Bought some property that is split in half by a drainage creek. It has an old bridge made up of 4x4s as the planks and three 6x6s as the spans. Problem is there aren’t any piles to support it underneath. I have either 6x6s or old telephone poles. What would you use to support the weight of at least a UTV (approx 2,000 lbs)?
Dog tax paid.
by mancy_reagan
6 Comments
Either will work but I’d go with the telephone poles personally. What’s the span?
If it’s possible I would install a drainage culvert and fill in around it with the proper rock to drive over. Then you won’t have the seasonal issues you will keep having with this setup. Whatever you do, it will need more upkeep and more often with the current setup. I don’t know where you are but where I am, wood just doesn’t last as long as one would hope. Good luck!
Screw it, go big! Check if somebody is disposing of a large amount of bricks, get the mortar and have fun practicing bricklaying.
Time consuming? Sure! But the satisfaction of having a tiny brick laid bridge would be immeasurable. Of course I’m half joking, you could do concrete poured columns if you have some timber to make a form. But the bricks man, they look nice, I’m telling you 😉
I’d excavate, drop a box culvert in, and backfill. Wooden bridges end up being problems if there is even minor flooding.
You’ve already got a trench there under the bridge, so instead of setting posts, I’d pour a concrete footer. I’d worry about even the telephone poles sinking into the creek bottom over time.
Then set a chunk of telephone pole on the concrete for a support. Instead of just putting a single pole up to your bridge supports, make it a “T” with a section of telephone pole on top flattened off to spread the support out across about 3’ of width. You can pre build this and just stand it up under your span and then drill and lag bolt it from underneath. To keep the base from moving, you could form a depression in the concrete the size of your poles to act as a socket for them to fit into.
Its impossible to says from your pictures and info provided. What is the span and width? What is the diameter of the telephone poles? What type of wood are you using?
The weight of the 4×4″ deck boards must be included in span calculations. So 2000 lbs may be underestimating for an unloaded UTV with one American.
It looks like the span is more than 10′ which is way too much for 6″ beams. A 12×2″ will span and hold a lot more than a 6×6″. Beam height is the important factor not the cross section area.
Can’t see the foundation from the pictures. If any structural wood is contacting dirt then you should rebuild it as it will rot out and fail.