# Bridge to the other side:



## Meadowlark (Jul 19, 2008)

For many years, I've fought this creek which has defied all my attempts at crossing it. Low water crossings out of rock and gravel, low water crossings made with pushing dirt, a bridge made of left over scraps from a County road bridge replacement...all eventually failed as shown.

So I decided enough is enough and set about to build a real bridge capable of many years of use. The ingredients were:

1) 6 8in x 8 in 16 ft trusses
2) 22 3in x 8in x 10 ft crossing members
3) 12 2in x 6in x 8 ft runners
4) 8 inch heavy screws, some sacks of leveling concrete, some hardware to help secure the bridge from run off, helper dog, etc

The only way I had to move those very heavy bridge trusses was with my small bull dozer. Push them up to the creek and using leverage from boards to help raise them in place. 

One at a time, it took most of a working day by myself per truss to get them in place:

I "secured" them in place with heavy ropes and hardware to trees that lined the creek bank....time will tell how secure they are with our next 100 year flood. Six in place...finally

Next step was to add the cross boards and then the runners.


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## Meadowlark (Jul 19, 2008)

It was a lot of hard work but will be well worth it if the finished product survives.


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## Meadowlark (Jul 19, 2008)

As "luck" would have it, Nature delivered the first big test of the bridge last night with a 4-5 inch all night deluge. The water evidently came up and slightly over the bridge level but with the tie downs and weight the bridge stayed in place. The relief culverts (3) I put in place before starting the bridge worked extremely well to help take pressure off the main bridge. All in all I claim a success at this point but larger 100 year floods will most certainly come some day to add more tests.


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## Ducktracker (Aug 1, 2011)

Looks great


Good fishing to all!


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## ChampT22 (Mar 7, 2011)

Nice.


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## shade (Aug 12, 2010)

*bridge*

ML - give us an update next week after all of this rain


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## Meadowlark (Jul 19, 2008)

shade said:


> ML - give us an update next week after all of this rain


Will do. This will be another good test...looking like better test than the first one.


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## Meadowlark (Jul 19, 2008)

Turned out to be just a good soaking rain here...no real test for the bridge. There will likely be a cold front in May stall out and rain itself out over East Texas...happens almost every year....and that will be the next real test.


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## slane (Oct 7, 2012)

Where did you source you timber? What was the width of the original stream? Thanks. Looking to do the same.


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## Meadowlark (Jul 19, 2008)

slane said:


> Where did you source you timber? What was the width of the original stream? Thanks. Looking to do the same.


Red Barn a local lumber yard that specializes in treated stuff was my source...and the nice thing was they delivered. Those trusses are really heavy.

Originally it was deeper and narrower than what I ended up bridging. One of my past failures was to pack big limestone rocks in the bottom with a track hoe and come on top of that with smaller rock for a wet weather crossing...the local construction engineer said it would hold up, but I never really believed him....sure enough that smaller rock disappeared quickly but the big rocks remain still.

So, I would say the original width was about 10 ft.


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## slane (Oct 7, 2012)

Thanks!


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## Aktx (Jan 18, 2017)

One thing for others thinking of constructing the same, a classic and durable solution is to span it with a derelict railroad flat car. Another option might be a junked out flatbed semi trailer.


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## Postman (Oct 11, 2015)

Meadowlark said:


> As "luck" would have it, Nature delivered the first big test of the bridge last night with a 4-5 inch all night deluge. The water evidently came up and slightly over the bridge level but with the tie downs and weight the bridge stayed in place. The relief culverts (3) I put in place before starting the bridge worked extremely well to help take pressure off the main bridge. All in all I claim a success at this point but larger 100 year floods will most certainly come some day to add more tests.


Awesome feat of engineering for one man. Looks amazing. Would be a was time here, we've only had 1.2" rain here in Victoria area all year. Congrats on the win over mother nature.


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