bridge over creek for tractor

TreeDaddy

Well-Known Member
Looking for advice on how to build......

Creek ~15-20 feet wide, sandy (silt) bottom land that floods maybe twice/year

bill
 
If you can't do a low water bridge which is either gravel or concrete I wouldn't use anything except I beams and bridge planks
 
Building bridges is way too much trouble and expense unless you have a really strong running creek, then it may be necessary. Low water crossing are the way to go, especially for a wet weather creek or something than only runs a few inches of water. I've been building crossings, installing large culverts, (up to 12' in diameter), and having bridges built for oilfield traffic for years, and all I have on my place are low water crossings.

Cut down both banks on a sloping approach to creek bed level. Undercut the creek bed until you hit something solid or semi-solid. This will usually be 18" to 3'. Cut back into the bottoms of both ramps 3'/5'. Fill this cut up to within 6"/8"" of the top with rip-rap rock (8" to 10" rock). Fill the rest of the way with oversize rock ( 3" to 5" rock). Top off the approaches and the creek bed with crushed base material, being careful not to fill it up higher than the original creek bed. It goes without saying that all layers of rock are packed or "walked in" using the dozer or trackhoe. You might have to clean a little trash or mud out from time to time, but there's nothing to rot, and nothing to restrict water flow, and that's a win, win.
 
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Thats funny I was just watching a vid on management advantage and they advertised the ATB so I came back here to give that company name and was just beat to it.We build lots of low water bridges for farm machinery.We simply form and pour concrete,if it's very deep then we lay a couple culverts down and pour over if not then we just let water run over concrete.I know some of these have been there 50 years.I did the wooden bridge 6ft wide for 4 wheeler had fastened down to T post all 4 corners and water came through.I was about to drag out of the timber and back into postion.
 
I had this problem with my land on the river. I had a 10 foot deep creek with a 12 foot width. i found an old gooseneck trailer and sit it over the gap, cut the neck off and now i have a perfect bridge for the tractor and truck. my river has came up 3 times and the bridge was under 5-10 feet of water each time and has not moved. if you can find an old trailer cheap it is the way to go.
 
We built one about 10 years ago that has worked perfectly. The creek is about 20’ wide, banks are 3-4’ high and the water is less than a foot deep except for when it rains. I bought 4 telephone poles and cut them to 25’, we cut the banks back far enough for the 4 poles to fit down in the banks so there wouldn’t be a hump to drive up on, we laid all 4 poles side by side across the creek and then used pressure treated 3” thick X 12” wide X 10’ long lumber as the cross pieces on top of the poles. We put two 8” spikes thru the cross pieces into each pole for a total of 8 spikes per cross piece.
The bridge works like a champ, we drive trucks with a ton of feed in the bed and tractors over it with no worries, we almost took a lime truck over it this year but backed out.
As other said, the power of water is unbelievable. The first super hard rain we had lifted this bridge up, turned it 90 degrees and took it about 300 yds downstream, I’m still in shock over that!!! The work to get that thing back in place was an entire day with several people and 2 large tractors!! Since then we have staked down all 4 corners with some thick angle iron about 4’ long and bolted it to the bridge, we also cabled off the 2 upstream corners with some 1/4” cable and it hasn’t moved again in the last 8-9 years.
 
If you could find a truck scale being demoed or replaced and have the equipment to set move and put it in place, that could be an option as well.
 
As other said, the power of water is unbelievable. The first super hard rain we had lifted this bridge up, turned it 90 degrees and took it about 300 yds downstream, I’m still in shock over that!!! The work to get that thing back in place was an entire day with several people and 2 large tractors!! Since then we have staked down all 4 corners with some thick angle iron about 4’ long and bolted it to the bridge, we also cabled off the 2 upstream corners with some 1/4” cable and it hasn’t moved again in the last 8-9 years.

I was reading waiting for a cable comment! Easier to cable both far side ends so the bridge can swing out of the flow plus not trap debris. That way a single tractor on the near side can pull the bridge back into place after somebody crosses over to attach a cable or chain.
 
We built one about 10 years ago that has worked perfectly. The creek is about 20’ wide, banks are 3-4’ high and the water is less than a foot deep except for when it rains. I bought 4 telephone poles and cut them to 25’, we cut the banks back far enough for the 4 poles to fit down in the banks so there wouldn’t be a hump to drive up on, we laid all 4 poles side by side across the creek and then used pressure treated 3” thick X 12” wide X 10’ long lumber as the cross pieces on top of the poles. We put two 8” spikes thru the cross pieces into each pole for a total of 8 spikes per cross piece.
The bridge works like a champ, we drive trucks with a ton of feed in the bed and tractors over it with no worries, we almost took a lime truck over it this year but backed out.
As other said, the power of water is unbelievable. The first super hard rain we had lifted this bridge up, turned it 90 degrees and took it about 300 yds downstream, I’m still in shock over that!!! The work to get that thing back in place was an entire day with several people and 2 large tractors!! Since then we have staked down all 4 corners with some thick angle iron about 4’ long and bolted it to the bridge, we also cabled off the 2 upstream corners with some 1/4” cable and it hasn’t moved again in the last 8-9 years.

I was reading waiting for a cable comment! Easier to cable both far side ends so the bridge can swing out of the flow plus not trap debris. That way a single tractor on the near side can pull the bridge back into place after somebody crosses over to attach a cable or chain.

Two more ringing endorsements for a low water crossing !:D
 
I was reading waiting for a cable comment! Easier to cable both far side ends so the bridge can swing out of the flow plus not trap debris. That way a single tractor on the near side can pull the bridge back into place after somebody crosses over to attach a cable or chain.
That sounds like it may work in situations where you have a tractor close by and don't use the bridge much but wouldn't work for us, we use the bridge a couple of times a week all year and a tractor is about a 1 hour round trip, definitely wouldn't work. After the initial problem with the bridge it has been trouble free for probably close to 10 years now, it sometimes has a little debris on it after a heavy rain but it doesn't hurt a thing.
 
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