I built a concrete bridge starting about this time last year that took me clear in to December to get finished. Took tons of pictures along the way to just sort of keep track of changes and progress. It was kind of nice when things seemed like it would never end to look back at what I'd done up to each point.

If any one has some cement work to do ya might find it interesting.

This is what I started out with that needed replacing. The wood just rotted and needed replaced every few years and it always seemed to go in the coldest, worst weather.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547a_Bridge_proj_73.jpg

Hey Jack,

That was a heck of an undertaking for "just" a home owner.

You gonna post the album for all to see?

I'll put them up for a while but I hate to turn this in to the JackRyan picture show.

IF there get's to be a bandwidth problem or we start getting more traffic I'll switch them all to just links.

I still can just sit and look at this and can't believe I did that sometimes.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547aBidge_3hrsProj_82.jpg
Believe it or not that's about 4 hours work. I took this apart a piece at a time and denailed it for use later in the construction phase.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547aBidge_5hrsProj_84.jpg
By this point I was having nightmares remembering Fed Ex and UPS trucks crossing this stuff. Every where wood touched wood it was rotted.


Glad to have the wood off...
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547a_Bridge_13hrsProj_94.jpg

... and stacked.

You want to plan this ahead and set it up so you can pick it up and move it around easy with the pallet attachment on a tractor. Nothing worse than carrying the same heavy dirty board back and forth over and over from pile to pile.

Took me another day of work to get the steel all cut loose and dragged off the old piling and abutments. Couldn't tear it up too bad because I planned to use as much of that as I can.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547a_Bridge_22_hrs_18.jpg

One thing I'm kind of proud of is this whole project I never missed a single day of work because of tired, injury or planning logistics and I work a lot of hours at work.

Here is about two weeks since I first closed off the drive way and we are finally starting to dig. Still not putting anything back or actually working toward the plus side but digging at least.


Here we finally see some movement to the good. 5 yards of concrete to get from the bedrock back to ground level where we started out. LOL.


http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547aBrdg_Proj_10052005-30.jpg
Had to jump in that hole as it was caving in and start shoring it up with those old bridge timbers to keep from losing the hole before we could get concrete in it. Had one guy cutting them with the chain saw, another bringing them to me and of course I was hip deep in muck inside a hole caving in that was about chest deep. The first of many times I really was wondering what I'd gotton in to.

Here on the south side abutment improvement you can see the footer coming up to ground level. The rebar sticking out of it ready to pour the abutment around them and on the footer. Also see above that, you can tell why the old abutment needs improvement. It's going to be build right in to the new bridge and to the right is the roadway we had to build down the creek back to dig a 16 foot long footer with the back hoe.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547aBrdg_Proj_10052005-37.jpg

This shot of the south footer displays an important aspect any time you are pouring concrete so that two pours meet together. You must make a key way so should the rebar ever rot it will still cause the mating concrete surfaces to stay in place.


The bridge deck is going to be 12 feet wide. To do this you make the abutments a little wider and the footer a little wider than those. The purpose is to give you some lee way when you are lining up the deck forms from one abutment to the other and the amount of extra space I guess is regulated by your "nerve". Mine were 2 foot step downs in size at each point. 12, 14, 16.

11 yards of concrete and a month of work get's ya just about this far. Two abutment footers level with the creek bed.

Now it's starting to look like something is getting done. Got both end abutments up here and starting to form up the center pier improvement.



Had to hand build this custom form for the center. Those round post on the end go about 6 feet below level to sit on bedrock. I ran the rebar all the way through these forms and welded washers on to hold the forms where I wanted them.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547a_bridge_10-20-05_81.jpg

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547a_bridge_10-20-05_85.jpg

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547a_bridge_10-20-05_79.jpg

Once I got that center pier formed up it needs to be tied in to the abutments on both sides before filling it with concrete to make it secure from toppling over since it will be top heavy. It probably wouldn't move but better safe than sorry. That would make a heck of a mess of things if that fell over.



http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547a_Brdg_10-29-05_03.jpg

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547a_Brdg_10-29-05_04.jpg

Here is a close up detail of the clips I made and welded in on each side of the abutments.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547a_Brdg_10-29-05_20.jpg

Here's the tie in to the pier. Didn't think to take a picture of this tie in until I'd already poured the pier.


Note that once again there are key ways poured in to the mating surfaces. Can't stress enough that this is an important detail on any mating poured surface.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547a_Brdg_10-29-05_11.jpg

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547a_Pier_Ties_Keys_10-29-05_96.jpg

This is the footer at the north end of the bridge, past the abutments. Notice the sona tube post at the end. Those are about 8 feet deep and on each corner to support the corner of the bridge in case any thing heavy ever get's out there on the corner driving on or off.



http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547a_Brigde_minus_deck.jpg

This is the back fill I used behind the abutments to keep water from flowing around behind during flood times. I hand stacked that in there to lay flat so it wouldn't settle through the years.


http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547a_Brdg_10-31-05_36.jpg

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547a_Brdg_road_work_58.jpg

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547a_Brdg_road_work_66.jpg

Finally getting a little gravel in here. I used it to smooth out a little on top of the back fill and make the pour more consistant thickness. That gets swept away from the mating surfaces and from around the steel so the steel is poured in completely around to keep it from rusting out. Just a side note but , the way this bridge is designed even if every piece of steel in it rusted away to nothing I'd still have a viable bridge because every concrete section is supported concrete on concrete.


