Help with a bridge! Need some good ideas on how to get a bridge in place.

doxford jim · Feb 14, 2015

If you get the one installed and you find it a bit on the narrow side, you can always put another down alongside the first one. That way you will have a real wide "skookum" bridge.

xtn · Feb 16, 2015

That ought to work out alright as long as you hang another bridge 40' long out the backside of the dozer for ballast!

CurlyDave · Feb 16, 2015

doxford jim said:
If you get the one installed and you find it a bit on the narrow side, you can always put another down alongside the first one. That way you will have a real wide "skookum" bridge.

I suspect you will find it very narrow from the start. Don't know how old the OP is, but look up Ted Kennedy and Mary Jo Kopechne who drove off a narrow bridge into the water. Killed her.

Is your life worth $4500?

Sprinklerman · Feb 16, 2015

for the abutments look at things called gabions they are wire mesh baskets you fill with rocks , they stack real nice. What about cutting 2 or 3 large trees , drop them across where the bridge goes and then slide or make rollers and either push or pull it across . Or find a crane and see how much they want to do it in their slow or off time .

vpracer · Feb 16, 2015

The dozer is an older D6C and has a full cage on it. So it's plate steel on the top of the operators station and then it has a huge metal support on the roll cage out on top of the hood area. The idea would be to lift the far end of the bridge and have it sitting on blocks so that the winch/cable doesn't actually have to lift more than an inch or two to clear the supports and then it will just have to hold the end up as it slides out. I don't want the cable, being under weight, having to slide across the steel roof as it has squared off edges. I plan on two grade 80 chains hooked to either side of the far end of the bridge. They will come back up towards the dozer and connect to the end of the cable (cable isn't very long). I found a heavy duty turn buckle supposed to handle 20k lbs so it'll hold cable and two chains.

Boy I had alll this worked out in my head but you guys are making me nervous. My son just started college for civil engineering and I told him if he were further along he could have a great Aggie class project to help build this thing.

I like that bridge laying tank/dozer. Might have to read up on that.

I have thought about trees or pieces of pipe to slide bridge across with but when it gets to the other side, how to you get it off the rollers? My tractor's front end loader won't budge 11.5k lbs and the bridge will need to be set onto the concrete piles. If I hooked that tractor onto the bridge and something went wrong, it would sling that tractor around like a doll. I know the 8' wide will be a little pucker factor but it's mainly for the tractor and ranger so that I can spray weeds and take care of the couple acres stranded over there. I don't plan on driving the truck over there to much.

I guess I should quit being such a cheap -zz and rent a crane to do it right. I might end up that route if my experiment on land fails. Ha. Thanks for the ideas/comments.

Sprinklerman · Feb 16, 2015

Getting it off the rollers ? Air bags , hydraulic jacks , cribbing .

Depmandog · Feb 16, 2015

Shove the bridge partially down into the creek bed. Hook a large snatch block up in a sturdy tree, cable from the D6 to the snatch block to rigging on the end of the bridge that's in the creek. D6 pulls slowly away from creek, lifting end of bridge up. Take tractor and push on rear of bridge. Have a third person directing the show. When the D6 pulls it will lift up and towards the snatch block placement, so if you don't have a suitable tree, you might have to rig cabling from two trees a place the snatch in the middle. If the tractor won't push, might have to use a come-along to help.

Are you planning for any type of support to rest the ends on?

vpracer · Oct 4, 2015

Well I know this is an old post but..........I did it! Got the bridge across the creek. Ha. The water was low which helped. After all the figure and worrying, I decided to put the blade of my dozer on top of one end and push down. I chained the end of the bridge to the blade so that when the dozer moved, it pushed the bridge out over the water. Worked like a champ until the end, when the weight of the bridge pushed me and the dozer up in the air. A little pucker factor! I kept pushing it and it walked up the other side of the creek a little bit. Unchained it. Built a dirt ramp then drove the dozer across to the other side. Very nerved racking, it's about 15 ft fall into the water. Got the other side and chained up the end and used dozer to lift that end up onto the bank. Build another dirt ramp and drove dozer back across. Very entertaining......