Application
Ranch and farm bridges
Ranchers, farmers, and land owners with a creek, a ditch, or a wash between them and the rest of the property.
- Published spans
- 20 to 72 ft
- Widths
- 6, 8 and 10 ft
- Rated
- 16,000 lb
What a ranch or farm crossing usually needs
Also worth a look: Bridge Kits.
The crossing is infrastructure
On a working property a bridge is not an amenity. It is the difference between reaching forty acres in ten minutes and reaching it in an hour, and when it goes out during a wet spring the whole operation reroutes around it.
That is why the sizing question is worth taking seriously up front. The Utility Truss family spans 20 to 72 ft at 6, 8 and 10 ft wide, and every model in it is rated 8 ton, or 16,000 lb. That covers a compact tractor, a mid-size skid steer, a pickup with a loaded trailer, and a grounds crew. It does not cover a loaded grain truck, and it is better to find that out now.
What to weigh, and how
On most ranch crossings the ATVs and UTVs are the daily traffic and the tractor is the heaviest, and the tractor is the one to size for.
Take the heaviest machine that will realistically cross, add what it carries when it is working, and size against that. A skid steer at 8,000 lb empty is a different vehicle with a full bucket. A tractor with a front loader and a rear implement is carrying weight at both ends.
If the number lands close to a published rating, that is the conversation to have with an engineer rather than a corner to cut. A bridge loaded to the edge of what it is rated for will carry it, and it is not where anyone wants a crossing that has to last decades to spend its life.
Getting it there and getting it in
A Utility span arrives assembled on a flatbed and is set from the bank, often in about a day once the abutments are ready. Spans over 48 ft come on two trucks and are bolted together on site before the set.
What stops a delivery is almost never the bridge. It is a gate a tractor-trailer cannot turn into, a low limb over the last quarter mile, or soft ground after rain. Those are worth walking before the truck is scheduled.
Where no crane can reach the creek, bridge kits for creek crossings arrive as parts and are bolted together in place.
Crossings like these
Finished crossings in this kind of setting. Each shows one bridge in one configuration, and none of them is a rating or a promise about yours.
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Two crossings on one property, in summer. -
A pasture creek under mountains. -
A skid steer crossing. -
A UTV crossing.
Worth settling before you order
- Size against the heaviest thing that will ever cross, not the thing crossing today. A neighbor's loader, a hay truck at harvest, and a fire department vehicle are all heavier than the tractor the crossing was bought for.
- A tractor is a compact utility machine at 3,000 lb or a row crop machine at 18,000 lb, and the two do not point at the same bridge. The weight with the implement mounted and the loader full is the number that matters.
- Creeks on grazing land change. A span sized to the water in August is sized to the wrong creek, and the bank that washed out once will wash out again. Where the abutments go is as much of the decision as how long the bridge is.
- If there is no crane access and no way to get one in, a bolt-together Kit can be assembled in place. It comes in 20 and 30 ft spans at 4 ton, so it is a real constraint on what the crossing can carry rather than a free choice.
- Concrete foundations are recommended for many applications and may not always be required. On a working property that is worth establishing before the season it has to be built in.
Questions that come up
Can I drive a tractor across one of these bridges?
Utility Truss models are the vehicular family, rated 8 ton, or 16,000 pounds, across spans from 20 to 72 feet. Whether that covers your tractor depends on its loaded weight and axle spacing. Send us the machine and the crossing dimensions and we will confirm against the engineered configuration.
How much weight can a steel bridge hold?
It depends on the family and the configuration. Utility Truss models are rated 8 ton, or 16,000 pounds. Bolt-together kits are rated 4 ton. Pedestrian models are rated 90 PSF as a distributed load. Final capacity for your site comes from the engineered configuration, not a catalog number.
Can I install a bridge without concrete?
Often, yes. Concrete foundations are recommended for many applications and may not always be required. What your crossing needs depends on soil, bank geometry, and the load crossing it. That gets settled during the site evaluation, when someone walks the location with you before anything is fabricated.
What equipment do I need to unload a bridge?
Fully assembled utility spans are set with a single crane pick, so you need a crane or excavator sized for the span and a clear approach. Bolt-together kits ship flat and are handled without a crane. We confirm the requirement for your specific model before delivery.
Can you ship a bridge to my property?
Yes. Bridges ship by freight to the delivery address, including rural and private property. Fully assembled spans arrive on a truck ready to set. Kits ship flat. What matters is whether the truck can physically reach the site and what equipment is waiting when it does.
Guides for this crossing
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EngineeringWhat bridge load ratings mean
Roadrunner publishes two kinds of rating and they are not comparable. This is what each one describes, what the configurator sizes your answer against, and why a photograph of a machine on a bridge is not permission.
3 min read
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Buying guideSteel bridge or concrete crossing
On most private crossings the two options are not the same structure in a different material. One spans the channel and the other sits in it, and the water usually decides which you want.
5 min read
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InstallationAssembled bridge or bridge kit
This is not really a preference. Site access and span decide it, and on most crossings only one of the two is available.
2 min read
Start with your crossing
Seven questions about the span and what has to get over it, and you get the families that fit and the ones that do not. Or send it to us and an engineer will read it.