New Driveway and Polebarn

[rswyan]

This is the inlet end of the new 18" culvert which drains the front yard and upper field. Since it feeds into a 8" or 10" line that goes under the side yard, we'll probably do a dry creekbed to handle the times when the flow is too great for the smaller line to handle.

There's a nice little pond I have going in the new approach to the house ...... I drained it by digging a sump hole and dipping the water out with the mini's bucket ... took about 5 minutes. The pond is 10' (w) x 20' (l) x probably 8" deep at the deepest point.

We laid in about 10 dump trailer loads of dry clay to dry it up and raise the roadbed .... and it's still low. Yesterday I had 49 tons of bankrun gravel dumped in this section which is about 75' long.

 

[rswyan]

This is the outlet end ...... I had to rip out a concrete catchbasin I built here .... it was about 3' x 4' and had 4" walls. Buck jackhammered it some and then I busted it in half with the mini. The 8" or 10" inch pipe it flows into is on the right middle of the image, hardly visible ... it was concreted in ... got torn up a little taking the catchbasin out. The fill around the new culvert near the ends is still pretty mushy .... will probably do some kind of stone/masonary wall and another catchbason to support it.

 

[BobReeves]

Boy, sure wished we had some of that rain. We are down something like 11 inches for the month.....

 

[rswyan]

Bob,

If could, I'd be glad to send it your way. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

We have an Alberta Clipper coming thru tomorrow .... they are talking 1' to 3' of snow for the Eastern Great Lakes snowbelt area. Hopefully we'll get less than that.

 

[rswyan]

Had an interesting conversation with the driver from the company I'm buying my gravel from and found out something I didn't know and hadn't thought about .... they close their plant at some point when it becomes too cold to run. I just hadn't even thought about it.

He mentioned that they were already out of #4 gravel, which is no big deal for me since I haven't been using it, and that they would likely run out of others at some point. This introduces another factor that I hadn't planned on - the need to stockpile material for 1. the approach/pad in front of the polebarn, 2. the gravel in the barn itself, and 3. the remainder of the driveway ...... before I can no longer get it.

I ordered two more loads of washed #57 for the drainage system on Wednesday so hopefully I will be good on that, along with 6 loads of bankrun gravel for driveway base and another two loads of crusher run for topcoat.

The main difficulty is where to stockpile it so that it isn't in the way of getting things done and doesn't create a nightmare having to move it (I've learned the advantages of having them place it and me having to move it as little as possible /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif)

..... not having the drainage system for the barn pad complete is unforunate ..... there's alot of area to store material there ..... if it wasn't all torn up with trenches running everywhere. Live and learn I guess.

 

[rswyan]

Time for a little update. Tomorrow at 8 PM in the morning the crew from Cleary should arrive (barring any weather delays)

I had hoped to get a little further along than what I am with the site prep but what I've got done will have to do for the moment .... it's time to "git 'er done !"

I did manage to at least get gravel spread on the pad so they wouldn't be working in the mud ..... of course now that I went and did it, the temps have dropped and now there is only frozen mud. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[rswyan]

I had some washed No. 57 drainage gravel around that had gotten a little dirty so I used that initially and spread it out thin and then topped it with about 30 tons of No. 310 (1/2" to fines) - there's enough done (several inches) that they could tromp around on it and runn equipment over for a week or so and stay clean if it would warm up ...... an event that seems rather unlikely at this point.

 

[rswyan]

Looking west, back towards the house .... you can see all the unfinished drainage (pipes) lying on the ground ..... and the trench for the electrical service running down from the house.

 

[rswyan]

A little closer view of the electrical trench ...... still need to take out a few roots. I used the mini-excavator to pop out the tree lying in the foreground .... took about 5 or 10 minutes .... it's 5" maple that was in the trench line. Notice I did not take out the big maple in the background /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif ...... project for another day.

 

[rswyan]

Looking north from the south end of the pad. The gravel in the picture is mostly gone as of this evening .... used it in the north diversion ditch/french drain. The rest of the gravel and sand will gone by sometime tomorrow. The pipe sticking out of the ground on the left of the image is a 2" natural gas feed .... there's a 1" waterline lying there too.