Garden Bridge Assistance Needed

[Rich Riddle]

Have any of you ever constructed a garden bridge? If so, is it best to make it straight as compared the the curved bridges (like Japanese style) seen in Japanese gardens? What materials would you recommend for constructing the bridge? It will likely span 12 or 14 feet and be between 3 and 4 feet wide. Thank you for your help and ideas.

[Yonak Hawkins]

There's no reason why you can't put a dogleg or two in it if you fancy it. Just remember you've got to have posts at every turn and, of course, every post must have some kind of footer so, if you want to bend it right above the stream, the footer and post will have to be in the stream.

Regarding materials : Will it be painted or stained ? If so, you could use treated lumber. If not, any of the other normal decking materials would work.

[Ryan Mooney]

The main reason for doing the curved bridge is that you're basically making an arch. It allows the use of shorter and lighter material than a simple flat bridge. It's also not as easy to push a wheelbarrow over you can make up some of the difference by doing a suspension bridge or some of the truss designs.

[Gilbert Vega]

There was a show (#2524) on Hometime TV on PBS that covers building a long landscape bridge over a small creek. They used unique piers from Diamond Pier Foundations and lightweight steel beams from LiteSteel Technologies America. They may have a video you can view to get more info.


Diamond Pier® Foundations
Pin Foundations Inc.
866-255-9478
www.diamondpiers.com

LiteSteel™ Beam (LSB®)
LiteSteel Technologies America LLC
877-285-2607
www.litesteelbeam.com

[Rich Riddle]

I would like to thank everyone for input and suggestions. I liked reading about the Diamond Pier Foundation system and watching the videos. It looks much easier than digging and setting concrete. It has the advantage of mobility. Reading their literature, I am not certain it will work on slopes like the ones I am dealing with. Wish it did though. To give an idea of the terrain, here are a couple of photos. The first one shows where the deck and greenhouse will be located. You can see the deviation in the terrain between beams. Those are the outdoor rated Parallam beams by the way. The second photograph shows the terrain the bridge or walkway will cover. It will likely span about 25 to 30 feet and be approximately 4 feet wide.

Hill Greenhouse.jpg Bridge Area.jpg

[Ryan Mooney]

Hmm big difference in material and technique between 14' and 30'. I'd try to layout your setup as best as you can measure and see what you reckon you can do for mid span supports (how drop is the draw, is there a lot of flow that would wash out a post, etc...) and how solid of embuttments you can put in on the bank. That gives you some reckoning of the length of the individual spans which will drive the design and materials to some extent.. and see what you end up with from that.

Not entirely sure what you're planning to put over it either, guessing at 4' mostly foot traffic and maybe a wheelbarrow but ought to figure rough expected load as well since there's a big difference between a for bridge and a tractor bridge . And if you want to take a wheelbarrow over it, it's easier if it's not to steep.

[fRED mCnEILL]

My daughters house is on our property separated by a creek. I made the 2 arched stringers our of reinforced concrete and set then on concrete foortings. I built the forms and when the rdi-mix truck came for another project go him to fill the forms with rebar. I then bolted 2x4s to the stringers and nailed the wood sidewalk to the 2z4s. Works great.