DocHeb
Veteran Member
I've read all the "Building a Bridge" posts for the past two years. I know about telephone poles, railroad rails, culverts, and flatbed trailer frames being used as bridges for tractors to drive across. I know about floodplain, erosion, and footing problems. What I don't know is how to size the steel I-beams. The local distributor won't answer my question regarding sizing since he feels that would make him the designer of the bridge, causing him to assume more responsibility than he'd like. He knows I don't know what I'm doing /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif.
What I'm looking for is two steel I-beams to span 16 feet between supports. These would be parallel and about 50" apart, giving the main support directly under my tractor's tires. The rest of the deck would be filled in with 3" thick ash boards - a very neat and low profile bridge. This bridge covers a small creek, and there are really no flooding concerns - but the bridge must "look nice" per the resident aesthetician.
There will be no need for car or truck traffic as this is on a back portion of the property. The question - what size steel beams are required to allow for for the dynamic load of a 5000 lb tractor/implement driving across /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
All suggestions would be accepted as what they are - free advice! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif ( i.e. I wouldn't hold any of the TBN engineers responsible for their design's structural integrity).
What I'm looking for is two steel I-beams to span 16 feet between supports. These would be parallel and about 50" apart, giving the main support directly under my tractor's tires. The rest of the deck would be filled in with 3" thick ash boards - a very neat and low profile bridge. This bridge covers a small creek, and there are really no flooding concerns - but the bridge must "look nice" per the resident aesthetician.
There will be no need for car or truck traffic as this is on a back portion of the property. The question - what size steel beams are required to allow for for the dynamic load of a 5000 lb tractor/implement driving across /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
All suggestions would be accepted as what they are - free advice! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif ( i.e. I wouldn't hold any of the TBN engineers responsible for their design's structural integrity).