the year (and all summer long), so I have plenty of time to consider options, and I have been kicking around ideas from finding an old semi trailer to drop in place (havent had much luck for less than several thousand bucks), trying to find some old power poles and lay them across, as well as finding some steel I beams to use.

Then the other day an idea struck, and I wanted to get thoughts on it, or what may be the best way to move forward.

What about using pallet racking shelves? I can dig and pour some "footings" out of concrete, sinking the supports into those a bit every 10-12 ft, and then get shelf supports (ones I have been looking at are 144", 4400 or 5700lb per pair.

If I did this with supports every 12 ft for the "uprights", cut off at the height of the bridge, then ran two parallel about 2 ft apart (assuming 3ft wide racking), that would give me a ~8ft wide bridge, with 4 support beams spaced out, and should have a theoretical load of about 11k lbs. Then top with material to make it a solid bridge, and use it to cross with a tractor (about 5klbs with loader and brush hog or box blade, etc).

So what are the thoughts, ideas, or suggestions on how to do this, or what will or wont work with the above ideas?

Best,

Matt
I know some fellows that took a free mobile home and stripped the home to the metal underframe. The men then put a treated wood deck back over the frame.

The Twin I Beams can support a mobile home so it will support whatever they drive across.
 
   / Building a tractor bridge, long-ish span #18  
I have a area between two lakes - I call it the moat. It is about 800 feet long by 75 feet wide. At one time I considered a bridge. Then I looked at costs. The area where I cross the moat can get 4+ feet deep in the spring.
The moat is a grass filled, boggy area. Water seeps from one lake to the other. Any "flow" is almost zero.

SO..... I hardened and raised the bottom at the point of crossing. It took a while but now I can cross and the water will be an absolute max of 1 1/2 to 2 feet deep.

Fortunately - the water flow in the moat is exceedingly slow. Erosion is never a concern. Flagged T-145 fence posts mark this crossing.

Never any concerns about tractor weight. Nothing to rot out. Nothing to plug up and cause erosion and wash outs.

I used rock - available on my property.
 
   / Building a tractor bridge, long-ish span #19  
An old flat bed trailer works great. I cut the rear axle off of one, chained the rear bumper of the trailer to the dozer blade, pushed down on the rear of trailer which lifted the front. Then wheeled it over the creek bed, cantilevering the king pin side. Once over the creek I lowered the kingpin side to the high ground on the other side of the creek and pushed it till the wheels feel in to the creek bed. Then cut the remaining axle off the trailer (retrieved it) and mounded dirt up for a transition on both sides. the creek was 32 feet across, so plenty of trailer on the high ground on both ends. I came back later and put guard rails up using the stake pockets on the trailer. It was a quick install and perfect for small tractors (100hp and less) and utvs.
 
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