road building

[deereman63]

I want to put a short trail through some fairly wet land. Prior attempts by the builder have resulted in a rutted quagmire. So i was going to try some drainage. What is the best way of going about this. One pipe down the middle or two at the edge. How far would you run before letting the pipe run out and drain away? Can you drain into a hole filled with stone?
I have some rock available so was hoping to build some kind of base but the bulk of the material will be clay

 

[Highbeam]

If it is a large bog or a generally flat big piece of land then you have little choice but to build the road up out of the muck. Filling, fabric, lots of rock, etc.

If there is a grade and a low point that you can route the runoff towards then you have something to work with. Start at the low end and dig a ditch to and through whatever is preventing the water from leaving your bog.

You need to dry up the area before building a road in it. To build on top of the wet bog you need to make a landbridge.

A hole filled with rock will become a hole filled with rock and water if you dig it in a bog.

Open ditches are cheaper and easier than pipes and I would recommend a single ditch down the middle of the wet area. You will need a pipe at the bottom of the ditch where you intend to cross it only.

 

[penokee]

Have been monkeying around with this road building business for too many years, but always remember what an old timer (at least at the time I thought he was an Old Timer) /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif told me years ago. "There's 3 secrets to building a good road - Drainage - Drainage - Drainage". He couldn't have been more right. You are approaching in the correct way by taking care of the drainage problem first. If you can't get rid of the surface water runoff, you'll never have a stable road.
With enough money, a road can be built anywhere - I assume that's not your situaton. You should have open roadside ditches, cross drainage (culverts) and an outlet ditch taking water away from the site. Assuming you have the grade (slope), construct the outlet ditch long enough so that the water completely leaves the site. I've got private roads that I've built in good drained gravel and heavy red clay. Without a doubt, clay presents the biggest challenge. I wouldn't bother with the rock sump on site - you have to get rid of the water completely. If you have access to larger stone, you could place a fill of at least 2 feet over the wet material then top with a few inches of gravel. If you want to try something different, try Fabric. Do a Google search for Road Geotextiles and you'll see how you lay the fabric over the wet areas then fill over that. Also many good sites on the web with advice (Extension, etc.) Have fun.
penokee /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Ps: If you want a year around road, would strongly suggest you surface with Granular material after taking care of the drainage and sub-grade.
Pss: Loading is important. If you plan to handle heavy loads such as logging trucks, etc. you may want to talk to someone who designs roads for the county, State, etc. - if just a Fun Road - Tractor, etc. the above recommendations should help. In this area, if I design an All-season Road, it usually calls for 12 " of granular Sub-base (clean sand), 8" Crushed Aggregate Base and 4" Bituminous (Blacktop) surface; on top of an approved sub-grade. Got a little "Verbose" on this - sorry about that - it comes with age.