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Making a low water crossing using bags of Sakrete #7573589 08/06/19 08:38 PM
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Mr. T. Offline OP
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Creek starting to dry out. About 2 more weeks and it will be dry. Has anyone here actually laid bags of Quikrete or Sakrete to make a low water creek crossing. A lot of people tell me it will work, but when I ask them if they have ever
seen one or driven across one, they say no. I need to do something so I can get to my stand during wet winter season.
So, anyone done it. If so, did it last one season, five years, etc. Also how rough was driving over them. And anything else that you think I need to know.


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Re: Making a low water crossing using bags of Sakrete [Re: Mr. T.] #7573600 08/06/19 08:49 PM
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We've done that for several years now in two crossings. Just don't try to make a dam with them, it will cause the water to go around each end and wash it out. Spread them out, don't try to make a path for each tire, make it the width of your vehicles plus one on each side. They wont wash away, but they will begin to sink a little each year. Works great for us!!

Re: Making a low water crossing using bags of Sakrete [Re: Mr. T.] #7573612 08/06/19 08:57 PM
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I have seen them used in creek crossings and they worked great. How long they last will depend on weight of vehicles being driven over and how often


Originally Posted by bill oxner
Haven't had it in years but never spit any out.


Originally Posted by bill oxner
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Re: Making a low water crossing using bags of Sakrete [Re: corkys son] #7573619 08/06/19 09:03 PM
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Originally Posted by corkys son
We've done that for several years now in two crossings. Just don't try to make a dam with them, it will cause the water to go around each end and wash it out. Spread them out, don't try to make a path for each tire, make it the width of your vehicles plus one on each side. They wont wash away, but they will begin to sink a little each year. Works great for us!!

So you are saying make it 6 or 7 bags wide? Not a one bag path for each tire. I think it will take about 22 bags to cross the creek laid side by side, So
I would need about 154 bags to make it 7 bags wide.


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Re: Making a low water crossing using bags of Sakrete [Re: Mr. T.] #7573622 08/06/19 09:06 PM
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haven't done in a creek crossing, but I used bags of Sakrete in a corner of our drive/yard to extend the drive for putting the boat in the garage. I dug out the area with my tractor, placed the bags along the concrete drive out about 4-5 bag wide by 15-20 bags long which was 5-6" below the height of the concrete, then I filled in over the top with 1" river rock, tossed a sprinkler on top and let it run for a few hours until everything seemed saturated. A few days later, I made a sweeping turn across it and it worked fine. Been in place 5+ years and still works every time we take the boat out.

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Re: Making a low water crossing using bags of Sakrete [Re: Mr. T.] #7573630 08/06/19 09:11 PM
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I would think leaving some space in between stacks of bags would help when the water gets flowing again, that way the full force of the water wont be up against the bags but it will flow around. I have the same issue and I simply built a small wooden bridge to get my mules and lawnmower up to a back woods area. built mine with 3(three) 6x6x8 as the spars and 2x8x8s on top spread about 2-3 inches apart to give the driving surface. I don't expect it to last through a super heavy rain, but if it gives me a couple months to maybe some year I will be ecstatic. I spaced the boards on top so the water could rise above it and not push the whole thing up like a wall but rather act as a sieve and allow water to flow through.

Re: Making a low water crossing using bags of Sakrete [Re: Mr. T.] #7573632 08/06/19 09:13 PM
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We used salvaged culverts and a load of bricks given away on craigslist. Another smaller crossing we used plastic pipe and a load of salvaged clay shingles. The big crossing was getting the bricks washing away on the up river side, so we put large broken slabs of concrete from a porch tearout at a slop on the up river side. Again salvaged for free. The main problem we figured out was when the culverts got blocked with logs it would start washing out the bridge, so we make a point to clear it every time we are there hunting. I think your crossing with only stacked bags of concrete will depend on how much water is coming down the creek when it floods. This is the only picture I have of the one we built. Don't have one of it finished. But you get the idea. You will probably find you need more material, bags, bricks, whatever, then you think you need. We did a second load of bricks and need to do a third. Bricks to be hauled off for free show up on craigslist fairly often. [Linked Image]

Re: Making a low water crossing using bags of Sakrete [Re: Mr. T.] #7573643 08/06/19 09:31 PM
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Yep. Wait for the creek bed to dry out. Dig the creek bed down the depth of the thickness of your sackcrete. Stack them in tight. The top of your crossing needs to be flush with the creek bed. Moving water is powerful enough to move very large objects. You want that force to go over your crossing rather than hit it and it will stay in place. Make your crossing a good 12’ wide. Trying to center up on a tight crossing that is underwater is a recipe for getting stuck or worse.


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Re: Making a low water crossing using bags of Sakrete [Re: Mr. T.] #7573648 08/06/19 09:36 PM
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What is the bed of the creek? Is it clay or mud, or a good solid rock bottom.


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Re: Making a low water crossing using bags of Sakrete [Re: Mr. T.] #7573743 08/06/19 11:42 PM
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Quote
[/quote]So you are saying make it 6 or 7 bags wide? Not a one bag path for each tire. I think it will take about 22 bags to cross the creek laid side by side, So
I would need about 154 bags to make it 7 bags wide.


Your crossing is a lot longer than ours. We had to build to accommodate atv's, utv's, and trucks. If it's only trucks, just put down two wide for each track width. We got by with about 50, then just out more as needed to replace sunken bags etc, which is maybe 2 bags a year at most.

Re: Making a low water crossing using bags of Sakrete [Re: dogcatcher] #7573816 08/07/19 01:32 AM
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Originally Posted by dogcatcher
What is the bed of the creek? Is it clay or mud, or a good solid rock bottom.

It is mud,


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Re: Making a low water crossing using bags of Sakrete [Re: Mr. T.] #7573822 08/07/19 01:42 AM
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If it is mud, you should stabilize the mud with a load or five of good sized rock. Look for free rip rap. It will take you longer to get it done, but you will only have to build it once.


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Re: Making a low water crossing using bags of Sakrete [Re: Cast] #7573894 08/07/19 03:16 AM
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I would find an old trailer house that has burned or someone wants hauled off. I would take the frame and use it as the structure to span the creek. Put supports halfway across like concrete pillars and then put wood across the frame.

Re: Making a low water crossing using bags of Sakrete [Re: Mr. T.] #7574990 08/08/19 02:25 PM
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I've used 50 pound sacks retaining walls and bulkheads before and after some of my culverts. They work great for this application, but the ones that I have used to stop erosion ditches by just stacking them in the ditch, have all cracked badly. They got the job done because I just wanted to stop the water from eroding more dirt and then catching any runnoff to fill the ditches back up again with dirt. Since they all crack so badly after a few years, I just use busted up bricks, cinder blocks and tile from jobs that I do to fill ditches now.

For what it will cost you to buy the sacks of concrete, and the fact that they will break up once you start to drive over them, I would buy large rock from a local place that sells rock, and use that. Probably something in the 6 to 9 inch range. What you really want is something that will remain solid over time and not break up.

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