ROAD MAINTENANCE/EQUIPMENT with PICS

[dirtworksequip]

I'll explain the technique that I use for maintaining a stone road. First the equipment I prefer is frame mounted front blade with a landscape rake on the rear. I also have a serrated cutting edge on the front blade that works great,but a regular cutting edge will work fine. Some people prefer a box blade on the rear, but as you will see from the pics the front blade and landscape rake give exceptional results.

First I start in the middle of the road because it will usually be the high spot. I make the first pass down the center of the road with both the rake and blade down. see pic #1.

#1
http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/...TES POND ROAD BUILDING AND OTHER/P1010935.jpg

Watch the outside of your blade. You will probably see some daylight under the blade in spots as you work the material on the road. These are the low spots. see pic #2

#2
http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/...TES POND ROAD BUILDING AND OTHER/P1010936.jpg


Keep making passes with the blade and rake. With each pass you should be able to see less and less daylight as the low spots fill in and the high spots get cut down. see pic #3

#3
http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/...TES POND ROAD BUILDING AND OTHER/P1010937.jpg

The final step I usually backdrag the whole road. see pic #4
#4
http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/...TES POND ROAD BUILDING AND OTHER/P1010938.jpg


Heres a pic of a problem area. Note the wet area and potholes. see pic #5
#5
http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/...TES POND ROAD BUILDING AND OTHER/P1010939.jpg


Here is the same section of road after grading. Even though it has been regraded it will not hold up because of the water. I will have to recut the ditchline in the spring when it drys out. You can see that the water has caused the problem and the road will not holdup until the water problem is taken care of.

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/...TES POND ROAD BUILDING AND OTHER/P1010940.jpg

Heres a pic of my JD 3520 w/front blade & landscape rake. The blue thingy on the landscape rake is a temporary solution to keep stone from bouncing off the back of the tractor. I rigged it up to see if it might work. It did, so now I need to come up with a more durable material and permenate fix.

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/...TES POND ROAD BUILDING AND OTHER/P1010942.jpg

Thats it. Job done!
ps.The wetter the road the more work it will take to maintain it.
Hope that helps.

 

[SPIKER]

hi dirtworks

looks good, nice pics. one thing you can do using photobucket is add thumbnails as links which is easy for people to see which photos they may want to look at if they see something interesting in a photo thumbnail.


here is an example with instructions.

get into photobucket (LOG ON so you are in you're account)

pick a photo that you want to show. there is a small "Check Box" under and on the left side of the photo.

Check that box (or many boxes) and then go to the very bottom of the page where the photo is at.

there are 3 click-able tab/buttons down there, one on left is "delete" one is "MOVE" and last one is "Generate HTML & Image codes" click that one.

it then goes to a new page with 5 different boxes with HTML text & instructions. the instructions give you hints on what is best to use for where, ( ebay, e-mail just html links and thumbnails. the 3rd one down has click-able thumbnails which will open NEW windows with the full size photo in there. it says it is recommended for message boards (which TBN is)

then highlight everything inside that box, and copy it to the message board.

(I open Photobucket in it's own window and the message boards/ebay in a different window. that way you can copy & paste back & forth as you type/post.

here is a clickable thumbnail of my barn when I was landscaping back in October I think.


mark M

 

[andrewj]

nice equipment but your technique fails to crown the road. with a flat road, you will always maintain more often than a road properly crowned.

 

[dirtworksequip]

andrewj, It quickly gets a crown in it as soon as the traffic gets it rolled in. If you look close at some of the pictures you will see that the road edge rolls off away from the road or into a swale type ditch. I do need to redo the road edge though, so that it has better drainage. Its been 6 years since the road was put in. I don't have to build the crown,it will be back in the road in short order. I'll put my road against any stone road as far as holding up. Over the last five years there have been 10 houses built. Heavy concrete trucks don't even faze it. I've never had a place that pumped out or mud pumped up thru the stone. I'll just stick with my technique, it works for me.

 

[3RRL]

I'll just stick with my technique, it works for me.

And well you should because that is a fine job you did there.
I'm one of the boxblade users but I have a dirt road for the time being. After my home construction, I'll put down base and gravel and use a rake like you do. Right now, I get lots of seat time.
Good pictures of your work too.
Thanks for sharing.

 

[ovrszd]

andrewj, It quickly gets a crown in it as soon as the traffic gets it rolled in. If you look close at some of the pictures you will see that the road edge rolls off away from the road or into a swale type ditch. I do need to redo the road edge though, so that it has better drainage. Its been 6 years since the road was put in. I don't have to build the crown,it will be back in the road in short order. I'll put my road against any stone road as far as holding up. Over the last five years there have been 10 houses built. Heavy concrete trucks don't even faze it. I've never had a place that pumped out or mud pumped up thru the stone. I'll just stick with my technique, it works for me.

I gotta go with Andrew on this one. A flat road is a chug hole waiting to fill with water. As for your road holding up under loads, that has more to do with the underbase that you never touch with your grading technique. Good report though.

 

[Destructo_D]

For your front blade, is that an Ice blade? or is it the replacable scarifier tips for fingers?

 

[dirtworksequip]

oversized, the only stone that was put on the road was 304 crusher run SLAG.There was no fabric or larger stone for a so called base.It was all crusher run.
I graded the subgrade with my JD 870 with the front blade and landscape rake that is now on the JD 3520. I then had tri-axle dump trucks haul in 20 tons per load all day for two different days. The drivers tailgated the stone for me. Some were better than others.In between trucks I graded up what the previous truck had spread. There was a total of 1500 ton put on a little over 3000 feet ,which gave the road about 6 to 8 inches coverage about 12 feet wide.

The road is graded to drain. The problem is I need to correct the edge of the road in a couple of places to keep the water off. I agree with you completley about crowning a road for drainage. I'll post some pics later to show that it does have some pitch to it for drainage.

Believe you me......I know all to well the differing opinions on road building. I see people put limestone on their driveways and access roads every year.........year after year and it just keeps going out of sight. Theres a simple solution to that problem,but you just can't change anyones mind.

Destructo_D, that cutting edge is actually 1/2 of an CAT 16 grader cutting edge. They come in 8 foot lenghts.Two on the CAT 16. It doesn't have the replaceable teeth or bits ,its just made as one piece. The serrations would be deeper on a new blade. That one had some use on a 16 before I got it. I don't recall how many approx. hours of use. I know the style you are refering to. I usually put a plain cutting edge on for snow removal so I really can't say how effective the serrated edge might be on removing ice.

 

[Bill Barrett]

Nice post, I have to start a road this spring. Thanks

 

[Thomas]

Afternoon dirtworksequip.
Nice setup you got there also job well done....did you notice while working the material in damp condition the ease,also packing in those rough spots.