CoveredBridgeBuilder
New member
I've been a long time recipient of much useful information provided by TBN posters. Thank you all. For those amongst you interested in bridges here's one that I designed and built to access my log home which is situated on the other side of a year round creek. This bridge is a functional king truss construction, 30 feet in length, 12 feet wide. All of the timber for the trusses is reclaimed from a locally demolished theater. I had intended to use 6"X12" creosoted timbers for the road joists. Local fish and wildlife dissuaded me of this idea; bad for the brook trout. Eventually I settled on similarly dimensioned glue lams rescued from a nearby school that was upgrading some exterior walkways. The bridge deck itself is rough sawn 3"x9" fir and the bridge skin is composed of random width full 1" rough sawn tamarack (known around here as poor man's cedar).
I'm just a guy who has been building things most of my life, certainly not an engineer. I did do considerable research on covered bridges and in the construction of this I closely followed engineering drawings for two pre war wooden queen truss bridge plans that were commissioned by the state of Tennessee. These were intended for normal highway use, vehicles traveling at up to 50 mph and weighing 40 tons I believe. Anyway the bridge has been in use for a few years now and in spite of my posting signage limiting vehicle weight to 12 tons vehicles of much greater gross weight have crossed it. Incidentally the only agency interested in my project was fish and wildlife. The county authorities told me they had no authority regarding bridges on private land. Lucky me!
If any of you would like more information about this project, construction photos, my original drawings etc. let me know. You'll perhaps notice some bank erosion alongside one of the abutments. It turns out that creeks and their ways are very mercurial things. I've had to beef up both abutments over time. I'd like to think they're finished but last summer beavers took up habitat all along the creek. During the spring flood their dams caused the creek to carve out an alternative bed and the result was a massive washout along the drive leading to the bridge. This summer I repaired the damage and hardened the drive. I've learned I'm not going to win a fight against nature, the best I can do is accommodate it. Thanks for looking at my bridge project.
I'm just a guy who has been building things most of my life, certainly not an engineer. I did do considerable research on covered bridges and in the construction of this I closely followed engineering drawings for two pre war wooden queen truss bridge plans that were commissioned by the state of Tennessee. These were intended for normal highway use, vehicles traveling at up to 50 mph and weighing 40 tons I believe. Anyway the bridge has been in use for a few years now and in spite of my posting signage limiting vehicle weight to 12 tons vehicles of much greater gross weight have crossed it. Incidentally the only agency interested in my project was fish and wildlife. The county authorities told me they had no authority regarding bridges on private land. Lucky me!
If any of you would like more information about this project, construction photos, my original drawings etc. let me know. You'll perhaps notice some bank erosion alongside one of the abutments. It turns out that creeks and their ways are very mercurial things. I've had to beef up both abutments over time. I'd like to think they're finished but last summer beavers took up habitat all along the creek. During the spring flood their dams caused the creek to carve out an alternative bed and the result was a massive washout along the drive leading to the bridge. This summer I repaired the damage and hardened the drive. I've learned I'm not going to win a fight against nature, the best I can do is accommodate it. Thanks for looking at my bridge project.
