Need help with Corduroy road

[inveresk]

You're talking about 4-5 loads of rock if 6" deep and 8' wide. That's not a lot but hauling it 3000' for a loader full will be slow work.

Talk this through with your machine man. Maybe he could haul a semi trailer back and fore so he makes less trips? He'll likely have some answer to the problem. If he does then I believe it's possible to get it roughed in in a day. Shame you can't truck the stone closer to the trail though.

 

[slowzuki]

7.5' wide, but you can't use the outer edges with fabric, you need to let your load on top spread to a wider footprint. Bigger the load, farther from the edge you need to be. An ATV could probably use the middle 5 -6 ft without any worry of damage.

I've done a few of them before. When I was young and broke, I built one about 200 ft long through a swamp using used synthetic carpet. Yes, carpet. It was 4 ft wide to get a ride on lawnmower through the swamp. I hauled the fill for the top with a wheelbarrow and later dump cart. There were 3 sections, one was built with the fabric over a corduroy section that had failed, one was directly laid on the swamp, and one was laid over a section that had 2-3" poles, 4 ft long driven vertically down into the swamp. All worked equally well. The trail is still there today but grown over.

Later I built some using cheap geotextile meant for erosion control, a type of filter fabric. It worked as well as the carpet but was more expensive.

BTW, don't try to use it before covering with fill. That nice little picture of the mini excavator on the fabric doesn't work like that in real swamp, the wheels or tracks will sink like trying to walk on a pool cover and the fabric wraps around and gets torn up.

With an ATV, you won't need much cover, but if you're trying to take a tractor on it, you will need rock etc.

 

[inveresk]

BTW, don't try to use it before covering with fill. That nice little picture of the mini excavator on the fabric doesn't work like that in real swamp, the wheels or tracks will sink like trying to walk on a pool cover and the fabric wraps around and gets torn up.

The shot was of an excavator on mud mats, not fabric. You're point is still well made though. Unlike mudmats, fabric does need covered.

 

[MikeD74T]

I've helped with two successful cordoroy roads. First was access to a deer feed plot that had been torn up in a logging job. About 75' long & ruts too deep for a large farm tractor. We placed 12' long softwood logs 4" to 8" in diameter crosswise with FEL & forks. Covered with 8" of gravel. Can cross it with a pickup & you'd never know it was ever muddy.

Helped my brother cross a swamp & small brook behind his house. He got about 10 bundles of softwood slabs from a sawmill which we placed crosswize in layers. He crossed it several times with his JD 4010 dozer until it was stable then with his TLB. That road was slippery because he never put anything over the slabs which are usually wet.

There's a section of US Route 3 in northern NH that is cordoroy. State DOT workers claim the wood's still sound after over 200 years

There's a commercial technique that uses 24" thick styrofoam blocks to make a floating road over peat bogs that's interesting. Making a mat of tires is also successful if properly tied togeather & covered adequately.

You might find this site usefull: http://www.fs.fed.us/eng/pubs/html/02251202/02251202.htm MikeD74T

 

[ultrarunner]

This is sounding like a nice solution.

I believe that stone is sold by the ton, at around $10 per ton delivered. At 1.25 tons/cu-yd, that's 22.5 tons, or $225. (Don't know if I should use small or large gravel or small, medium or large stone).

The best price I can get here for Class 2 Base is $50 a yard when buying full semi-load...

I'm envious of you guys with access to reasonable priced aggregate!

 

[josephny]

I'm starting to realize this is beyond me.

The idea of doing it while the ground is frozen means the paths are also covered in snow -- okay for dozer/excavator, but no commercial delivery dump truck will get in there.

And 4-5 loads will just make it prohibitively expensive (the rocks and the time to move/lay it).

I'm back to the idea of a corduroy road.

I'm fascinated by the idea of softwood slabs. Have no idea if they're available anywhere near me, but a quick google and I see they're inexpensive and sounds much easier than cutting down trees for logs. Of course, I still have the problem of getting them back to the swamp.

 

[SPYDERLK]

Ah, I'm starting to get the physics of it!

With a 15' wide roll, if I can cut it in half, I'll have 7.5' of textile.

While it's impossible to predict future needs, I'd be thrilled with just being able to get my basically 4' wide ATV over it. But, if it's easier to do a 6 or 7' wide road, so be it.

Maybe you can get a narrower or custom cut roll. 300' will maim several scissor hands. You will thank yourself for going comfortably wider than vehicle track width.
larry

 

[ultrarunner]

Maybe you can get a narrower or custom cut roll. 300' will maim several scissor hands. You will thank yourself for going comfortably wider than vehicle track width.
larry

I've seen a machine to cut full widths of carpet on the roll smaller for hallways... seems someway to cut the material on the roll would be easier.

 

[Lloyd_E]

If you remove the peat will you get to hard clay or ground?
If so I would look at selling the peat or doing a partial trade of peat for labour/material.

Peat is an excellent material for gardeners and landscape businesses. With the ground frozen they could be hauling the stuff out now and each return trip they could be bringing loads of rock - various sizes - to stockpile for when you need to lay down the rock base.

 

[josephny]

If you remove the peat will you get to hard clay or ground?
If so I would look at selling the peat or doing a partial trade of peat for labour/material.

Peat is an excellent material for gardeners and landscape businesses. With the ground frozen they could be hauling the stuff out now and each return trip they could be bringing loads of rock - various sizes - to stockpile for when you need to lay down the rock base.

Wow, what a cool idea. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to look for the right party (and I'm 100 miles away) so I can't make that happen. I call it peat, but I have no idea (and doubt) if it's the right kind of peat. It's 100 years of rotting rhodendrum in a swampy-like area.