Fired Road contractor. Build it myself?

[s219]

Based on the ditching the OP plans to do and the soil in that area, I would not try to cut those ditches with a rear blade, no matter how stout. I have seen offset rear blades used to cut shallow ditches or maintain ditches, but the size/depth/soil of the ditches the OP describes are way out of the league of a rear blade in my opinion. The excavator is the best tool and the OP already owns one!

 

[Egon]

Backblade at work.

 

[LD1]

Good illustration of what a good heavy blade can do.

 

[k0ua]

this!

I am stealing your like button murph, hope you don't mind

 

[EddieWalker]

Backblade at work.

Fun video. I wonder what it has to do with building a year round road on the side of a hill? It does show that with a big enough tractor, you can get the end of a blade to cut into some green top soil. I guess if the ground was dry, it would still work, but probably not cut as deep. It also shows that it's a terrible tool for moving material. It's OK for spreading loos materials, but with such a small surface area, you won't get very much material anywhere before it falls out the sides.

Back to another comment. I agree that he is not building a highway. Not sure why anybody would suggest that. But he isn't building a trail either, and there is a HUGE difference between building a trail and building a road. I also understand that some guys just love maintaining their driveways. If that's the goal, then going over it every year makes sense. But if you want the best possible road/driveway possible, then you will have to remove a lot of material.

Another thing that we might not be understanding. The ditch should be as wide and shallow as possible. You want to be able too hold a lot of water, but not have it move quickly. A steep, deep ditch will just erode and be impossible to maintain. The ditch should be easy to mow on both sides of the ditch, as well as the bottom. Those suggesting using an angle blade to dig this are not even thinking about the higher end of the hill side of the ditch. This is where all the dirt has to be removed. Once done, it will be easy to fence, or not. but animals will easily be able to graze in anything that you can ride a mower through.

 

[murphy1244]

I am stealing your like button murph, hope you don't mind

Have at it my friend.

 

[lilranch2001]

Thanks for the info. I'll have to look that model up. It looks like it adjusts in two ways. The road grader would be fun but not cost efficient.

From people I have known in the past, road graders look fun, but takes much talent to be able to run one with any degree of accuracy
Lots of funny adjustments on them

 

[Egon]

Water flow velocity depends on gradient not width. There are many a road with narrow v ditch on the uphill side. The OP has the major work done already. All he basically has to do is grade what's there and cut a ditch. If the backblade don't work the excavator surely will. He rear blade an windrow the spill material, work the windrow back an forth and eventially roll it off the low side. The pictures didn't indicate soil that would be difficult to work. If the job was being started from scratch I would not recommend a rear blade.


Grader operators are a joy to watch in action. Yes there are a lot of levers on a grader. Probably today it would be control by wire type of joystick.

Several very old roads and a newer road with side slopes. No 4:1 side slope and wide flat ditch in these. They seem to be withstanding the ravages of time & elements.

 

[ovrszd]

I wonder if everyone studied the pic posted at the beginning? Some are stating the dozer established the basic roadbed. Well, with more than just a glance at the pic it becomes very obvious all the dozer did was cut into the hillside and let the tailings fall off the lower side. Created a clay base on the left side, top soil embedded with roots and debris on the right side. Basically a flat surface. Modest position for the Excavator to work from at best.

Eddie gave a very good description of what's needed for a drainage area on the uphill side. It most certainly doesn't need a "V ditch". I described it as something your tractor can fit in. Kinda freaked some posters out. They thought I was building a "hiway". I wasn't referring to the road surface. I was referring to the drainage area that can then be maintained as described by Eddie.

Pictures of roadways on basically flat surfaces have no relevance to what's posted in the picture by the OP.

Pictures of rear blades cutting sod have no relevance to what's posted in the picture by the OP.

Again I stress, the OP is going to use this roadway every day. Properly built it will only require occasional light maintenance and rarely need additional gravel. By rarely I mean every 10 years or so. Poorly built it will require maintenance during and after every rainy season and yearly additional gravel. By yearly I mean a stockpile of gravel will be needed onhand so it can periodically be added to the areas that have substandard drainage.

I maintain 50 miles of gravel roadways. The portions that have inadequate drainage require constant maintenance. The portions that are properly constructed with appropriate drainage require minimal maintenance and never need additional gravel beyond the annual dose of 65 ton per mile. Before you jump all over that requirement think for a minute. I'm talking about public roadways that handle 80,000 semis loaded with grain. Worse yet they handle 30ft GN stock trailers with single tires stuffed full of cattle.

My described experiences in road building and maintenance certainly don't make me an expert. My methods of construction and/or maintenance might be ridiculed by some. But my knowledge and experience concerning roadbed elevation and proper drainage cannot be disputed.

Remember what I said earlier. A road without ditches is a ditch.

 

[Egon]

Do it properly? Let's have a description of equipment and methods used. Haven't seen that yet! All we have heard is many cubic meters of dirt to be moved but where to ?? and wide flat ditches with lots of talk about drainage but no detailed description of how to do it. Lots of water has been mentioned but the lack of drainage area seems to be missing. Ditches and drainage tend to be based on acre feet of water. Some of the oldest roads in the world have no ditch!

The OP knows where he wants to put the dirt though. Many would say close and in exactly the right spot for which he has the equipment.

I did look at the original pictures more than once. The soil looked very familiar. It'l be a silty clay granular mix that will be quite deep, works easily, gets greasy when wet, packs moderately well with proper moisture content. Might be a little hard to roll into a string. Topsoil is negliable.

My apologies to the OP for disrupting his thread and will remain out of print from now on.