Bridge to the back forty

PapaG · Apr 30, 2018

About thirteen years ago, my wife and I bought some timber and scrub out in the hinterlands (if you can have hinterlands in Illinois). It is split by a creek. There was a lane that allowed us to drive to the back half but it washed out six or seven years ago. That meant we had to drive a couple miles around the neighbors and cut back through some nasty hills. My son and my nephews, this weekend, built a nice bridge so we can get an ATV, mower, disc, in or a deer out. Great job of engineering. Two parking lot steel light poles, some treated lumber, etc.

buck460XVR · Apr 30, 2018

Pretty cool when a plan comes together, eh?

Choctaw · Apr 30, 2018

Wow, that is one heck of a nice bridge! They did a very good job. :thumbup:

Patocazador · Apr 30, 2018

Those side runner boards are an absolute must when using PT lumber. Dew or a light rain makes that PT stuff slick as can be. We built bridges through a swamp on our hunt lease out of PT and a couple of people lost their 4-wheelers over the side. We put side runners like you did and that solved the problem.

PapaG · Apr 30, 2018

I'm quite proud of the kids. Actual construction time was under two days, getting the stuff down there was another day or so. They also hooked up the compressor for the central air. (If you can believe central air in a cabin made out of an old Bullock Garage)
BTW, in the back of the picture you can see Taj 2.0, a tower blind they built two years ago.

Patocazador · Apr 30, 2018

PapaG said:
BTW, in the back of the picture you can see Taj 2.0, a tower blind they built two years ago.

I saw that but I thought it was a feeder.

Glockula · Apr 30, 2018

Looks great. I have built three bridges about 15 feet long. Where I hunt you normally have to get over Weyerhaeuser's massive ditch to get into the deer woods.

I killed my first cotton mouth on a bridge like that .He was coiled up on the bridge on my way out . he was determined to stand his ground and I had to kill him .38 special 158 lead took care of him .

Maybe you will find some morels out there soon.

PapaG · Apr 30, 2018

Patocazador said:
I saw that but I thought it was a feeder.

Not supposed to do feeders in the Peoples Republik of Illinois

MCgunner · Apr 30, 2018

Well, I was thinkin' dirt ramps and a dirt bike to make the jump. LOL That's much more tame and less deadly, though.

Good job!

PapaG · Apr 30, 2018

Need to be able to jump about forty feet. We ain't the Dukes of Hazard.

G'dale Mike · Apr 30, 2018

If ya get a chance, post a picture of the underside and bracing. That’s where the engineering took place!

Rembrandt · Apr 30, 2018

Nice bridge you have there, they certainly are handy getting across creek beds. We built ours using 35' power line poles, my bridge building crew range from 6 years old and upward. No supports underneath as the poles can more than handle the span. Helps us get mowers, atv's, and hunting gear into hard to reach areas. Have four of these so far with two more planned.

PapaG · Apr 30, 2018

Se

G'dale Mike said:
If ya get a chance, post a picture of the underside and bracing. That’s where the engineering took place!

See #12. Same thing.

Armored farmer · Apr 30, 2018

Very nice.
We have a stream cutting through our property also.

Here's my bridge.

alsaqr · May 1, 2018

Great job on the bridge.

22250Rem · May 1, 2018

Some nice bridges here....... I've got a few pix of a small bridge on my friends property. He got a couple lengths of heavy steel beams from an old warehouse that was being torn down, laid 'em across a small creek and then we put railroad ties and landscape timbers across the beams and then a few sheets of flakeboard .. Nothing fancy but all the material was free. I cross that bridge, go 50

yards and I'm at my ladder stand. Deer have even used that bridge occasionally; had a trail cam there for a while last year.

jmorris · May 1, 2018

I don’t have a very good photo but I built this one out of some catwalk grating about 20 years ago.

They were welded in groups of 4 and dragged to the site. In doing that I realized how good of a harrow they made and I have a couple of sections at different locations leaned up against trees so they are handy to drag behind an ATV to smooth roads out.

Geno · May 1, 2018

Awesome bridges all.

22250Rem · May 1, 2018

Love that catwalk grating...... I used to work in a coal fired steam plant and that stuff was all over the place. Too bad I couldn't get a few sections. That stuff is rugged and if that bridge is already 20 years old it looks like its still got many good years ahead of it.

Bfh_auto · May 1, 2018

From past experience, I would suggest chaining or cabling one end to a big tree. We lost a bridge when it flooded.
I only have hayfields to worry about now.

Rembrandt · May 2, 2018

Bfh_auto makes a good point, we had that happen once. We now drive steel fence posts down 4-5' at each end of the bridge and secure with steel cable. The power of rising water can move a big object and float it out of position.

Ks5shooter · May 7, 2018

Bridge to the back forty

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