build a bridge over small creek about 50 feet or so, suggestions? foot bridge or atv use is ok - Page 1

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - build a bridge over small creek about 50 feet or so, suggestions? foot bridge or atv use is ok

Posted: 2/20/2010 12:37:24 PM EDT

I need advice on how to build a bridge down at my deer camp over a small creek. There is an old railroad crossing there so that is the location I want to build it. Water is 5 or 6 feet deep most of the time but it will dry up in a drought or get deeper in a flood situation. A foot bridge or one for an atv would be ok to save money and time. What are your suggestions?
Edited to add, we currently just cross it in a boat and keep a rope tied across it and just pull ourselves across.

Posted: 2/20/2010 12:39:42 PM EDT

[#1]

50 feet goes beyond 'small'.

The bridge I built a few years back over our creek was 20'. The 20' CCA poles I bought for it were BARELY long enough. 50' is beyond the realm of bubba carpentry, unless you can sink some pilings into the creek bed.

Edit: BUt if you want a cheap bridge, go to a junkyard and see if you can buy the boom off a crane or dragline - you'll need two - and use those as rails.

Posted: 2/20/2010 12:39:44 PM EDT

[#2]

Photos would help, lot go into bridge design and most of it does with ramps in and out and support.

Posted: 2/20/2010 12:42:05 PM EDT

[#3]

Photos would help, lot go into bridge design and most of it does with ramps in and out and support.

Posted: 2/20/2010 12:42:10 PM EDT

[#4]

Swinging bridge, I did one several years back as my eagle scout project.

Posted: 2/20/2010 12:43:37 PM EDT

[#5]

A lot of people around here use an old flatbed train car with all the running gear removed.

Posted: 2/20/2010 12:48:01 PM EDT

[#6]

One of these?

Posted: 2/20/2010 12:49:29 PM EDT

[#7]

Uhm, 50 feet isn't an easy task especially if you want ATV access.

Things to consider:

Materials, type of soil under the water, bedrock, erosion rates for the creekbed and walls, saturation rates for both of those, cost of pouring concrete to account for those two factors, and a bunch of other stuff that a civil engineer would know.

The math for the bridge is pretty easy and could be scripted into matlab for optimization and FEA pretty easily as truss structures are easy to analyze.

Posted: 2/20/2010 12:49:41 PM EDT

[#8]

Just a FYI, it sounds like the creek may be big enough to be considered "Waters of the US" and under the jurisdiction of the US Corps of Engineers. Does it ever dry up? If no, it probably is.

A portion of the land around it may include floodplain - Doing any work within the floodplain, including building a bridge without proper permits, is bad ju-ju.

Proceed with caution.

Posted: 2/20/2010 12:51:35 PM EDT

[#9]

look for a old rail car, use the bottom of it. I have one on my place that's a flat bottom rail car just laid across the river.

cheap to find, usually free-expensive to move

Posted: 2/20/2010 12:52:42 PM EDT

[#10]

I've seen bridges made of old crane booms. Not the telescoping kind.

Posted: 2/20/2010 12:57:30 PM EDT

[#11]

You could buy an old 18 wheeler trailer and lay across the creek.

Posted: 2/20/2010 12:57:44 PM EDT

[#12]

Posted: 2/20/2010 12:58:43 PM EDT

[#13]

Just build a ramp and jump that sucker!

Posted: 2/20/2010 12:58:53 PM EDT

[#14]

Here's an 80 ft option

Posted: 2/20/2010 12:59:55 PM EDT

[#15]

Use a shipping container and then would have a covered bridge.

eta: might need two.

Posted: 2/20/2010 1:00:50 PM EDT

[#16]

Quoted:
You could buy an old 18 wheeler trailer and lay across the creek.

That would give him 18" of bank overlap on a 50 " creek (standard trailers are 53') Kinda on the skimpy side IMHO

Really would depend on how close to 50' his creek really was

Posted: 2/20/2010 1:01:10 PM EDT

[#17]

50 ft is a big bridge.

Posted: 2/20/2010 1:03:29 PM EDT

[#18]

Buy a Bailey Bridge. Surplus.

Posted: 2/20/2010 1:05:52 PM EDT

[#19]

http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/stone77.html

Posted: 2/20/2010 1:11:36 PM EDT

[#20]

Quoted:

Quoted:
You could buy an old 18 wheeler trailer and lay across the creek.

That would give him 18" of bank overlap on a 50 " creek (standard trailers are 53') Kinda on the skimpy side IMHO

Really would depend on how close to 50' his creek really was

Standard flatbed trailers are 48'.

Posted: 2/20/2010 1:12:56 PM EDT

[#21]

I use to work for a company that made loggging road bridge.

2 or 3 WWF's with nelson studs groups, then they would bring in a load of precast concrete panels with holes in them to match up to the nelson stud groups, once the panels were places, they'd fill the holes with grout.

If the embankments were already done before the beams arrived, bridge would be having traffic in 3-4 days.

Posted: 2/20/2010 1:17:10 PM EDT

[#22]

timber mats

Posted: 2/20/2010 1:58:45 PM EDT

[#23]

OK! I'll try to actually measure the creek this week.

Posted: 2/20/2010 2:00:11 PM EDT

[#24]

Quoted:

Quoted:
You could buy an old 18 wheeler trailer and lay across the creek.

That would give him 18" of bank overlap on a 50 " creek (standard trailers are 53') Kinda on the skimpy side IMHO

Really would depend on how close to 50' his creek really was

Standard flatbed trailers are 48'.

I was thinking he could go redneck historical and put up a covered bridge

Posted: 2/20/2010 2:13:49 PM EDT

[#25]

Quoted:

Quoted:
You could buy an old 18 wheeler trailer and lay across the creek.

That would give him 18" of bank overlap on a 50 " creek (standard trailers are 53') Kinda on the skimpy side IMHO

Really would depend on how close to 50' his creek really was

Standard flatbed trailers are 48'.

I was thinking he could go redneck historical and put up a covered bridge

OK, that made me

Posted: 2/20/2010 2:35:00 PM EDT

[#26]

Quoted:
Buy a Bailey Bridge. Surplus.

+1 second reference to a bailey bridge I've seen today

Posted: 2/20/2010 4:20:48 PM EDT

[#27]

It would be easier to make your ATV float!

Posted: 2/20/2010 4:35:00 PM EDT

[#28]

How about a number of culvert pipes laid side by side, and covered with rock?

Posted: 2/20/2010 4:38:13 PM EDT

[#29]

Since you don't know what your doing(neither would I) videotape the whole process. That way you can offset the materials cost with your winnings from America's Funniest Video's.

Posted: 2/20/2010 4:43:58 PM EDT

[#30]

Posted: 2/20/2010 4:48:31 PM EDT

[#31]

old rail cars and big i-beams

Posted: 2/20/2010 5:12:38 PM EDT

[#32]

here is a way to build one using lumber not sure if you could get 50 feet but worth a shot

http://216.104.173.251/home.html

Posted: 2/20/2010 5:16:48 PM EDT

[#33]

Step 1: Set up a POW camp.....

Posted: 2/20/2010 5:17:39 PM EDT

[#34]

I saw a bridge at a boy scout camp in VA in 1980. It was rope, 2x4's and plastic 30-50 gal drums. The way they set it up was so it had some play to allow for the rise and fall of the river. It was a little shaky but more than easy to cross. It would easily support 4-5 people at a time and was over 50 ft long.