Harden the bottom of the crossing and let the water flow over it.
Bruce
Bruce
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.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).
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.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.
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.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