Anyone with experience building load bearing ramps

[TexasBushwhacker]

Here's our situation. Part of our apartment complex has high water and our exit and entrance are impassable. Some industrious residents tore down a section of fence between our complex and the next and built a makeshift ramp of lumber and plywood so people could drive out of the complex. It didn't last long.

W://i.imgur.com/aTlsejD.jpg

So, any ideas?

[byronius]

1. Pontoons of some sort -- inflatable pools, etc., lashed together and layered over with plywood?

This is an old Army problem, bridging water quickly with minimal supplies. There are a couple of solid bridge styles made for this that use the physics of the arch and triangle, but pontoon-loading is the quickest to assemble. You have no significant flow, so that's a plus.

The rigging would have to emphasize depth, not width. A large and closely-spaced nylon cord (backpacker's cord) system might provide enough support to keep the inflatables from popping. The weight supportable by the system would increase the more deeply the 'pontoons' are held.

Good luck, TexasBushwacker.

[TexasBushwhacker]

2. I am hoping I hear back from management

The office is closed because of high water, but we have heard no thing from them since before the storm. I have sent 3 e-mails to the management company in as many days and have gotten no answers. I discontinued my autopay for my rent because as far as I'm concerned, I'm going to have to move. My apartment is dry, but without egress, I cannot drive to work, not to mention having to walk a 1/2 mile to the grocery store. Fortunately I have money for new deposits and such, but they aren't getting a dime from me until I can drive out of the complex.

[byronius]

3. That, of course, is the proper solution.

A pontoon bridge is both questionably possible and possibly dangerous.

I have two elderly aunts downtown. Wet walls, but not much other damage.

It's going to be a long road up for a lot of other working folk.

[TexasBushwhacker]

4. Would something like this work

Put them on either side of the curbs we are trying to clear?

http://www.discountramps.com/rubber-curb-ramp/p/KR36R/

[byronius]

5. Maybe. Hard to know without a picture. It's not that deep, then.

Cinder blocks. Bunch of cinder blocks with plywood resting on half-blocks and quarter-blocks -- they can be broken pretty easily into parts.

[Donkees]

6. This might be the picture:

[TexasBushwhacker]

7. No, I mean the link to Discount Ramps

http://www.discountramps.com/rubber-curb-ramp/p/KR36R/

[byronius]

8. I saw the picture of the ramp -- what's the gap look like, and how deep's the water?

[jmowreader]

9. Try car trailer ramps

[Mopar151]

10. Good call!