Cutting an access road on a slope

Gary Fowler · Jan 25, 2013

I agree with you on not using the dirt to build up the low side, just cut into the hill enough so you have a nice wide road bed. Soft spoils on the down slope is not good news for a TLB. Be sure you make the cut plenty wide so you have room for a drainage ditch on the uphill side and still have plenty wide to drive your vehicles up without danger of slipping off the side of the hill or into the drainage ditch. I would shoot for at least a 15 foot wide road bed, 20 would be better while allowing 4 feet for ditch maintenance on uphill side. While that may seem like a wide road, you will be amazed at how narrow it might become when travelling up it with a trailer on your vehicle on a wet surface.
I would put a slight slope of the road bed into the hill to drain your road into the ditch and also keep you from sliding toward the downhill side should you get into trouble with a wet slick road. YOU DONT Want to slip off the downhill side. I wouldnt put much of a ditch in the uphill side if any at all as mother nature will help you with that when it rains. If you slope the road a half inch to the foot on a 12 foot wide road that would put the uphill side 6" lower than the downhill side which would be plenty and maybe too much, maybe 1/4" to the foot would be enough. If you have some gravel or rocks I would put those in the ditch to slow down the run off and stop the erosion.
DONT try to eyeball the level of the road. Make your self a long level to check grade with . I would just use a straight 2x4 x 8foot or longer and fasten a minimum of a 2 foot level to it. Keep a ground man to check your grade as you go to keep it somewhat on the plane that you want. You could fasten the 2 foot level to the 2x4with a 1/2" thick wedge under one end so the slope is built in and then just read the bubble as level and you have your slope, just make sure the ground man keeps the high end toward the downhill side of the slope.

ovrszd · Jan 25, 2013

You gotta think REALLY big. As mentioned above, go wide. You should have a drainage area on the uphill side, off the roadbed, as wide as your tractor. When you think about that, you'll realize you are going to disrupt the upper hill side at least 20 feet above the roadbed to get a gentle bank slope and leave a drainage ditch. I don't like a narrow steep sided drainage ditch. it will do one of two things, immediatly silt full or become a deep gully. You don't want either. When you think you've got it built right, wait for a runoff rain. Be onsight for that and watch where the water goes and make adjustments accordingly. NO WATER should run across your roadbed, NONE. If that can't be avoided you will need to add a drainage tube under the road to get rid of that runoff. I wouldn't be so picky about this if you were just building a seasonal access road. But you said you are going to build a house up there. Gotta be able to get out under any weather situation.

Good to see you are involving your children. The only way children learn about machinery is by growing up around it, and eventually operating it. Good luck with your project and post pictures when you get started. Hope your harvest is going well and the crops yielded high!!!

dwessel · Mar 15, 2013

I've been working on a similar project lately, taking what was a walking path from our upper lots down to our driveway and house and starting to make what will eventually be a continuation of the driveway. While I would have preferred working uphill, the easier and more available access was working down hill.

While I have the benefit of a box scraper, I don't have the benefit of a backhoe. In any event, the majority of my work was done with the loader. To me, the key either way is creating an initial level area for the tractor to start at so that when using the bucket to dig into the hill side, you can continue to create a level cut area and then dump to the other side to fill and/or build a protective berm. To do so, I used a technique similar to what others suggested, dump the load and then use downward pressure from the bucket while moving forward to pack and push the dirt out towards the edge. This allowed me to keep the majority of the tractor on solid (cut) ground until the dirt became packed down for more solid driving.

Here's the start after the first day:

The next working day after installing a drainage pipe"

Continuing to bridge a gap that was probably 60% fill:

But be careful when working on areas of mostly fresh fill!!! As I my tractor was on the area that was predominantly fill and I started to use the loader to cut into solid hillside, the rest of the tractor started to pivot towards the soft outer edge. Even though I immediately dropped the load, the tractor had shifted and dug enough into the soft soil to where even with 4WD, the tractor could not get out and wanted to continue to shift towards the soft edge and certain doom.

Trying to use the bucket to push my way out did not work either. So, another vehicle with a winch was necessary.

After a solid rain that helped settle and compact the fill, I was ready to begin again. This time, as I added fill to the edge and packed it down, I was extra careful to keep the tractor tires on more solid ground and used fill to build a safety berm.

This is where I started last weekend.

In progress:

The view and perspective of how steep the slope is that I'm working on:

End of the day:

Now I just have to deal with continuing to work my way down through decomposing granite!!!

ultrarunner · Apr 8, 2013

Any progress on the roads?

David Devuono · Apr 8, 2013

With 8 inches of snow expected this week, I can only dream of building some new roads to nowhere.

Dr_Zinj · Apr 8, 2013

California hillsides and water don't go together well.

ultrarunner · Apr 8, 2013

All depends on what it is made of...

I have lots of clay and my neighbor on the other side of the ridge... across the street could open a gravel quarry!

Not fair that I get mud and every scoop on his side crushed gravel...

dwessel · Apr 8, 2013

Dr_Zinj said:
California hillsides and water don't go together well.

Dr. Zinj,

Depends on the California hillside ... and the amount of water!!! Fortunately or unfortunately, my land has a lot of decomposed granite with only about 0-2' of top soil. So, while the granite tends to break easily after rain, it generally remains pretty solid. Also makes for a good spread across the dirt road.