Crowning 3 miles of access road

[avorancher]

With recent record-setting rainfalls in this area, my attempts to properly drain my access roads are failing. Most of the roads are 10 ft. wide and and cut into steep hillsides with plenty of small to basketball size rocks.

I've been using a box blade on my B7800 and manually tilting it with the turnbuckle to create a crown. Since my box is only as wide as my tires, I can't easily move the dirt from the edges back to the crown so I end up digging deeper and deeper, taking dirt away from the edges instead of building up the center. Then when it rains the sides cave in and my tires ride up on the buildup and I end up creating a "V" or inverse crown instead of a crown. Then the erosion makes it even worse.

I've considered a T&T setup, but I'm not sure if that would help solve the problem, plus it will make putting on the backhoe that much harder.

Do I need a back grader blade that I can manually tilt at more severe degree and angle it to move dirt the center? Should it be considerably wider than my tractor?

I have no experience with a grader blade. The attachment you don't have always seems like the right answer until you get it.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Using a B7800 you can probably use a 7' grader blade. While driving down the right lane, angle the blade so the right side is forward and the left side (the side near the center line of the road) is back. Simulaneously, slightly tilt the right side of the blade down, this will leave the left side of the blade slightly elevated.

I've never done a road, but I have done a couple paths and a drive, this is the method I use. It works reasonably well. The problem with a box blade is that it holds the dirt inside the box instead of letting it flow off the trailer edge of the blade. The grader blade will allow it to spill off the trailing edge (which is going to be in the center of the road where you want a crown). You'll want to make multiple passes, I didn't find it useful to take too agressive of a cut when I did it.

 

[Egon]

Guage wheels work well on a rear blade and will make life much simpler.

Egon

 

[Bob_Skurka]

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Guage wheels work well on a rear blade and will make life much simpler.
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I don't have those, but I was looking hard at the ones Henro added to his blade!

I'm going to be repairing my existing paths and making several new paths through the woods this summer and just bought a TNT set up (not installed yet), I'm expecting that will also make life simpler too. I think I may treat the paths with PolyPavement to turn them into paths that will allow wheelchair & bike access.

 

[Darren]

I doubt that crowning your access road will solve your problems unless you've already made provisions for draining all the water that's moving to the road from higher elevations.

That's far more water than the amount falling on your road.

 

[avorancher]

I've already put in culverts to handle the water once I can get if off the middle of the roads. I have a series of 24, 18 and 12 inch culverts in strategic locations which have worked well so far. Whenever possible, especially in the higher elevations, I take the water off the high side and run it under the road with a culvert.

I have a 400 ft. elevation change with a stream that begins at the bottom and flows to the ocean. If the stream gets too muddy I'll have the environmental police visiting me, so keeping the dirt on my property is really important.

Bob's description is exactly what I think I need. I'm mostly concerned about having enough weight to let one side dig in without just bouncing off and jerking the tractor around, and having enough angle adjustment to get once side lower even when the tractor tilts the opposite way.

Anything specific I should look for in a blade other than "heavy"?

 

[Darren]

You've already ahead of most folks by putting in culverts. Look at your tractor's 3 pt lift capacity and get the heaviest blade it will handle. That's makes the difference between a blade that might only scrape the road, especially with hard packed gravel, as compared to one that will dig in and work.

 

[Cdash]

I have had good luck keeping a crown on our private road, ~ 20' wide. I use my 5' grader blade (not box blade) angled towards the center, and make passes starting at the edges and windrowing the material towards the center. When my two windrows turn into one in the middle, I place the blade straight and facing backwards while driving forward to smooth the windrow out and taper it a bit. I found that the pulling a backward blade smooths things out better without picking up and pulling material. This leaves me a high crown in the center every time. I have not mastered smooth yet, but I get the crown. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[DocHeb]

For three miles of roadway I could rationalize something like a Roadrunner Grader. They have units that are rated for 30hp (which is what your B7800 is?).

 

[Westonium]

I'm not sure I understand why your box blade isn't working out. I have about 1/3 a mile of rock and dirt driveway with 200' of elevation change (starts at about 1150' goes down over a stream at 1040', and back up again to 1240').

There was no crown when I started, and ruts all over the middle. I severly tilted the blade so the left side was about 3-4" in the air. Each pass I made only had an effective patch of about 3', but it consistently shifted the earth towards the center. In fact, I reclaimed quite a bit of gravel from the sides put there by years of dragging a DIY scraper that flattened, but didn't address the water concerns. At this point, it is as crowned as I dare go. One of my cars sits pretty low and I risk scraping down the middle. I've probably spent 20 hours on it, spread over about 5 or 6 sessions.
I always attack it when it is plyable, and not too dry or soaking wet. There is a fair bit of sand and rock fines worked in so now that I've left it alone, it is quite hard. Brick-like in fact.

With the fair clay content, sand has worked wonders in spots where it was slightly sticky in the rain. One section was dug up and I worked a truckload of sand into it (about 150').

I mention sand, because maybe it would help preserve the shape of your road. Be aware though that once you get a hardened sandy clay mixture - its a bit harder to re-shape later.

Another probably not-so-cheap thought is to spray the road down with PVA (used as an anti-dusting agent in places like IRAQ etc). Its basically a thinned white glue that would bond the dirt together, make it erosion resistant, and shed water better. I intend to try this on our road this summer if I can find large quantites (ie cheap).

If your road cannot hold its shape, even that fancy RoadRunner grader won't really help you (but it is really really cool looking).