Creek crossing suggestions

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Creek crossing suggestions

Posted: 5/24/2017 5:27:17 PM EDT

Does anyone have some advice to share on best ways to maintain access across a small creek?

I currently ford a small mud creek/ditch with my tractor, mostly to bush hog a pasture on the other side, but also for firewood, maintaining food plots, etc. The creek bed under the channel, if you could even call it that, has turned to mush, and it's all I can do to get the tractor through now, even with 4WD.

If I just put in a small culvert (one or two 12" pipes), the water will overtop it during heavy rains and wash any roadbed I build away, but it wouldn't dam up the creek too badly otherwise. In another location I could put a larger pipe, 48" or so, which would carry much more water, but which would still get overtopped two or three times a year.

Posted: 5/24/2017 5:41:13 PM EDT

[#1]

What size tractor?

How wide is the maximum?

Budget?

Without any details, can't go wrong with large culvert and dirt for a creek.

Posted: 5/24/2017 6:17:51 PM EDT

[#2]

I have had the same problem in the past, best cure I found is expensive but works. Put your two 12" tiles down with about a foot between them, fill the gap with stone then put a 24" between them and fill to both banks. So they are stacked -two 12" on bottom and one 24" on top of the for the spring overflow. I used to do it with concrete, now I use mostly plastic, many time construction companies/road builders have cutoffs that I buy cheap or they give them to me, I just have to buy the connectors to join the short pieces.

Posted: 5/24/2017 7:18:12 PM EDT

[#3]

You need a concrete slab on the stream bed.

take the width of the stream x width of tractor and add 2 feet to that dimension. make a Form and pour a slab with wire mesh in it. when cured pull it into place using long pipes to make it easier to pull.

*hint, put the pipes under the forms before you pour it. Put anchors in the concrete, so you have something to attach to.

obviously you will be driving in the water, but you wont be sinking in the mud.
==========================================================

or build a bridge out of 6x6's

Posted: 5/24/2017 8:25:05 PM EDT

[#4]

Quote History

Quoted:

What size tractor? Compact. JD 3038, so not big at all.

How wide is the maximum? Where the ditch is deep, about 6 ft across at the top and about 4 ft deep. Where it's shallow, a continuous stream about 2-3 ft wide and about a foot deep, but a modest rain brings it to nearly 8-12 ft wide and about 2 ft deep. In heavy rain, the ditch overflows along its entire length. My need to cross is never so urgent that I can't wait until things dry out a bit when the water has been high.

Budget? Zero, of course.

I can throw several hundred dollars at this problem, but not thousands.

Without any details, can't go wrong with large culvert and dirt for a creek.

View Quote

Unfortunately there's no indigenous rock and access is by tractor only. Any rock I buy would have to come in one FEL bucket at a time.

I like the submerged slab idea since it wouldn't impede the flow when the water is high. Concrete would have to be mixed on site. How big a slab is feasible to pour with sackrete?

Posted: 5/24/2017 8:53:52 PM EDT

[#5]

Cheapest? Cut two oak logs and nail some ruff cut oak to them. It'll last years!

Posted: 5/24/2017 9:35:32 PM EDT

[#6]

Culvert, large rocks (or concrete chunks, whatever), class 5 on top of that. Should outlast you.

Posted: 5/25/2017 7:09:07 AM EDT

[#7]

I've had the best luck on creek crossings putting in pieces of old sidewalk in the creek bottom. Easy to drive over, nothing to wash out, low maintenance.

Posted: 5/25/2017 8:25:32 AM EDT

[#8]

Span with 3 4" pipes and cross with 2 7/8" reject schedule 40. Make a cattle guard type crossing. Or start welding 55 gallon drums together while robbin creek dirt and piling rocks. Once you get enough material lay down the drums place your rock then pour concrete to make the drums last a bit longer. Then fill with creek dirt. We have started to just form concrete around culverts. It last so much longer.

Posted: 5/28/2017 9:32:32 AM EDT

[#9]

Railroad ties for landing supports and then 6x6s or more ties for crossing timbers. Brace properly and use grade 8 hardware.

Posted: 5/28/2017 3:23:43 PM EDT

[#10]

Quote History

Quoted:
Span with 3 4" pipes and cross with 2 7/8" reject schedule 40. Make a cattle guard type crossing.

View Quote

I like this idea better than a concrete creek bottom. For starters, you never have to drive in the water and secondly it wont offer much resistance in a flood situation, lessening the chance for a washout.

Posted: 5/30/2017 11:49:57 AM EDT

[#11]

i am doing one right now,,or at least i collected the concrete pieces. A friend was tearing up a foundation. I got a bunch of big chunks of concrete. Dig hole wherever you want the crossing, bury them and put a layer of big gravel (#2) on top. Dirt will fill in from the moving water and you can drive across and not sink at all.

Posted: 5/30/2017 8:33:50 PM EDT

[#12]

A co worker needed to span a small creek on his hunting property. He found a guy that wanted a single wide trailer removed from his property, got paid to drag it off. He used the heavy steel frame and running gear and spanned the creek with that after removing all the crap. With the hitch and tires it was easy to move into place. Then he had a local sawmill cut 3" thick cedar boards for the decking. Looked good.

Posted: 5/30/2017 9:12:13 PM EDT

[#13]

Quote History

Quoted:
A co worker needed to span a small creek on his hunting property. He found a guy that wanted a single wide trailer removed from his property, got paid to drag it off. He used the heavy steel frame and running gear and spanned the creek with that after removing all the crap. With the hitch and tires it was easy to move into place. Then he had a local sawmill cut 3" thick cedar boards for the decking. Looked good.

View Quote

You can do the same thing on a smaller scale with an old utility trailer.

I wouldn't even take the wheels off. set it in place, chain to a tree. Next time it floods and gets pushed out of place, you can hook up to it and drag it back.

Posted: 5/30/2017 9:59:02 PM EDT

[#14]

Quote History

Quoted:
i am doing one right now,,or at least i collected the concrete pieces. A friend was tearing up a foundation. I got a bunch of big chunks of concrete. Dig hole wherever you want the crossing, bury them and put a layer of big gravel (#2) on top. Dirt will fill in from the moving water and you can drive across and not sink at all.

View Quote

This solution fits my budget, and I happen to know where I can get my hands on some busted up concrete chunks. Now if I can find some time t get it done. . .

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Creek crossing suggestions

Outdoors » Homestead, Farm & Garden

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