Need help with Corduroy road

[josephny]

Just curious as I have a similar challenge that you do. I am building a trail through an area that has the designation of 'muck' for soil type. I cut a trail through in late August as that was the driest time however when I tried to get a dozer in, he made a mess for the first 100ft and I told him to back off. I am planning the corduroy road with stones from the walls on my property. Prior to doing so though I was wondering whether I should be removing the peat. Are you removing any of the peat or are you planning to lay your wood slabs right on top? I thought that was a pretty good idea the slabs and would be interested to know how you do as I have a local mill that produces these from pine that people around here use for firewood/kindling.

I will not be going back there to do work until Aug-Sept and I hope this Fall is a dry one that way I can get it all done.

I'm not removing peat -- I was advised that this would be a humoungous job, assuming the peat can easily be 5 to 10 feet deep. And, just as importantly proper fill would need to be put in its place and the water would need to be dealt with.

I think you need to be careful of using stones. The idea is to make a floating path or sorts -- one that will distribute the weight of itself and it's cargo across a large enough area so as not to sink. Rocks won't do that. If you want to use rocks, you'll need geofabric, which was discussed earlier in this thread.

I'll post progress reports, and hopefully pictures, to keep everyone appraised.

 

[josephny]

I would try dropping some larger trees, maybe 10-12 inches in diameter, and place these as stringers under your slab wood. I would place two stringers lengthwise in the direction of the trail. About the width of your ATV tires apart. Cut the slab wood to the desired trail width and lay these perpendictual to the stringers. Nail them down to the stringers with the bark side up. Bark side up might last a little longer. If everything is tied together your trail should float on top of the peat. I have also encounter black peat holes on my ATV. The more you hit them the deeper they get. Early winter or early spring is a good time to drop the stringers and then come back when the weather is good to apply the slab wood.

Whatever the solution, it does sound labour intensive. Good luck.

I can see how dropping stringers and nailing the cross sections would make a better road. It would also increase the labor (and skill) required quite a bit. I'm not sure I'm up to that big of a project.

Bark side up it is! I was thinking about that, debating between a nice smooth flat side up to make a smoother trailer vs. a flat side down creating more surface area to distribute the weight. I didn't even think about the decay aspect. Flat side down is worth it -- Thanks!

The peat holes do seem to be bottomless. I've got one 1200' by 400' that I'm trying to cross -- hence the need for the path :confused2:

 

[josephny]

I agree - lay them down like upside down railroad track. You need to build a floating platform. If it disappears in muck, chances are you can still drive on it and building another upside down track for height.

I thought about the possible need to put another layer on top. The concern is that I'll put the first layer down and it will sink. Then I'll say to myself "no problem, I'll put a second layer and it will be fine." Then I'll put a second layer, and it too will sink.

Another reason I'm contemplating tying them together -- although I don't have a clue how to do that.

 

[Defective]

Monty Python - Swamp Castle - What, the curtains? • VideoSift: Online Video *Quality Control

:laughing:

 

[MikeD74T]

I thought about the possible need to put another layer on top. The concern is that I'll put the first layer down and it will sink. Then I'll say to myself "no problem, I'll put a second layer and it will be fine." Then I'll put a second layer, and it too will sink.

Another reason I'm contemplating tying them together -- although I don't have a clue how to do that.

It won't sink unless you park on it. If the layers aren't wet all the time they'll rot faster. just lay them down, drive over them, & add as necessary. It's easy to overthink corduroy. MikeD74t

 

[josephny]

So I finally got everything coordinated and gave it a shot.

I had about 350 pieces of slab wood delivered (pieces average about 9' long and 9" wide by thicknesses varying from 1/2" to 3").

I hired 5 guys to help me cut them down to 5 and 6' lengths (the varying width of the path), and shuttled load after load with my ATV and little rubbermaid trailer about 4000' back into the woods (through mud, hills, rocks, etc.). Got about 3/4 of the path done before the little rubbermaid broke.

As the path was made, I drove over it with the quad and the trailer to bring the wood to the end of the path. It was a hard and bouncy ride, and occasionally the wood pieces slipped out of place, but we did NOT sink.

So now I've got to figure out how to get the rest of the wood (probably about 120-140 pieces, or about 4,000 lbs) back to the path.

Most of the wood is sitting right on top, while some pieces just sank right in, requiring several layers (those were a very small percentage of the total number).

Here's a picture. I was way too dirty, cold, achey and tired to stop and take a bunch of pictures.

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh173/joseph-nyc/corduroy4-14-11.jpg

Thanks to everyone so much for the guidance and help with this. I'll post again when there's more progress.

 

[Kyle241]

Very cool! I am thinking of buying some slab wood from my local sawmill as I think it's a good idea. Please add more pics as you go. Are you planning to cover the wood?

 

[crash325]

Looks like you are doing a fine job. Glad to see it working out. Enjoy your almost done new trail. :drink:

 

[MikeD74T]

Looks like you've got a good start. Something to consider in the future, flat side up some will be bumpy, round side up they're all bumpy. If over time if you have access to dirt or gravel, a little will go a long way toward smoothing things out. MikeD74T

 

[josephny]

Thanks guys!

I would indeed like to get it covered, either with dirt or rocks, but at this point I'm stuck on how to get the rest of the wood back there.

I found this trailer - model 7550ATV:

Heavy duty tandem axle ATV trailers for off road use by Country ATV

I think spending $1,000 more on this (on top of of the thousands already spent) would just send my wife right over the top.

Of course, the fantasy continues that I get (or rent) a dozer to smooth out the trails, and a tractor to load the trailer with the rock/dirt.