making road by tree -- will I kill it?

[MadDogDriver]

Agree with consulting an Arborist as well. They're the experts in this matter. As a rule of thumb, I've always been told to not dig within the canopy of a tree (kind of difficult to do in many cases though), so gonig with the Arborist can help tremendously.

 

[bx23barry]

Have ya thought about not digging but bringing in fill and making a small hill/mound in the road over the roots?

 

[Superduper]

Have ya thought about not digging but bringing in fill and making a small hill/mound in the road over the roots?

Nah, not an option. The reason for digging is because that area is already 3 feet higher than the garage floor and water infiltrates into the garage wall (block wall) which is why I want to bring the level of the soil back in line with the foundation. The road is to allow access (occassional) for vehicles to go back behind the garage area and the tree is about 14' from the garage wall. I figure I would need at least 7 or 8' for the road. The road does not need to be paved but I may put down paver bricks to allow moisture to continue penetrating the area. The plan was then to build a stacking type concrete retaining block wall. Don't know if it's feasable or not yet. Not sure what I'll do yet, still investigating my options.

 

[John_Mc]

Have ya thought about not digging but bringing in fill and making a small hill/mound in the road over the roots?

Piling a significant amount of dirt over the roots will probably kill them anyway. You basically "smother" the roots and the micro-organisms upon which the tree depends for the uptake of nutrients.

In addition, driving over the area causes soil compaction and tends to shear the tiny hair-like roots which do the bulk of the nutrient uptake. An occasional run across it might not cause significant damage, but if this was his main driveway, it could well be a problem. One thing that will help minimize this is avoiding driving over it in wet conditions.

John Mc

 

[toolaholic]

I live in Marin Ca. , am a gen contr.. Had an arborist out yesterday about an 18" redwood vs. retaining wall. wall was planned to be within 3' of tree. too close,will change. Some advice from Her buy,50' of soaker hose and soak 24 hrs.at drip line of tree once a month or so .sap was running on another one on property, bettles killed it! Reason NO WATER . We will be cutting some roots within its canopy!
Best fix, loads of water! little feeder root ends supple the tree water. When you cut the big roots the tree may come over in high wind! My customer HAS to make decision today!!good luck , tough call!!

 

[BTDT]

I would say it may or may not kill it. There are trees all along county roads around here with all kinds of traffic. They tend to kill a lot of speeding teens in curves. One thing you might check, or watch for, is reflected light from roof. I put a tin roof on a house we used to live in, and the additional sunlight seemed to scorch the leaves during the summer. It didn't kill tree, but sometimes it looked pretty sick.