Replies

1. 
   Guest_ | Feb 21, 1999 09:31am | #1

   *
   Bridge Experience?

   Jack : )

2. 
   Fred_Matthews | Feb 21, 1999 11:43am | #2

   *
   Get an engineer first. And if you are truly bridging a river or even a minor stream, this falls under the jurisdiction of the US Army Corps of Engineers (in addition to whatever local permiting authorities and/or presiding commissions). Once you have your engineered plans, hydrologic studies, EIS/EIR (if required), the whole project will then need to pass their scrutiny (the fun really starts here).Once you have these steps sucessfully completed (and assuming you have any $ and sanity left), then find your contractor w/,as ADJ said, "bridge experience".

3. 
   Guest_ | Feb 22, 1999 08:02am | #3

   *
   I have no experience in this field, but an electrician told me a bridge story of people he knew. Seems they had a bridge that was washed out every couple years by a small stream that flooded. The son decided he had had enough of replacing the bridge so he built a very stout bridge. It worked and the bridge held in the next flood. Problem is it became a dam and flooded the house and left the property strewen with boulders and debris.

   My, worth next to nothing adise, is get an engineer. I have mostly little use for them, but this is pretty specialized stuff.

1. 
   Guest_ | Feb 23, 1999 12:47am | #4

   *40' is a significant span. I can't offer any advice on the foundation or engineering, however, one technique that you may find helpful and within reasonable cost, is to use used railroad flat cars for the bridge structure. I worked on a bridge that used two flat cars place end to end and supported in the middle with columns. I installed barriers on the sides of this bridge. You may be able to span 40' with a single car. You will still need an engineer. In California you would need a contractor with an A license, i.e. a general engineering contractor.

1. 
   Guest_ | Feb 23, 1999 04:21am | #5

   *We have a couple of sub-urbs here where the yuppies have had bridges built to their properties.I hate to say it but the bridges are too narrow for the fire trucks to cross. Best Wishes , Stephen

1. 
   Guest_ | Feb 24, 1999 12:22am | #6

   *Brian:We work with the COE all the time...the permitting part is a huge bureaucratic headache. Hopefully your "stream" is on private land and hydraulic data can show that erecting your bridge will not impact the hydrology downstream. My recommendation is to design something that requires no piers in the stream bed, only abutments. I've seen a few old railroad flatcars used as bridges....all for crossing tractors on farm ground. Finding one and getting it load rated is probably the hard part. Good Luck and take Freds advice...hire an engineer.Dave

1. 
   Guest_ | Feb 24, 1999 09:06am | #7

   *Not to be helpful, but this thread reminds me of a bridge I saw as a child. I remember it being the abandoned bridge, maybe fifty feet to the side of the currant bridge. This was over the Kankakee river in northwestern Indiana. I was told that the abandoned bridge was originally one section of the ferris wheel at the Chicago World's Fair in the early part of the century. It looked the part, with the archs from bank to bank.The older I get the less stock I put in the story.Rich Beckman

4. 
   Brian_H._Lumley | Feb 24, 1999 09:07am | #8

   *
   I am in the process of planning a bridge that will span 40' over a river. Concrete foundations are called for on both sides sides of the river. This involves excavation, forming, reinforcing and pouring in water. I realize this is done all the time, what I am interested in is what I should be looking at in a contractor.