Cement Bag Retaining Wall

[bcp]

Where is that? I'd love to see a picture of that.

Here are some:

concrete bag wall - Google Search

Bruce

 

[WoodChuckDad]

My wife and son were both throwing in with me this weekend.
When it the cement was stacked 3.5 feet high, we drove some rods down thru it into the ground. If you are at bedrock level, you shouldn't try to drive a rod down thru the bags ......I nearly wore myself out trying to drive the rods in all the way before I gave up and just stacked bags on them. Fortunately my son jumped in and started driving the rest of them in for me.

Then more soil spread, and more compacting......

Finally, we finished the inlet wall. I will have to do a lot of landshaping next weekend to get the clay compacted and snapped properly for the inlet spillway, but I feel a great relief at being done with the cement work. We poured water on the inlet stack but a lot more water is needed. I know that the soil will transfer the water to the stack, Just need a little rain to really get things set.

I had enough left to tidy up the outlet side. All in all, we used every one of the 400 bags I bought for this project.

I will continue posting my progress on the bridge as it comes.

 

[Tinstafl]

That is a huge amount of work you guys are doing. Well done.

 

[dieselscout80]

What are the dimensions of a 80lb concrete bag?

 

[WoodChuckDad]

That is a huge amount of work you guys are doing. Well done.

Thanks, we are all worn down a bit. My son started back in high school today so im sure he is tired.

 

[WoodChuckDad]

What are the dimensions of a 80lb concrete bag?

I'm not sure. They list their 80 lb rip rap mix as 5 inches thick by 20 inches long. But it doesn't say how wide the bag is. I can check next weekend when I go back up there.

 

[pycoed]

What I want to know is how long it took before your boys were racing lying on their skateboards down those pipes?
Great project & photo's by the way:thumbsup:

 

[WoodChuckDad]

What I want to know is how long it took before your boys were racing lying on their skateboards down those pipes? Great project & photo's by the way:thumbsup:

I'm glad they don't read this website. Hopefully, giving them the keys to the bobcat will keep them occupied.

 

[GolfAddict]

Any updates?

 

[WoodChuckDad]

It has been almost a month since I worked on the bridge. My stepson and I went out and put in a day working on it. First we spent a few hours shaping the head end of the spill way, raking away dirt to get back down to the grass underneath and recover some of the original terrain line. Then I spent a couple hours in the tractor moving dirt with the loader to build up the bridge a bit. Then we took a break to do some shooting.
The bottom (outlet) side of the bridge.


The inlet side of the bridge...from middle of bridge.


Reshaped head end of spillway.


The bridge. Drivable, but it still needs some work.


The next day I tried to do some more work, but my excavator wouldn't start....that took me 3 weeks to get sorted out.....,Tracking down the problem, and ordering parts. It's back in service now, so I should be able to make some more headway on the bridge. It rained almost 5 inches last week. That gave the stack wall some moisture to set up better but really didn't even test the bridge, since the primary pond drain handled that with no issues....there didn't appear to be any water flowing across the spillway, just a little pooled up in the area we reshaped. I will have to keep an eye on it. This weekend we should get plenty of rain with the hurricane passing by the coast.
As a point of interest, some idiot stole some landscaping materials I was going to use on the bridge. Several rolls of landscape matt. A netting with straw matt to keep soil from eroding while grass grows. I will wait till I'm ready to roll it out and use it before I try to buy some more.

 

[jcummins]

some idiot stole some landscaping materials....that's not an idiot....that's a criminal.

 

[WoodChuckDad]

some idiot stole some landscaping materials....that's not an idiot....that's a criminal.

Yes. I will be going thru my game cam pictures. But I have neglected them all summer and many of the batteries have died or the chips filled up.

 

[EddieWalker]

Sorry to hear your stuff was stolen. Seems kind of odd that they would steel landscaping materials. Makes me wonder if somebody close by needed them and knew that you had them? Not like some crackhead took something to sell quickly.

 

[WoodChuckDad]

You would have to drive about 1/4 mile down my driveway to get to where they were. It is definitely odd. I have had a couple shovels go awol over the summer but I figured those could just as easily have been lost by my kids. The landscape rolls are harder to explain. Motion activated cameras don't always catch everything. Today I bought a plot watcher pro. I figure the time-lapse will work better. I just need to keep up with the batteries each week. But they should also be easier to hide.

 

[EddieWalker]

I just bought a new game camera. It's getting tougher to pick the best ones since all of them seem to be just as good. What I really like is that the batteries last so much longer now. One package said that they will last a full year!!!! I'm hoping to get through deer season on one set of batteries.

 

[WoodChuckDad]

I just bought a new game camera. It's getting tougher to pick the best ones since all of them seem to be just as good. What I really like is that the batteries last so much longer now. One package said that they will last a full year!!!! I'm hoping to get through deer season on one set of batteries.

I have been using Wildgame innovation cameras for several years. Some models have been better than others. Some have been flat out junk. A year ago I bought half a dozen of the cloak 6 model and I have been quite happy. For stills the batteries last a really long time. Video kills the batteries after about 180 videos are shot that process takes about 2 months and most of the videos are caused by wind. For stills I have had batteries last 6 months.

 

[rd_macgregor]

They need some way to make an unobtrusive solar charger for those game cameras to keep them going longer between maintenance visits.

 

[WoodChuckDad]

I spent a good portion of the day Sunday reshaping the overflow for the dam. There is no easy way to do it. You have to grab a shovel and get to work. I also used a string level. I am sure I will be going back and revisiting it a few times to insure that it remains open and that there is enough dirt there
After this picture, I spent an hour adding soil to the bridge. A few more weeks and I should be good.

 

[Tinstafl]

Looks like a lot of work. I am glad my dam is done.

 

[WoodChuckDad]

I find the shovel work to be some of the hardest. Lots of twisting of my lower back under load. Moving the cement wore us out....but there is something about shovel work that just beats me up.
I have decided to put more cement at the lower end before I backfill it all the way in. I don't like how the top line of the outlet is a foot or two below the line of the hill side. I think 50 bags will give me another 3 rows, single width I am toying with the idea of using 60 lb bags instead of 80.
The fill material I started using this weekend has a lot more rock in it...I'm hoping that all locks together for a more solid base. It seems to.