Crowning Gravel Roads with BB

[joea99]

. . . Plus I use a pipe on the edge of my snow blade which really helps minimize problems.

Could you explain that a bit? I don't plow the road, my neighbor does. I just clean up the road after heavy rains. But it might help us both out.

 

[deezler]

ededic, that's some impressive results from a little tractor. Sorta surprised it can pull a 60" BB that well.

But to be honest I do not see much crown profile, or proper ditches on the road edges. You have made an impressively flat road, but it's going to mean extra maintenance going forward. How many hours of seat time a year does it take you do grade out 4 miles or wide gravel road with a 2210 and 60" box blade? I'm gonna guess.... 50-60.

P.S. I love the shelby area. Need to get back to play a round at flip city and grab a burger at the brown bear afterwards sometime soon.

 

[the old grind]

I parked the BB and angle blade to build a crown and provide ditches so the whole d'way wasn't one. (550') Turns out the landscape rake beats 'em all. Angling the implement minimizes ripples. BB with gauge wheels will still leave 'em. Angled rake just moves gravel to the center vs along the path, doesn't jump up when it hits a protruding rock. btw, since crowning I no longer have to fill potholes. Controlling runoff is key lest as said the road becomes its own ditch.

 

[ededic]

ededic, that's some impressive results from a little tractor. Sorta surprised it can pull a 60" BB that well.

But to be honest I do not see much crown profile, or proper ditches on the road edges. You have made an impressively flat road, but it's going to mean extra maintenance going forward. How many hours of seat time a year does it take you do grade out 4 miles or wide gravel road with a 2210 and 60" box blade? I'm gonna guess.... 50-60.

P.S. I love the shelby area. Need to get back to play a round at flip city and grab a burger at the brown bear afterwards sometime soon.

I can spend easily 8-10 hours in the seat grading after a heavy rain. All volunteer. My association pays for the fuel. The roads do not have a lot of crown but I just started crowning vs. just straight grading. The tractor does all right. I keep it in low gear and 4wd. The wet asphalt millings can get heavy when wet so I typically wait a day after the rain to grade. Rolls in the box real nice then.

We are on top of a sand dune here so all of this sits on at least 150’ deep of beach sand. We know because of the deeper wells being drilled in the neighborhood. Only 2 or 3 layers of clay about 16 - 30” each.

The rain water runs off the road into basically a sieve at the edge no ditch required. The hills are the killer, taking all the fines from the top to the bottom and washing out.

Life starting to get back to normal here so should go to the Brown Bear soon for a sit instead of just takeout.

 

[deezler]

That makes sense. I am lucky enough to have purchased land and built my home on a node of pure sand down here in the southeast corner of the state myself. I have decently deep ditches on the sides of my driveway but they never flow any water, basically just a sieve like you said.

However! If you can get a taller crown on your road, especially on the hills, water will go sideways to the ditches/edges, and not gain as much speed before it gets there. Thereby not pulling your fines all the way down the road. Hopefully, anyway.

 

[bearthebruce]

The hills are the killer, taking all the fines from the top to the bottom and washing out.

Do you make small diagonal runoffs - there is probably a proper word for these - that would keep the water from developing the momentum needed to pull the millings off the hill? While it puts a bump in the hill and these likely require maintenance, they might just help you control the wash off.

There may be something in this DOT paper on dirt road design that might help:
Dirt Road Design

 

[/pine]

When dealing with elevation changes (hills)...The crown (or pitch) has to be increased enough so storm water will run off the lane to the outside before it has a chance to run down the hill...

Long steep hills may require some mellow "swales" (as mentioned)...

Sometimes a pitched lane (to just one side) works better than a crown and ditches on both sides...

 

[Red Horse]

In a majority of cases a grading blade that angles is useful in moving material up or down the blade as a pass is made...
...Not being able to angle a box blade is the one thing that keeps it form being "a perfect attachment"...

Agree 100% on the angle comment. I have very heavy 72" box with 7 scarifiers. My draft links are adjustable so I've tried unlocking the left one but that gives me like about two more inches of length- hardly enough to make any kind of an angle. I've thought of welding up some sort of extension to add to the left link but my guess is I would be restricted by the top link binding,

and for sure as many have said..crown is key. Get the water off road ASAP. I also think if you have pot holes, filling is a short term solution. I take care of some neighbors who have a 2500 ft "road". Material is graded base (3/4" crushed bluestone mixed with stone dust-no voids). Every now and then I will rip up pot holes at least 3' either side with scarifiers getting down at least 3" and then regrade with box and then use a plate compactor to hammer.