Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Building a dam Spillway Pictures

A couple of people asked for pictures of my spillway. The picture is on the pond side looking into the spillway. The main body of water will be on the right. Recall, I am rennovating an older pond that did not have an emergency spillway. I had my contractor add a spillway then he built a bridge over it. He literally cut the width of a dozer blade/5 foot deep through my existing dam at 1 foot above my primary drainage system.





Putting in a spillway saved me a ga-zillion dollars by making is possible to reduce the size of my drainage pipe from 24" to 12"...thanks to teh suggestions here on PB!

Gator

Gator,

Nice pictures. I especially like the bridge. Do you happen to know the materials used, specifically the beams? Looks like 2x6 for the cross boards?

After finding out from an engineer that I would need an 18 inch pipe for an overflow to keep up with a big flood in Washington, I like the idea of a natural ditch like spillway. The problem is the natural runoff area crosses a road. Now that I've seen your pictures, I think I'd like a small bridge. It looks a lot nicer than a culvert covered with dirt. Any suggestions as to the size of lumber to use?

bassandgrass,

A properly designed natural spillway will handle about anything Nature can throw at your pond... and is far less expensive, easier to maintain, and more reliable. Even if you go with a pipe, make sure you have a spillway for emergency purposes.

Ok Gator how about some details on the bridge...lumber sizes?

Thanks for the comments,

I am not sure of the lumber sizes...next time I go down I will take some measurements. The main beams are really BIG, perhaps 12 inches x 8 inches. The cross boards are about 10 - 12 inches wide by 2 to 3 inches tall if I recall correctly. Everything was rough-cut direct from a mill. The support beams underneath are cross ties. I will post exact sizes this week.

The bridge cost me $900 in material and my contractor built it in about 2 days. He claimed that it is sturdy enough to support his CAT D8 - not sure about that, but it is rock solid.

I had a choice of building a bridge or installing a large culvert and choose the bridge. I my opinion it is less likely to have maintenance issues and will move a LOT of water if necessary. Plus the bridge seemed to have a little more character.

Looks like bridge planks to me. Around here, once in a while you can get these from the county boys when they make repairs to old wood plank bridges. They tear off a bunch and replace them with new. The old ones are still plenty solid to build a private bridge from. Native oak, creosote soaked...something like 3"x12" full dimension lumber.

Matt - you are correct. I measured the lumber on the bridge today, they are rough cut 3" x 12".

Gator

Well, then they outta last your lifetime, seeing as how they last for 20 years or so on the old plank bridges around here. They just look (and sound) cool, too.

i have a friend who built a bridge across a small creek/spillway to his property. he actually found a building being torn down, and got these huge "I" beams for free. a few of them did the trick. It doesn't, however, have that..."rackety, rack, rack ,rack rack," sound that a good ol' wooden bridge makes! great pics. thanks gator. make sure you get something on that area soon to prevent erosion; i'm sure you've planned for that already.

gator, also, out of curiosity, how is the pond holding water? from the look of the pics, the soil appears sandy. just curious.

mark

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the comments. It does go ‘clackety-clack”.

I seeded the whole area but, this summer has been one of the driest on record. Still waiting on enough rain for my grass to take hold and grow. My soil has a high amount of (red) clay in it. The pictures don’t do justice to the amount of clay in the area. It may be a long wait for my pond to fill and test the repairs…

Gator