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Let's say you have a creek dividing your property. You need two creek crossings one is 10 feet wide and one is 20 feet wide. The bed creek is 10 feet deep so you cant cross it. What would you do to bridge it economically that would support a full size truck- 6,000 pounds?

My FIL has used old flatbed 18 wheeler trailers to bridge creeks on his property. Worked great.

Neil

Buy a farm truck and a canoe

Sounds crazy, but I was over at a guys’ place a few weeks back, and he had some REALLY long steel i-beams just sitting on the ground. I thought, “Those would be great for making a bridge!”.

They would’ve cost quite a bit if you bought them “new”, but he had scrapped them from an old mobile home. They were 35-40 feet long by 10-12” “tall”....

Guess you could always look for old telephone poles, as well....

Have built a bunch of them using old power poles and 2x6s

I dropper pipe in mine and back filled
That was the quickest and cheapest way I could think of.
I am a welder fabricator and dreamed up all kinds of ways.
I had the job done in a day with a 60 HP Kubota Tractor
Large Culverts would work if you have a lot of water running in them.

I'd probably build something out of mobile home rails or as one suggested - find old flatbed trailer, drag and set. Re-deck.

Nothing's going to be easy or fun really...

Building a bridge is one thing getting it to stay there when it floods is another. Ten feet deep and 20 feet wide is a lot of water.

3 or 4 10foot diam culverts and cover it all with shot rock or rip rap

Then pour ready mix over it. Nothing fancy

In times of high water it will just surcharge and flow over it.


Still going to cost a few thousands of dollars

I'd probably do that as well. You might have to clear debris every so often if it piles up out front.

Ready water flow or flash flood?

We had a branch like that at the deer camp.

Culverts would blow out. Normally branch had about 1-2” of water in it.

But a flash flood could be 10’ deep. It drained several hills and hollows.


Finally i took front end loader and sloped this sides down enough. Took awhile and a bunch of beer.

If you go the culvert route, and it’s an area of heavier water flow, might be worth the trouble to do cast concrete culvert pipe. More hassle to get in place, for sure, but won’t wash away easily like a lightweight metal culvert (“tinhorn”).

Is this a live creek?

I’ll get some pics up of a neighbor’s crossing. It’s survived several FF events over the last 15 years.

He angle cut his pipes so they dont interrupt velocity

I am not sure of your location.

What ever you do you will need pads either rock, block or concrete for your proposed bridge. Is this something that you may need a permit for to cross a water way?
Then you will need some rock up and down stream from your selected crossing to prevent a washout.

1. Old railroad flat car bed would be a excellent choice. You would need a large loader to place it on the set pads.
2. Old railroad bridge decking that becomes available when a railroad replaces a bridge. You would need a large loader to place it on the set pads.
3. truck flat bed trailer. You would need a large loader to place it on the set pads.
4. power line poles you would need 4 to 5 and then the cross members for a decking.

When I was working the first two is what we installed and we needed permits, even for dry creek beds that may see some run off every year.

Or wash it all away, if the water really gets wild'n crazy? If the upstream side isn't properly built to withstand a flash flood, the pipes/fill aren't staying in place. One of the farmer neighbors near my hunting cabin, has had to put the same piece of 3' culvert pipe back in place at least three times over the past several years. Every time there's another Frog Strangler, out if comes again.

I've seen old 40' flat bed trailers used to bridge streams on private properties. Ain't much cheaper or quicker.

Dam it up and drive over the dam if you gotta throw money at it then you get a pond out of the deal too. otherwise a low water crossing works too. Base of a shipping container may work...

A stream the size you are speaking of probably needs a permit from the Corp of Engineers. Don't worry about how to build it, they will tell you if they allow it at all. I have a similar situation in Tennessee and it would cost me around $250,000 just to start. They will require something similar to a highway bridge but built to scale.
Good luck,
Rick

Yup

USGS ‘Blue Line’ stream

NPDES permitting.




They have a hissy fit over just harvesting some gravel from the creek bed.

Years ago they replaced the bridge over the local canyon, 1/4 mile long. The old bridge was 2 lane. They had all those 40' bridge sections sitting there and they didn't know what to do with them. I casually knew a surveyor who knew exactly what to do with them. He bought them all for almost nothing and turned them into farm bridges over canals. He made a killing on them.

Anyway

The OP

Is the water 10ft deep? Or are the banks/channel just 10ft deep.

Something like this on a larger scale might benefit you might not.

It really depend on your velocities, q, Q peakflows and stream sinuosity. Which are coefficients in determining how angry of a conveyance that reach is to serve the immediate watershed there in times of a high intensity event. I.E. your surrounding topography and surface friction.

If you have a hydrologist out there, a civil engineer ‘friend’ or even a forester familiar with BMPs and crossings, that may help, BUT it also my stir up people that will drop a dime on you. About streamwork.



Better to ask for forgiveness after the fact? Probably how my neighbor went ahead with his.