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OT: Crossing a creek with a culvert or rail car...

C

charles todd

Well-known Member
Anyone have experience placing a large culvert in a creek or using a rail car to build a bridge? I am planning to build my house on the other side of my 50 acres. I need to cross a creek that is roughly 6-8 feet wide and deep at the most. Most of the time it is dry. A few times a year it can flow pretty good. In a day or two it is back to about one foot or less deep.

I think a rail car is overkill for this application. I also have heard horror stories about culverts. I would do a low water, but the MINI COOPER might not make it :D By the way I am in Louisiana, about 60 inches of rain annualy.

Thanks, Charles
 
I have seen several Flatcar based bridges. They work when the foundations are prepped to assure the continued support of the ends. Rustproofing may be a good idea if the car is rusty when purchased.
Culverts can be restrictive of flow when flood stage happens. Debris can also wedge on the intake side of a culvert blocking flow, and providing additional flooding. JimN
 
I would start by checking local laws on what you can and can not do. Some places you can get a big fine for doing things that have water in the question. Now as far as a culvert it would take a big one and that would also mean big $$. Some sort of bridge would probably be the way to go and probably in the long run be cheaper to boot
Hobby farm
 

I did not specify what type of rail car. I was in reference to a flat car on abundments. As for local laws, the parish road that goes by the said property has a culvert for the creek to pass. They recently dug out the old one (boiler?, rail car? it had hot rivets) and just laid a couregated steel one.

Charles
 
A culvert would be the way to go. Check with the parish. They would have an engineer that could help you size it. Maybe one big one or several smaller ones. No maintenance with a culvert like you would have with a bridge.
 
If you put in more than one culvert, stagger them upwards. Then if some thrash blocks the bottom one the water can still flow through the next. Also this slows down the flow for less flooding downstream.
 
The railroad flat car would be way cooler than a culvert. Sure it might be overkill, but it will look great. There are a lot of flat car bridges in Southern and Central Illinois. A lot of them have Rock Island Railroad markings too. I wonder if they got picked up in 1980 when RI abandoned or RI got rid of a bunch earlier. Today's flat cars are longer than the older models so that may be a problem.

On a side note the are dozens of Denver & Rio Grande Western box cars used as out buildings all over southwest Colorado. Many of them still have their 1950s-1960s paint jobs.

Not only would a low water play havoc for the mini it might cause problems for friends that want to come and visit. I know some people with a low water and when I visit at high water time I have to have them come and get me from the other side.
 
Here is a bridge I built (well almost finished) out of a 40 foot semi trailer. Note the abutments are made from 2400 lb. 'mafia' blocks from a concrete plant. Water has already gotten up onto the trailer (but not over), and it never moved at all. Let me know if I can be of any help. I purchased this trailer from a local trucking co. and it was basically scrap metal to them. I sold the axle assemblys for what I paid for the trailer. All I have in it is the blocks, some backhoe work from a local contractor, and the wood. And of course my labor. I intend on putting some sort of side boards to prevent driving off so easily.
bridge11.jpg
 
The truck trailer is a great idea. A 40 footer tailer is great. Back in the good old days railroads had 40 foot flat cars, but today they are just about gone. I would also think delivery of a flat bed trailer would be a lot easier and cheaper than a railroad car. My buddy moved a Caboose to his property last year and that was a big expensive job.
 
By the way, you can see the two main beams in the photo (closest together). Those are 19" I beams. Trailer was a 1972 Trailmobile rated over 50,000 lbs. I would not want to take a loaded dump truck over it, but it seems plenty sturdy for anything else. Honestly if it were not for the wood decking I would almost bet it would hold a loaded dump truck. Wood is oak 2x8 10 feet long. Trailer is 8 feet wide and wood overhangs 1 foot on each side.
 
I really don't know....sometimes I wish I had, but since it took me about two months to finish I needed a road in the meantime. Also, I wanted the old road in case for heavy trucks or equipment. You cannot see the other direction, but it actually is about in line with the hill going the other direction. I just need to realign the gate, and road to the county road. I am still working on it.
 
Ron-MO, nice job on the bridge. I like the bridge idea with a low-water for heavy traffic. A sturdy culvert can handle both. The culvert will most likely be cheaper, but not as "cool". My creek/stream is smaller than yours I believe. I have some pics I took today of the dozer low-water crossing. I will try to post them tonight.

If I do a culvert I believe if I park one tractor with a loader on one side with some dirt, and have one on the other. Then I can prep the stream bed with gravel and erosion cloth and roll er' in. This way I can work both sides until done without an alternate crossing. Later I plan to put in two or three more for secondary crossings to access pastures and in case the main has a blow out.

Good info 8) , Charles
 
Bigger is better when it comes to culverts. We have them all over up here. A little ways up our road the town skimped on one that was designed to get water to the other side of the road before a low point a few hundred yards further down. It did fine for regular storms but when we got 7 inches in a day this spring it just couldn't move enough through the pipe. Washed out the road at the bottom and took out a neighbors driveway culvert. He had to drive across a 10 acre field and open a stone wall to go to work the next day.

I'd find some similar stream sizes near you and measure the culvert diameter on driveways that haven't been repaired recently. :lol:

(quoted from post at 20:20:40 10/29/08) Ron-MO, nice job on the bridge. I like the bridge idea with a low-water for heavy traffic. A sturdy culvert can handle both. The culvert will most likely be cheaper, but not as "cool". My creek/stream is smaller than yours I believe. I have some pics I took today of the dozer low-water crossing. I will try to post them tonight.

If I do a culvert I believe if I park one tractor with a loader on one side with some dirt, and have one on the other. Then I can prep the stream bed with gravel and erosion cloth and roll er' in. This way I can work both sides until done without an alternate crossing. Later I plan to put in two or three more for secondary crossings to access pastures and in case the main has a blow out.

Good info 8) , Charles
Click to expand...
 
It's not as common as it once was around here, but you can still find farms with a dry ford and a swinging foot bridge. They will have a spot next to the highway where they can park a car if high water is expected.
 
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