My new hunting spot backs up to richland chambers reservoir and has a dry creek that cuts off the front and rear of the property. when the crossing is dry its about 20 foot across and about 8 feet deep at an up and down angle of probably 110 degrees (my back bumper drags coming out of it). with as much rain as we got / will continue to get the past few days the creek is full and theres no other way to access the back of the property.

the only quick solution I've figured out thus far would be to get an old flat bed trailer and span the crossing. but, looking for other quick solutions as well. the plan for this year is to get something that works in place and then eventually go back and put in some sort of engineered bridge with driven piles for next year and so on.

any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks!

The trailer idea was my first thought, otherwise you are looking at fabrication.
Maybe a concrete poured low water crossing?

Dont get attached to whatever u put down there. A nice turd floater will destroy or carry away anything.

Growing up we eventually started building temp bridges out of telephone poles. When the creeks came up we just went and found them down stream and dragged em back.

A boat

1. Hire an Aggie CE
2. Do an iSWM
3. Survey several cross-sections of "the dry creek"
3. Do a detailed flood study of the area
4. Submit CLOMR to FEMA
5. Do a Jurisdictional Analysis of the dry creek and submit to USACE. Apply for a 404 permit, but don't hold out hope
6. Prepare to buy mitigation credits and do an individual permit; add 18 months to your timeline
7. Pay your fees to FEMA & USACE and then wait another 90 days.
8. Lay down some telephone poles imbedded in 20 bags of Quick-Crete on each end. Use 2x12 as cover
9. Provide copies of your improvements to FEMA and wait another 180 days for your LOMR to be finalized.

That's how you cross a "dry creek bed".

This is the best suggestion yet!!

Buddy of mine had this issue at his deer lease. He had a couple of loads of large 4-10 inch diameter rock chunks dumped in his creek bed and then a dozer graded it flat for driving over. If you don't expect a ton of flow this might be an option. I believe he only drives over it with his ATV and not his truck.

We've got a mid size 50hp John Deere that will need to cross for shredding purposes but other than that we just use a SxS to move material around and fill feeders. Would that hold a tractor?

OneNightW said:

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Buddy of mine had this issue at his deer lease. He had a couple of loads of large 4-10 inch diameter rock chunks dumped in his creek bed and then a dozer graded it flat for driving over. If you don't expect a ton of flow this might be an option. I believe he only drives over it with his ATV and not his truck.

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Yep. Build ya a "Missouri Crossing"

Are you talking about a tractor-trailer flatbed? That should work if you remove axelson and set in place. Whatever it is will need to be significantly longer than the width of the creek.

That's correct. And yeah... idk if there's such a thing as a 40 foot tractor trailer but that would be what I want to do to account for future erosion

Find an old single wide mobile home frame and put boards on it?

40' connex, cut or secure doors open should work.

Pat Baker co. In Kingsbury can build you a nice bridge out of a wrecked railcar.

Railroad flatbed

We used old flatbed rail cars to cross creeks overseas in the jungle.

It takes quite a bit of work. Removing the trucks, grinding off all of the hold down rings and then manipulating them into place required a dozer.

If this is something you want more information on, I'd be happy to provide some contacts on where I bought the railcars from. Expect to pay scrap value, and then of course paying for trucking. The flatbeds will be in the 90' range.

i'm not sure a 20' trailer would work. I think it will buckle.

I would buy a couple 20' H beams and then screw wood across them. probably the cheapest and easiest.

highvelocity said:

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That's correct. And yeah... idk if there's such a thing as a 40 foot tractor trailer but that would be what I want to do to account for future erosion

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Standard size of a newer flatbed trailer is 48-53' long and 96-102" wide

Even a 20-25 yr old unit is most likely to be 45' x 96"

C4D said:

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Dont get attached to whatever u put down there. A nice turd floater will destroy or carry away anything.

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High velocity, C4D is right. I grew up on a place that had a dry creek that you'd never think ran much water. But every couple years a decent rain would fall and everything would wash away. Finally ended up cementing in large culverts that allowed debris and water to pass trough (under) the concreted surface/bridge. Much more involved than you'd think was necessary. But that's what it took to keep it passable during and after a decent rain.

We have a crossing on our lease that's wider but approach probably more shallow

We have bags concrete across it - they don't move

Put the rock in a Wire mattress or dig out the creek so that a shipping container can fit in like a culvert Put as many side by side as needed for the width of your creek.

Call Industrial Matt Co. or a similar company and get you a couple of 40' timber crane mats. They are 4' wide, 12"x12" oak timber that is held together with 1-1'2" threaded rods. You'll need something capable of lifting them when you set them, about the only drawback.

Quick, easy and will easily handle even large tractors.

FIDO 96 said:

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1. Hire an Aggie CE
2. Do an iSWM
3. Survey several cross-sections of "the dry creek"
3. Do a detailed flood study of the area
4. Submit CLOMR to FEMA
5. Do a Jurisdictional Analysis of the dry creek and submit to USACE. Apply for a 404 permit, but don't hold out hope
6. Prepare to buy mitigation credits and do an individual permit; add 18 months to your timeline
7. Pay your fees to FEMA & USACE and then wait another 90 days.
8. Lay down some telephone poles imbedded in 20 bags of Quick-Crete on each end. Use 2x12 as cover
9. Provide copies of your improvements to FEMA and wait another 180 days for your LOMR to be finalized.

That's how you cross a "dry creek bed".

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Hire a good Aggie AgE and he will get you a few tinhorns to throw down in that creek bed and some road base to fill on top of it. Low water crossing!

1. Get old telephone poles off Craigslist. You'll need 3-4 or so depending on diameter.

2. Position them so they are roughly evenly spaced over the span you want to cross, and somewhat level.

3. Top with 2xwhatever across. It'll hold a truck or a tractor.