Need help with Corduroy road

[inveresk]

Nilex have a great technical department. If you google their nearest office and ring, you'd get better than a guess which is all I can offer.

I would imagine you'd need to do some grading but this should be possible by rolling out the matt and working from on top of it, much like in the attached photograph. This should allow you to do some grading without getting your feet wet.

 

[josephny]

Nilex have a great technical department. If you google their nearest office and ring, you'd get better than a guess which is all I can offer.

I would imagine you'd need to do some grading but this should be possible by rolling out the matt and working from on top of it, much like in the attached photograph. This should allow you to do some grading without getting your feet wet.

Great suggestion. Looks like they only have 1 office in USA, in Denver.

If the matt in the picture a Nilex product? I looked at their website and didn't see anything that looked like it.

It would be great to be able to just plop something down on top of the muck-mud-water-peat and walk/drive over it.

 

[inveresk]

Great suggestion. Looks like they only have 1 office in USA, in Denver.

If the matt in the picture a Nilex product? I looked at their website and didn't see anything that looked like it.

It would be great to be able to just plop something down on top of the muck-mud-water-peat and walk/drive over it.

I didn't realize Nilex were a Canadian company. I guess makes sense, they probably work a lot on terrain in the tundra.

The illustration was taken from this site which I got from a link on the Nilex web site. Terrafix is a Canadian company too though.

http://www.terrafixgeo.com/content/?id=145

 

[SPYDERLK]

Get geo fabric, roll out, put gravel on top. How thick the gravel needs to be is based on the load.

Having an ATV with 4wd, and oversized tires, I'm surprised it can't go through? Mine can drive over stuff I can't walk through, especially if there is a vegatation mat.

We have some corduroy roads here through swamps. They plain suck when they get old. Traffic will work gravel down through. Once the logs are bursting out, you get stuck in mud holes full of logs.

The ground is well over 2 feet of peat -- soft, spongy stuff at best, sink deep into it mud at worst. With years of decaying rhodedendrum mixed in. Will geo fabric and gravel really be appropriate?

I've been riding ATVs for 30 years, in all kinds of terrain. This multi-feet deep stuff is just not possible -- there's no tranaction and the tires sink right into it such that the chassis sits on the ground.

I absolutely agree with slowzuki. For carrying light to moderate load over mush the geotextile fabric and gravel will do it for you. The fabric prevents the gravel from being swallowed and essentially forming a mud slurry. The combination with gravel segregated greatly spreads the force so that you dont apply intense pressure to the unstable ground. A geotextile roll is about 16 feet wide and the length is probably 300 ft so youd just need one. Youll have to spread the gravel on it ahead of you as you go esp if you do it with a loader. Youll need at least 4" to support the loader front tires. This is more than a couple truck loads considering 10 X 300'. Itll last - wont rot like a corduroy road. Itll get the situation under control. Youll have to add gravel and some sand occasionaly.
larry

 

[inveresk]

I absolutely agree with slowzuki. For carrying light to moderate load over mush the geotextile fabric and gravel will do it for you. The fabric prevents the gravel from being swallowed. The combination with gravel greatly spreads the force so that you dont apply intense pressure to the unstable ground. A geotextile roll is about 16 feet wide and the length is probably 300 ft so youd just need one. Youll have to spread the gravel on it ahead of you as you go esp if you do it with a loader. Youll need at least 4" to support the loader front tires. This is more than a couple truck loads considering 10 X 300'. Itll last - wont rot like a corduroy road. Itll get the situation under control. Youll have to add gravel and some sand occasionaly.
larry

I agree. Certainly worth getting a roll and trying it. It worked locally for a soft spot on my road where I was up to my axles in mud on the tractor.

 

[josephny]

This is sounding like a nice solution.

So I'd get a loader in to:
Smooth out the path
lay the fabric
bring back and lay down rocks to fill 4" deep, 5' wide, 300' long (500 cu-ft, or 18 cu-yds).

Does my analysis make sense:

A guy with a loader/excavator costs between $600-750 per day.

I believe that stone is sold by the ton, at around $10 per ton delivered. At 1.25 tons/cu-yd, that's 22.5 tons, or $225. (Don't know if I should use small or large gravel or small, medium or large stone).

Don't know how much the fabric costs, but 1 roll sure does sounds like it'll do (I assume I can cut the stuff easily to my desired width). Anyone have a link to prices?

If the above is correct, the only other variable is how many days and how many guys (other than the machine operator) I'll need. Any suggestions?

Just so I'm certain I'm communicating this correctly, the ground I'm talking about is mostly peat. Walking on it in some places I can sink shin deep. Other places are okay. This fabric with stone/gravel on top won't just sink in when pressure is applied (by foot or light vehicle --ATV)?

Thank you!

 

[inveresk]

I recently bought 4 rolls of medium weight unwoven and it was about $550 per roll delivered. It's 15 feet wide x 300 feet long.

You might want to go a bit wider than 5'.

I got the spec for the rock topping from Nilex. Ring them and they'll help with the geotex spec and the topping.

No, it wont sink. You need enough stone on top so it properly ballasts the textile in which case it will act as a raft and you won't know there's a soft spot there.

Don't skimp on the stone or you'll have problems

 

[inveresk]

Sorry, missed your other points.

I laid my own and spread the rock with the tractor and loader and a box blade. With a good machine man, I doubt you'll need anyone else but it will be difficult if you're trying to lay stone less wide than his bucket. A foot or two wider than the bucket is ideal for obvious reasons.

My spec called for crush over pit run about 8" thick but it's a full on drive. You'll likely get away with less.

 

[SPYDERLK]

This is sounding like a nice solution.

So I'd get a loader in to:
Smooth out the path
lay the fabric
bring back and lay down rocks to fill 4" deep, 5' wide, 300' long (500 cu-ft, or 18 cu-yds).

Just so I'm certain I'm communicating this correctly, the ground I'm talking about is mostly peat. Walking on it in some places I can sink shin deep. Other places are okay. This fabric with stone/gravel on top won't just sink in when pressure is applied (by foot or light vehicle --ATV)?

Thank you!

Think snowshoes. a man on a foot exerts 5psi or so. 4" gravel on an inextensible fabric exerts only 0.3psi or less. Then when an intense weight is applied to the composite, that weight adds to it but the effect of the applied weight is spread onto a much larger area. You will be fine with light vehicles in places where you dont sink in on foot ... and may be fine even in the softest areas. Its possible those areas will require a little thicker gravel to spread weight out further. A mud mat over those problem spots would certainly work, but would cost more than thicker gravel. As inveresk said you will need to go wider than 5' gravel -- you dont want to travel too near the edge because force spreading properties are not nearly as good there.
larry

 

[josephny]

Ah, I'm starting to get the physics of it!

With a 15' wide roll, if I can cut it in half, I'll have 7.5' of textile.

While it's impossible to predict future needs, I'd be thrilled with just being able to get my basically 4' wide ATV over it. But, if it's easier to do a 6 or 7' wide road, so be it.

I like the idea of a single machine and operator being able to handle this.

I'm really only trying to get through this -- it doesn't have to be pretty or perfectly dry.

Do you guys think a single machine can lay 400' of fabric (filling in a whole or two here and there) and then put rock on top in a single day? Probably not if the rock is being hauled from a pile 3000' away.

So $550 for fabric, $250 in stone (I think), $1,400 for 2 days machine/operator = $2,200. Yikes! Wife will not be happy.