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.

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.

I've seen quite a lot of those along the streams around here. I'm guessing that they buy them from a big industrial supplier. (?)

Oh yeah, the "Redneck Bridge"... Brings a tear to my eye when I read it to this day... Shoot... No, that's the OTHER one...
nevermind

This👍👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻

We have used Locust logs in the past. You can drive a ready mix truck across a bridge made with those things.

OP .... it would depend entirely upon what the bank material is made of .... assuming that at that depth there must be mostly rock on both sides of the creek and also woukd need to know of any potential flooding issues, is there a way to anchor the runners on both sides, how long-lasting must this bridge me, etc., etc., etc ....

Ask an engineer out there and get his/her opinion

I’d rent a big traxcavator not a dozier

I'd go big used culvert pipes, and rocks.

Had a 3-1/2' foot main culvert and two 2' "overflow" culverts on my creek.

After loosing my road three times we put in a 6' culvert and a 3' "overflow" culvert.

Haven't had any problems since. Better too big than too small.

My neighbor upstream used RR flatcar and it worked great also.

Virgil B.

economically is the kicker, especially for the 20' span. the 10 you might get away with using an old single wide trailer frame and boxing and otherwise reinforcing the frame rails and laying planks across. for the banks, i'd go back about 5 foot on either side and pour a solid abutment with welded and bolted brackets. i would say the 20 would require some engineering to be safe for the weight you're talking. probably the 10 as well. quick google-fu turns up a lot of DIY info on loading, spans, etc. if i was driving my $40k truck across, i'd go big or go home.

and as for putting a pipe in, if the banks are 10', i'll bet that water gets ripping through there. i know a crossing like that where the owners have tried one pipe, two pipes, etc and it would last until the next big gully washer. they ended up with an engineered span. no idea of the cost but i'm sure it was big. and being in the woods, it catches logs and has washed around at least once that i know of. left the bridge and abutments standing free with a big old ditch along one side. pretty easy fix but a PITA.

If you go with a wood bridge, cable it to an anchor.

What happened to the used culvert option?

Turbo that tractor!