street arches

[mike and patti]

I could use some advice on planning a street arch that spans either 40' without guides or 60' with guides due to the sidewalks. The arch needs to be at least 16' high. I do have one tree to use.

Thanks Mike Weber from Port Orange Florida

[JeffF]

I don't think I'd try using PVC(electrical or plumbing) for a either of those spans. I just put up a 35' long, 12' high, 22' wide arch a couple days ago using 1-1/4" electrical(gray) PVC and I can't imagine going much farther or higher with soft conduit. Actually, I tried using 40' of the conduit and keeping the same width except going to about 16' high and it did NOT like it. Without any lights it started to move a bit in some light wind.

I'd imagine the safest way would be some sort of metal tube arch... especially if you are spanning a road.

Here's a picture of the 40' long arch...



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[JeffF]

And here's the 35' long arch a few hours later...


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[mike and patti]

Thank you for your input. I was leaning more toward a cable and post set up thinking it would be stronger, but I have seen some that go across the street like you talked about. I don't have any info on them yet. Please keep the ideas coming.

Thanks again Mike and Patti

[JeffF]

Yep, I'd like to see some suggestions too since next year we want to try an arch at the entrance of our driveway which spans ~30'-35'.

Good luck and be sure to post back with what you finally come up with.

-Jeff

[mike and patti]

I like your idea of connecting at least two arches together with cross tees, that way they will support each other and make it more solid. We are talking about doing multiple arches across the road. Some of our neighbors want arches also,so we will see how committed they are as to how many we build.

[Steven]

How about guy lines? I have a 49' long, 30' wide arch across my 3-car driveway. I used 4 guy lines made out of nylon twine. They all attach at various angles, but they keep it from falling over.

See this post.

[phildo]

i built 2 40' arches out of 1 1/2" sch 40 conduit in my yard this year anchored in the ground using 6' t posts driven in the ground they are very stable without any guys

trying to get the neighbor envolved next year doing the same idea was actually gonna try using 2" conduit this next go round

looking forward to all the ideas!

[JeffF]

I'd be interested to know if 2" will bend how we want it. I played around with some in Lowes real quick and it seems alot more rigid than the 1-1/4" and 1-1/2".

I'm definitely going to play around this summer with large arches. Now we aren't sure if we are going to go with 6 to 10 driveway arches AND/OR 5 or 6 large "jumping" arches going all the way across our yard and driveway and continuing up the hill.

-Jeff

[Robin]

Are you talking about your driveway or the street.

If you are talking about your street, lots of luck. You will not get permission to do that. I know every county official elected and department heads and that just is going to be a bear. Although, I try every single year it has yet to happen.

[mike and patti]

I am in Port Orange Florida. When I called the city they said that as long as it was at least 14' high and cleared the fire trucks, garbage trucks that I could do it. If you say no, then I will re call and clarify what I want to do before I do it

[NWSanta]

What about using 3 inch Black PVC Tubing. It would be more squareish but, it would probably take the weather and weight better. IE Straight up to a 90 degree then over and back down. I've always thought that Black PVC is probably pretty sturdy stuff...
I guess it depends if your looking for a curvy or square arch...

-Evan

[mike and patti]

I am trying to keep the cost as low as possible for my neighbors to be able to have arches also. Without any guide wires supporting behind the arches, the road span will be 30' The arch has to be at least 14' high for the fire trucks. I will check into 3" black pipe for cost effectiveness.

[Max-Paul]

NWSanta wrote:

What about using 3 inch Black PVC Tubing. It would be more squareish but, it would probably take the weather and weight better. IE Straight up to a 90 degree then over and back down. I've always thought that Black PVC is probably pretty sturdy stuff...
I guess it depends if your looking for a curvy or square arch...

-Evan

I was thinking the same thing from what I understand you are saying. Some kind of square rig. But that was going to be the support, then using something flexable to get it to round out and attach the lights to the flexable material. So, at night you would not really see the squared ridgit frame work. Or something like light post to give the vertical part of the arch some support so it would not sway back and forth.

Max

[Robin]

WOW Mike that would be a switch.

[mike and patti]

OK I am going for it as long as the city doesn't shut me down. at least 8 street arches spaced about 50' apart and synchronized to our music. Chasing down the street ought to get there attention as they drive by. Just got off the phone with the city and Robin is correct the city will not allow road crossings. New plan is parrallel arches along the roadway.

[Big Island Brandon]

My apologies if I am changing the subject slightly......been running LOR for 4 years now and finally going to add some arches this year. Been reading all the forum posts as far as segments go....and think I have it. But, just wanted to bounce my plan off you to get some feedback on whether it will look good...

I plan to make a total of 9 arches.... 4 on each side of the driveway, leading to one large arch over the driveway. I want to make the two end arches (one on each side of the drive) the smallest and have them get progressively larger until meeting up with the mega arch over the drive.

So, I'm thinking of using 100 light minis per segment and making each segment 14" long. The first arch (the smallest) will be 4 segments with a total length of 54", second arch will be 6 segs and 84" inches long, 3rd arch will be 8 segs and 9'4", and the 4th arch (and last before the mega) will be 10 segs and 11'6." Not sure what my mega will be....but plan to stay with the 14" segments.

Anyway...just looking for some experienced opinions on my plan before I start cutting pvc pipe and allotting my lor channels. thanks!

[thebaronn]

This year I "built" and mega arch that consisted of Ten sections of 10ft 2inch diameter electrical conduit....EPIC FAIL!

This first thing was that the arch would not support itself. It sagged badly, before I attached any lights!!!! However I do think that if I created a couple of supports I could get it too look right. I thought I could go with a larger diameter. When it was standing (with the horrible sag) it was only anchored to the ground by sliding the PVC over those 7ft green fence stakes.

The most exciting part was when we were tearing it down (i was supporting the top of the arch via 60' boom lift) I went a little too high and the PVC came apart and went every where! That was exciting.

This year I will be trying a larger diameter PVC pipe because I believe that it is still possible. Also, instead of supporting the base with posts in the ground, I would make movable bases so you could get the "perfect" base distance. I would get 2 tires and fill them with cement and place a post in the middle. It would be much easier to slide the posts in at an angle and rotate the tire to the ground than trying to lift 100ft of PVC high enough to slide it on a post in the ground. Also I could "tweak" the arch to make sure it had a great look.

Then of course a lot of guy wires.

Eric

Edit: apparently I missed the post about how the city cancelled your idea.... I am a genius



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