Another reason you bring in gravel at this point is to give the croncrete truck a better surface to drive on. They won't drive across a bunch of sharp rocks for fear of puncturing a tire and need to get up closer for pouring the deck in the next step so by roughing in the drive way it makes all my work getting ready a lot more convienient to.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547a_brig_gravel_80.jpg

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547a_Brdg_10-31-05_45.jpg

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547a_Brdg_road_work_71.jpg

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547a_brig_gravel_74.jpg

These are those old iron beams from under the old bridge. I cut some off the ends and straightened them a little so I could use these out on the edge to save some form work and supporting to hold up the forms for the old deck. I torched all these holes for form work and welded nuts in side to bolt the forms on. Then afte each pour I can take them off and move them to reuse on the next section.

Here's what is supporting the bottom of the form for the first half of the bridge deck.


Close up detail. If you support these inside the I beam like this then the hardened concrete surrounds the top flange of the steel and when it's hard you can knock these out and use most of them over again on the other half.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547aBridj_11-7-0597.jpg

Here is where those old bridge beams are coming in. This bridge is strong enough with out this but it is an easier way to hold the forms up off the bottom of the creek in case it were to flood before I'm finished.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547aBridg_11-8-0501.jpg

Here I'm welding in the rest of the ties to hold all the steel rigid during the pour so it doesn't spread and drop those form supports from between them.

Notice on the side there you can see how those bolted in details will let those old bridge beams fill in with concrete essentially becoming steel reinforced beams and then it will fill in around the outside and you'll never be able to see the old steel. It will look like a foot thick concrete bridge deck.

This shows several construction details. Sloping the deck in to the center supporting pier. Most of the steel rebar is in place and you can sort of tell how the two bridge decks step down to the pier so they both rest on both the pier and on top of each other with interlocking rebar and also a keyway on every mating concrete surface.


This is one of the supports I made to lay the drag off board on. These go in the center and are about an inch higher than the forms on each side to make water run off and keep ice off the bridge in the winter.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547a_brdj_844.jpg

This is how it looks right before you start pouring concrete. After you drag it off you can move the pipe on and the rest will be buried in concrete and you've never know it was there.

This is showing the rebar goes all the way through the forms on the side so I didn't have to set up a bunch of kickers to hold it up.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547a_brdj_846.jpg

It's a learning process for sure. Here is the first half just about ready to pour and the bottom forms supported "the hard way". To learn the easy, right way to do this look for the examples when I pour the second half.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547a_brdj_849.jpg

These are sitting on that rebar that stuck all the way through the forms from pouring the center pier. A thought for the next time, plan on doing this and drill all those holes appropriately to make this easy.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547a_brdj_851.jpg

Getting there.

Here I've just started pulling the forms from the first half of the deck.


This is my good friend and bridge engineer Brad helping me out with some finishing work.


http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547a_cement_deck_869.jpg

This is how I had to get in and out the drive way for 5 months while building the new bridge. If it rains the creek runs over the top of this and you are flooded in or out as the case may be.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547a_Low_bridge_871.jpg

I set up a couple extra sona tubes here as a place to go with any extra concrete from the deck. You always want to have a little extra. Ya never want to wind up a little short on any pour. That can be a real problem.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547a_yard_rollers_68.jpg

I've got most of the forms off the north deck now and this is a good look at that step down to the pier and the key ways in the matching surfaces.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547a_half_deck_0242.jpg

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547a_half_deck_246.jpg

I learned a leave blower is real handy to blow dirt and saw dust out of any where you don't want it. That's what I'm doing here.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547a_half_deck_247.jpg

Starting all over again in December and hoping for good weather to get this thing finished before it get's too cold to do concrete work.


http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547a_deck_II_879.jpg

This is getting to be a real mess driving through the mud and yard to get around this bridge.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547a_deck_II_880.jpg

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547a_deck_II_878.jpg

Here's my help trying to catch me with something not square or not straight most likely.


Just about ready for the last pour and it was snowing off and on by now. Got the rebar in and the forms about up.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547a_Fin_Pour_919.jpg

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547a_Fin_Pour_918.jpg

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547a_Fin_Pour_920.jpg

Now all I need is a little lucky weather and some good help to get this thing finished.

December 23 and we are pouring concrete. Look at that ice in the creek!



It all came together on that day though and thanks to great friends making up a skilled and dedicated crew we jumped there and got the job done.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547a_Fin_Pour_921.jpg

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547a_Fin_Pour_922.jpg

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547a_Fin_Pour_924.jpg

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547a_Fin_Pour_928.jpg

One truck's worth and about half way. We are waiting on the next truck to get in position to finish this pour.

Let's get this set up a pouring!
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547a_Fin_Pour_931.jpg

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547a_Fin_Pour_930.jpg



Here's my finish guy. Did a heck of a job. All the edging and a lot of the finish.


http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547a_Fin_Pour_939.jpg

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547a_Fin_Pour_940.jpg

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547a_Fin_Pour_944.jpg

This is Gabe, my bridge engineer's son.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547a_Fin_Pour_951.jpg

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547a_Fin_Pour_954.jpg

Starting pulling forms the next day.




This is what I made with those extra sona tubes.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Misc%20Projects/?action=view&current=17547a_Yard_Roller_09.jpg

Used those to flatten and smooth out the muddy ruts from driving in the yard and to roll in the seed so it would green up quick this spring.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/JackPatrickRyan/Bridge/?action=view&current=17547a_roller_job_69.jpg

47 yards of concrete, 120 tons of limestone, 100 tons of gravel, 1/4 mile of rebar, 25 pounds of welding rods, started in August and poured the last concrete December 23.

That's my story and I'm stick'n to it!

Now that's why I made that bridge 12 feet wide.

Unreal! Jack! Just unreal!