Road Building

[davemhughes]

We bought 15ac out at the lake with the land bordering Corp of Engineer land on 3 sides. It has a nice build spot on a point over looking the lake. The land had no road access into it. (I will post photos as I go) I bought a SAME tractor as I figured I could build a road myself verses paying some one to do it. I first had to clear about a 30ft wide x 30ft deep section of large evergreens off of the county road. My Husky 455 rancher chain saw sure cut that section out with no problem. The ground slopes up at a sharp angle from the road so after I cut the trees down and cut them up I used my tractor w/fel to push them up out of the way. I dug a trench and dropped a 20ft x 18inch double walled plastic culvert in and covered it dirt and engaged the 4x4 and started digging out the sharp rise in ground. Over the next several hours managed to get it dug down so I could get up over the rise. Once on top I started pushing dirt from on top down the hill to decreased the angle of slope. I used my 7ft woods drag blade to level the ground further on up the property using the dirt I scaped doing this to dump down the slope. While I was there the county guys just happened to drive by with their chipper and they chipped up all the trees for me for nothing and once their dump truck was full dumped it up top in a cople of big piles. That chipper they had was eating big evergreen trunks like pretzel sticks.

My SAME tractor worked hard and ran great.....lots of power. Nothing bad to say about it and the county guys were impressed with all the work I did with it especially on such a steep slope to start till I got it knocked down.....more to follow as i go.

[EddieWalker]

Dave,

Sure sounds like exiting times for you!!!

Take lots and lots of pictures. In just a few years it will be just a memory of what it "used" to look like. All your friends, and even yourself, will have trouble remembering how it was and everything you had to do to cut a road through the woods.

Enjoy,
Eddie

[Thomas]

Morning Dave.
Don't you love it when a plan comes together and than some.

Post some pics when you get a chance.

[Bob_Skurka]

Obviously that is a "before" photo because there is no dirt on that tractor!

When it comes time to start building the road for yourself, please don't follow the recommendations of our government road builders. Instead go back into history to the Roman empire, those guys built roads that are still in use today after 2000 years! Seems to me my county can build a road that will turn into a pothole obstical course in under 2 years

Dig your road base deep, lay in a geotextile material with rock over it, or lay in multiple layers of rock for drainage and for compression so that you have a good solid base that doesn't move. Keep the center of the roadway crowned a little higher than the edges so water doesn't pool on it. Make sure water near the roadway has clear paths of flow for drainage and doesn't undermine your work, put in culverts as needed and cut swales to direct the water flow.

[andrewj]

Bob, the Romans didn't have overloaded semi trucks to contend with! Hence, the invention of transport police.

[davemhughes]

Lots of rain here today.....very muddy.....did manage to rough blade and chainsaw my way the entire 2500 ft

[gemini5362]

Dave how did you make the ditch for the culvert did you use your box blade with rippers or the front end loader. I need to make a ditch just not sure of a good way to do it ?

[davemhughes]

Originally Posted by gemini5362

Dave how did you make the ditch for the culvert did you use your box blade with rippers or the front end loader. I need to make a ditch just not sure of a good way to do it ?

I used a combo of the fel and drag blade plus a little shovel work.....it turned out well as it supported a heavy dump truck already

[andrewj]

Originally Posted by davemhughes

I used a combo of the fel and drag blade plus a little shovel work.....it turned out well as it supported a heavy dump truck already

nope, too clean. come clean. your brother in law got a backhoe, right?

[Paddy]

Drive ways need either money or time! From the looks of your photos, no steep hills or heavey forest. Idealy, you would want to remove all the top soil on your road bed and build up the road bed from the future ditch area. This will create an elevated road with good ditches on both sides. This requires a dozer! Then many tri axels (20 ton loads) of #2 base stone. The #2 is a crushed stone about the size of golf balls to lemons. Go with about 6-8". Then drive it for a few months and top with 4-6 " of 5s an 3s and dust. This stone is grape sized and smaller but with lot's of dust. This settles real well and locks it all together. at 2500 ft x 12 ' wide 1.2 ' deep, you will need 1333 yards of stone. This will cost $10,000 to $13,000. in stone.

Or if you want to save money up front, wait untill July when it's real dry and skip the bull dozer work and just get 4to5 inches # 2. Use a yard box to make your drainage. In dry times keep buying stone. Never have stone delivered in wet conditions. The stone they drive over will be half way to China! Save your fine road building for after you build. Concrete trucks will make you cry

Looks like a fun project.