Holes in the Bridge

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Griff
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Holes in the Bridge

Post by Griff »

This evening as one of the neighbors left to go out to eat, he called and reported a hole the bridge over the creek. One lane road, with six 3 ft diameter culverts thru which the creek flows!

Went down and inspected it1 2nd time in the 30 years I've lived here that this has happened. Concrete culverts have separated and sucked the rock and dirt over them, opening up a "sink hole" type that's small on the surface and triples in size down to the top of the culvert. We had about 2" of rain in 3 hours yesterday morning. and water must've just washed it out.

There are five of us that live on this little lane, and between 3 of us, plus my son we got it plugged and concreted over. Used part of a plastic drum inside the culver, (Hot sweaty work in the humidity to clear the dirt downstream from the break, don't ask this old man how he knows)! Shoring skills learned in the Navy came in handy! Started work about 1930 and finished up and cleaned up before 2130. BTW, don't throw a bag of quickcrete into a tractor bucket with another bag being mixed and half full of water! I think every bit of the watery mix ended up on my shirt and face! After spending near to an hour down on hands and knees inside the culvert scraping dirt and rocks out of the way for the needed shoring, it was almost refreshing!

Hopefully, the concrete we mixed and poured tonite will cure and hold. As this is the only bridge over the creek for all five of us! Sorry, no pictures, we were busy trying to get the plug in!
Griff,
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AJMD429
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Re: Holes in the Bridge

Post by AJMD429 »

Rewarding work at least; you fixed something you all need.
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GunnyMack
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Re: Holes in the Bridge

Post by GunnyMack »

Griff, reminds me of one of our trips to Quebec years ago. Our camp is 65 miles from a paved road, no cell service, no power, anyhow it started raining. 12,24, 36 hours of nonstop rain when we decided we better leave as a couple of bridges would go underwater. Well sure enough the biggest one was washed out- GONE washed out! What do we do now? Sure there is another way out but those roads were much worse, more water crossings. Since this washout was only the outlet of a lake , not much more than a trickle normally we just said to heck with it and drove through it, dragging bumpers. As far as I know that bridge still hasn't been fixed !! We have cut many trees to fix bridges up there, shoveled lots of dirt too.
Got to work one day and found a sink hole in the yard, right smack dab at the busiest part of the yard. Sure enough one of the guys ignored the road cone , caution tape and drove a forklift right to the edge of the hole. It started to sink. Thankfully I had a bucket loader and chains to drag it out. Took about 3 yards of stone dust to fill the hole but it was always sinking.
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OldWin
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Re: Holes in the Bridge

Post by OldWin »

I learned a long time ago......
Any trip can turn into a "wheeling trip". Especially up here.
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Scott Tschirhart
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Re: Holes in the Bridge

Post by Scott Tschirhart »

Think about how few people would be able to fix this for themselves these days. Good report.
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Re: Holes in the Bridge

Post by piller »

Most people do not know how to use concrete nowdays. We are fast losing skills that could save us a lot of trouble.

By the way, if you need the concrete to stay wet longer for any reason, add some table sugar. A quarter cup in a 40 pound bag will give you a lot of time to work with it before it hardens. It does not change the final strength. Cased hole tricks.
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Griff
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Re: Holes in the Bridge

Post by Griff »

piller wrote: Thu May 27, 2021 11:07 am Most people do not know how to use concrete nowdays. We are fast losing skills that could save us a lot of trouble.

By the way, if you need the concrete to stay wet longer for any reason, add some table sugar. A quarter cup in a 40 pound bag will give you a lot of time to work with it before it hardens. It does not change the final strength. Cased hole tricks.
Thank you, a trick I didn't know! And absolutely it surprises me what some folks know... The newest guy on the street does the "flipping houses" thing for a living, so his skill didn't surprise me, I was kinda relying on him... the "Insurance Executive" did surprise me, came out and looked as we were gathering out stuff together, went home changed into jeans and t-shirt, went to Home Depot and bought twenty bags of quickcrete and worked his axx off mixing and shoveling. Got to the point where there were so many workers, we needed a supervisor! Just the opposite of a "city" public works project! Took all but 3 of the 24 bags we had! New wish list item, portable mixer, battery powered, battery powered submersible pump... took over 700 feet of hose to get water there, and the creek is near year round flowing!!! The pool at the downstream side of the bridge is probably 8-9 feet deep! A portable pump would have been great!

The state has bought the property to expand the highway, and a new state built bridge is included... If it ever needs repair, it'll NEVER get fixed so quickly!
Griff,
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There is a fine line between hobby & obsession!
AND... I'm over it!!
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Re: Holes in the Bridge

Post by stretch »

Old-timey Americana.

Neighbors helping neighbors for the common good.

Not as much of that as there should be these days.

-Stretch
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Re: Holes in the Bridge

Post by Rusty »

piller wrote: Thu May 27, 2021 11:07 am Most people do not know how to use concrete nowdays. We are fast losing skills that could save us a lot of trouble.

By the way, if you need the concrete to stay wet longer for any reason, add some table sugar. A quarter cup in a 40 pound bag will give you a lot of time to work with it before it hardens. It does not change the final strength. Cased hole tricks.
Quite true... on the other side of that if you need it to set faster go to the local hardware store and get some calcium carbonate, that will speed the set.
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Re: Holes in the Bridge

Post by Bill in Oregon »

Nice thread. 8)
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Re: Holes in the Bridge

Post by Sixgun »

i like the part of using "redneck ingenuity" by using the tractor bucket for mixing the cement....well done Griff!.

After about 8 years we finally figured out why our plants and shrubs around the house never grow unless rain water hits em and some die despite using our farmer skills .....we have a well that has large amounts of minerals so we had this high falution salt based filtration system put in....our water cannot be distinguished from Deer Park water.....

The extreme low salt content was the reason so I got the 100 gallon horse trough we don't use anymore...set it near the house.....and I drive the mighty Kubota down to the pond and dip it in and haul it to the house.....keep a couple of cinder blocks in the trough in case a cat falls in it........that happened before....

How about some pics Griff? YOU are always the one who wants to see pictures. :D
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piller
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Re: Holes in the Bridge

Post by piller »

Rusty wrote: Wed Jun 02, 2021 2:56 am
piller wrote: Thu May 27, 2021 11:07 am Most people do not know how to use concrete nowdays. We are fast losing skills that could save us a lot of trouble.

By the way, if you need the concrete to stay wet longer for any reason, add some table sugar. A quarter cup in a 40 pound bag will give you a lot of time to work with it before it hardens. It does not change the final strength. Cased hole tricks.
Quite true... on the other side of that if you need it to set faster go to the local hardware store and get some calcium carbonate, that will speed the set.
Lots of things that people who work concrete under extreme conditions learn. Most are very useful in times of need.
D. Brian Casady
Quid Llatine Dictum Sit, Altum Viditur.
Advanced is being able to do the basics while your leg is on fire---Bill Jeans
Don't ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up---Robert Frost
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