Bridge to the other side

[Meadowlark]

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

:

 

[Meadowlark]

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:

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

 

[Meadowlark]

Finished product:

 

[oneeye]

Meadowlark, I know you must of had some help building that bridge. Super Job!

 

[Meadowlark]

Meadowlark, I know you must of had some help building that bridge. Super Job!

Yes, my small dozer, my backhoe, and most of all my DeWalt 20v driver. That thing breezed through the 8 inch special screws whereas my Sears 20v couldn't drive a one of them.

As "luck" would have it, Nature delivered the first big test of the bridge last night with a 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. Larger 100 year floods will most certainly come some day to add more tests....but so far so good