Bridge Building....Finally

[Magicman]

 

 
Several years ago a huge Red Oak caved into the creek, caused a swirl, and the result was the entire "far" side of my main bridge gave way and had to be abandoned.  It has been a pain driving ½ mile to get 100 yards.  :-\


 
Last Fall I finally got some more poles so I pulled them across the new bridge site. 


 
Well the rains came and they did this.  Jeff and I both made videos of me trying to arrange the poles so that they could at least be walked across.  Well, no more.


 
We measured the tractor rear wheels to determine the pole spacing and started digging anchor holes.


 
We got them all where we wanted them.


 
This is the anchors that we used.  Four foot 1" rods with the 12" bell and spreader on the business end.  You can see one already set.


 
Post hole digger handles disappearing into the 12" holes.


 
The anchor is (busted) set.


 
Galvanized steel cable is looped from anchor to anchor across the poles.


 
And clamped together.  Now we need decking.  I hopefully have enough 2" White Oak slabs that will serve as decking.


 
The scraper blade will keep the tractor from flipping over backwards, but the bridge site is ¾ mile away.


 
Look Mamma, no hands!!


 
I got there without loosing any boards.


 
Marty, Ben, & Luke finishing the last anchor hole before we can nail the bridge decking on.


 
Four tired soldiers.


 
I went back the next morning, popped a line and trimmed all of the decking.  I had to use some shorter Red Oak boards on each end, but I have already spotted a nice White Oak that will replace them.

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

GREAT, GREAT, GREAT pictures! 

[WV Sawmiller]

   I'm happy for you and envious of the good looking help and tractor. What kind of poles did you use? Around here locust is preferred if you can find a good solid pole. Lots of them not are getting bad spots in the locusts.

    Nice wide boards. The last bridge timbers I cut were 3" thick white oak and my customer and I found out real quick they were too heavy for us to handle those wide ones so we cut them 5-6 inches wide. He used a 2X as a spacer between each plank to let the snow through and also allowed him to get by with less planks.

   Anyway, I trust you will enjoy that new bridge and remember the fun times building it (even if it didn't seem like much fun at the time).

[Magicman]

Those were reclaimed treated utility poles.  Good ones are kinda hard to come by is what took me so long.  I could never find Black Locust large and long enough to serve as bridge stringers.  I have found that 2" decking is perfect for my use and they are spaced ~4" apart.  The spacing allows the water to flow more freely to keep the bridge from becoming a "sail" because high water will be 3' to 4' above the bridge.  That is also the reason for the anchors.  That creek catches over 6 sq miles of watershed. 

[pineywoods]

MM, looks like you needed some ballast on that tractor. where's PC when you needed him ?  ;D

[Ljohnsaw]

Is the bridge just used for walking and the golf cart or do you take your tractor over it as well?  You've got 5 good looking poles, but that is quite a span!

[loggah]

Looking good !!!! I still envy you on your rock free property!! ;D you wont get any post hole digger to work around here!! ;D

[Savannahdan]

Nice! It just makes you want to drive or walk across it.  Inviting.

[red]

Nice well planned project .  I always knew you were a bridge builder with all the Good Work you do .

[Ox]

Loggah, that's exactly what I was thinking and was going to post!  Up here on my little mountain the bedrock is between 6" to a foot and a half down.  Good for setting poles with no settling but that's it.  I'd rather have the soil that they have down south. 

Nice pics, MM and thanks for sharing.  Very nice project.

[Magicman]

Absolutely no rocks here.  The debris that is seen in the creek bed is bricks and chunks of concrete that we hauled in when this creek crossing was a ford.

Is the bridge just used for walking and the golf cart or do you take your tractor over it as well?  You've got 5 good looking poles, but that is quite a span!

Yes, it is a tractor/implement crossing as well.  The three longer poles are 40' class 3 and the two shorter ones are 35' class 4.

[LeeB]

I recon I must have skipped school for both of those classes.  :D Want to elaborate a little on what that means?

[Magicman]

Sorry, the diameter of a pole is designated as "class".  As with wire, the larger the pole, the smaller the class number.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Good looking poles. I wonder where someone who retired from a phone company would find such. Good looking anchors too. :D

   I have a good friend here who retired from the power company and he has a big garden area fenced in to keep the deer out. All his posts are big cut off power poles and there is only one place in the area with a Polecat rig big enough to bore a hole that big and deep and set the posts. 8)

   Enjoy.

[Czech_Made]

Job well done!

Never seen anchors like that before, thanks for posting.

[Magicman]

That type anchors are no longer used which is why they were available to me.  They only use screw anchors here now.

It took a long time for me to get poles that good, and I hauled them on a "Hay Express".   :D

[OlJarhead]

As a guy that works for the phone company I can tell you that we often have yards, or our contractors do, with damaged poles in them.  The trick is to find 40 footers that broke at the base, cut off the broken part and you've got a 30+ foot pole.

Or, get 7 foot sections from the tops to use for fencing. 

The contractors have to dispose of the poles so will often give them away ;)  You haul.

[WV Sawmiller]

It took a long time for me to get poles that good, and I hauled them on a "Hay Express".   :D

   My son, who was 6 at the time, and I put a 600' chain link fence around our church cemetery in Albany GA when I was stationed there. The only thing I had long enough to haul the 21' top rail was on my boat and trailer. After I got it loaded I realized I'd need water for the cement and none at the site so I stopped by the public boat landing on the way, removed the plug (on purpose this time) and backed it in the water till about 1/4 full. Pulled it out, put the plug in and went to the job site. Worked like a charm to mix cement. Push the wheelbarrow under, remove the plug till I had right amount, mix and repeat till done. Then just removed the plug and drove home. Worked fine as an ad hoc water bull.

   I was also in NC when Hurricane Hugo was headed our way and wife called about what to do with the boat. I was tied up on Base and could not leave so told her to put the plug in and fill it with water. Added weight so it would not blow away in the storm and gave us a reservoir of water if needed. Fortunately for us the storm stopped short of us.

[Magicman]

I can get shorter poles fairly easily, but 40+ footers aren't readily available.  These had been used temporarily on a road move so they were fresh.

All three of our bridges are now in good shape and should last many years.  These links are the rebuilding of the two other bridges: First (smaller) Bridge and Other (longer) Bridge

[Kbeitz]

Now your in my department... i have 9 bridges on my home land.
Being that i have a weld shop all my bridges are metal.
Old stop sign post makes great decking.



 



 



 



 



 

[Magicman]

We use stop sign post here also, but they are used to hold up (gasp) stop signs.   

[WV Sawmiller]

Old stop sign post makes great decking.

Kbeitz,

   I am scared to ask where the stop sign posts came from (I am also nervous about driving in PA now). :D

[Kbeitz]

They passed a law here in Pa that we can't use this type of post for our signs anymore. So this type of post is showing up in our junkyards by the thousands 
I can buy them for $1.00 each. That comes to $4.00 per running foot decking.
Not a bad price for something that works so good.




 

[Ada Shaker]

I've heard half of Brookhaven lost power that night, might explain why? :D
If you experience a population growth in the area, you now know why. :

[21incher]

That is a great looking bridge you built. The decking should age over time and make it look like nature  built it.  They just redid the road that I live on and the power company replaced all the poles with new ones that were 10 feet taller to get more clearance under the wires. I guess I should have tried to get some of the old ones that were removed before they got cut up and hauled away because I need a short bridge in my wet area also. Thanks for sharing.