Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Redneck Bridge

THIS is how I'd do it too... add a 'run-around on the end of it made of concrete and you are set.

Helped a friend build a bridge across a creek that had already washed out 2 5' culverts placed side by side. This creek also took out a bridge made by laying telephone poles across the span and had a wooden trailer deck on top. This creek will get 12' deep during hard rains and floods out of the banks. The banks are about 8' high and the span is about 12'.

We put 3 2 3/8" drill pipe across the span and drove 5' rebar into the ground and then bent it over the pipes, on each end. Then we welded an old 20' trailer frame on the pipes. On top of that we welded guardrail metal that he had acquired from the hwy. dept when they tore out an old wooden bridge. So far it's still in place and has survived several floods, including being underwater by several feet.

He drives a 806 International with a 15' batwing across it without a problem. I've driven his F250 diesel across it without any problems.

Yeah, the channel is 10 feet deep (straight vertical sides) with only a couple inches of water in it normally except during flash floods. There is a lot of debris in the channel.

Defiantly would have to tie it off somehow for the flash floods. tried digging out the banks a few years ago and the next flood washed it out. soil is sandy and erodes badly

culvert with dirt over it is definitely the easiest and cheapest but would wash out. thought about the old trailer frame for a span placing it a few feet above grade so you just have to replace the entry/exit dirt to the span after a flood.

the shipping container in the channel is an interesting idea. might be heavy enough not to move in floods with some rock around it.


i think railroad cross ties would be too short to span.

slummys's neighbors method might work too but the banks would be fairly steep in and out. Could rent a dozer and make short work of it every year or two.

Can you still get a flat car?

If the streams have a lot of debris you don't want numerous small pipes as they will catch drift and be a constant maintenance nightmare and eventually get blown out in a large enough storm event. It sounds as if the cheapest may be old flatbed trailers but you would need to either anchor them permanently into concrete end bents or cable them off to something fixed so they aren't lost and then be prepared to fix the approaches. There are ways to armor banks with large boulders as we do it all the time but we have excavators to place them. Cheap and easy aren't usually in the vocabulary when it comes to permanent bridges unfortunately, especially if you have to source materials.

Sandy soils compound the issue of trying to make it permanent on the cheap.

Our county has 6-10 of these “low water crossings” that look just like slum’s picture on county maintained roads. To best to my knowledge, they all survived 10” of rain in 24 hours and the 500 year flood event that followed. Daily usage by passenger vehicles, light trucks, farm equipment and school buses. They can be built with much steeper approaches than shown in the picture.

Our county has been using the round tank sections of rail cars with the ends cut off. They set them in place and then backfill and rip rap, and so far they are all holding up well.

My dad built a really nice one in almost the exact same kind of situation out of a railroad flat car. He got it in place with a log loader and a D-8 Cat. It was funny. One of the guys running the Cat turned it over in the creek. I used to have some pics of the D-8 laying on its side in the bottom of the creek. They got it out with another D-8 and a big track hoe.

Took a little going back and perfecting, but since he got it right, it has survived being completely underwater at least half a dozen times.

Building a proper runaround is the key. Rock the run around good and just fix as needed. We've found this to be the cheapest option.

Build a couple Dukes of Hazard berms and you'll be golden........

We haul a lot of timber across creeks. Just dump a few loads of #4 or oversize rock and drive on through waste deep water. I didn't think that was the advice the OP was looking for.

"ABUTMENTS" these support a bridge/deck on each side. Without proper abutments the material to span between the two is useless. The material used in the approaches to the bridge abutments is also very important. If you build something and it fails and dams up the waterway, floods the back water then bursts loose you will have s--t to pay maybe even jail time if there is loss of life. The power of water is amazing.

Flatbed railroad car

Yep
www.therailmart.com

I have to cross a creek just as you described to get to my house ( driveway) I had a friend come in with a loader and cut the creek banks on both sides ( ramped down to creek bottom level ) then I waited until the dry season and cut into the creek bed and poured a slab across the creek bed and up the ramped banks ( 25rt each side ) now normal waterflow is not disrupted and no trash buildup. just make sure on the upstream side to cut good and deep when pouring crete so the water will not be able to get under the slab. in my situation we went about 4ft deep 2ft wide on the upstream side just to be safe. if water gets to deep to cross it usually goes down within about a hour. even in heavy rains. on the backside of my place we built a bridge with telephone poles drove 4in pipe in the ground about 6ft deep on each corner and cabled to the bridge. its been under water a few times with no damage . good luck . whatever you do do it good the first time and it will serve you .

This is what most people do around here. My father had one for years. Two telephone poles and rough cut, full dimension 2"x 6" oak planks. Most people would burry the ends of the poles into the ground so that the planks are flush to the ground. It'll support a medium sized tractor or a pickup.

My dad sawed the timbers for a bridge that serves about 10 homes.
He died in 72, the bridge is still in use. Must have been done right.

He sawed some for a paved township road too.
Milk trucks crossed it every other day.
They rebuilt the road about 10 years ago,
Nothing wrong with the bridge, but "No tax dollars for
a road that don't meet state specs".

So, around $100k to span 10 feet!

Use what you have on hand.

Do like the Loggahs due.

Fill in with saplings and brush tops and dirt.

Slum's got it. I was going to say a couple of 24" tinhorns and a couple of loads of rock. Water flow rate will dictate weather or not you need to pour concrete to hold the rocks in place, which you probably will need to do.