Creek Crossing for Tractor

[rd_macgregor]

I have this problem and questions Seasonal creek bone dry 75% of the year. New neighbor bought the adjoining property trench the only ford, which was blown out from large equipment anyway. Now I have to drive 3/4 of a mile and cross all of his land to brushing my back 5 acres. Cut a nice lane thru the woods, had to cut 20 to 25 trees up to 12" in dis. This is a private drain so improving it is no problem in Michigan. All stumps less than 4" high. Creek bed is dry now mostly sand humus and tree roots. I have to get the stumps down and need to put some stone in as it gets real soft when the creek is running. I have several tons of field stone softball to basketball size to put in to shore up the muck. Only need to access during dry season but it takes all summer to dry out. I have no excavation equip. Went to rental to price stump grinders, I can rent a mini excavator or a Kubota mini backhoe for the same price as the grinder. Thinking I could maybe pull the stumps rather than grind them and then use the ex. or the bh to dig out the creek bed. So my questions are will either the ex or the bh work for the stumps and dig out the stream bed? Which is better? How deep do in need to dig . I will have to leave some of the big roots or cut some massive trees and degrade the banks. I own most of the creek and the neighbor doesn't care. I know I need to return the creek bed to the depth it is at now. Forgot to mention creek is 8' wide and 12" deep. Muck is 6" when saturated. Planning ford to be 7' w wide and 18' across the flow to give a good footing in and out. Should be able to get my Ford 600 across on that. What do you think?

"Mini excavator" can cover several different sizes. With enough digging, almost anything can dig out a stump...but smaller, less capable equipment can take a long time and run up the rental cost. Hardwood (?) stumps 12" in dia. sound more like a job for a stump grinder, bulldozer or a "real" excavator. Removing the stumps might also make a lot more work (compared to grinding), what with contouring and backfilling (maybe even bringing more fill in). The flip side of this is that the surface would stay smoother, longer if there weren't stumps slowing rotting in the path...you have to decide which side of that trade-off works best for you.
My (limited) experience with a mini-ex is that they can be a bit tippy on uneven ground, so you'd have to be especially careful working on the slope to your ford (maybe I'm just paranoid now since I tipped MY rented mini-ex over on its side!); a backhoe with stabilizing feet might be a better option if machine stability looks to be an issue.
I think your basic plan of digging it out, then putting in stone and backfilling to (approx.) original contour could work fine. What is max/peak flow in that drainage? You want to be sure that peak flow will fit into the banks or that you can stabilize the banks enough to handle the high flow. Otherwise, you might end up with a stable bed, but eroded sides. If serious flood flows are not an issue, your plan as it is sounds good to me.

 

[USAFpj]

I'd like to revive this thread from the dead and ask this question- has anyone attempted to use filled sandbags vs. large stone or rock on the ramp portions? Getting large rock to the creek site, and in place, may be more labor intensive and costly than just taking the time to fill a hundred sandbags if you have the available dirt on your property?