To fix a mud hole!

[HawkinsHollow]

This mud hole has existed for the entire 4 years I have owned this property. I have made half assed attempts to make it better by throwing bricks and cinderblock pieces in the tire tracks and when I am running through it once or twice a month with my tractor it hasn't been that much of an issue. Now that I have a SxS and run through it a lot more and I have done more damage to this area in the last month of SxS ownership than in the previous 4 years with my tractor. Time to fix the problem so it doesn't continue to get worse.

This is in a creek bottom area of my property that is swampy (obviously) and it floods 2-7 times a year depending on rainfall. So there is no real way to keep the water out of this area. Nor is it easy to drain as this is pretty much a low spot. Excess water does drain out one side of it and my goal it to help that process a long but there is only so much I can do there. The only real solution is to build it up. My plan is to use free concrete chunks to fill and raise the area so I am not driving through the mud hole. Luckily the mud isn't bottomless, it has a pretty hard bottom and the initial brick and cinder chunks help with that. Unfortunately, this is only an area that my tractor or SxS can get into. It would be a big ask to have a dump truck drive to back down there. So the majority of these concrete chunks will have to be placed by hand from the trailer I back down there.

My first course is rather large chunks of concrete lining the tire ruts. Next I will come back with smaller chucks to fill the voids and raise it up. And then finally I will use 3" chunks of crushed concrete as the final layer. I have a material yard next door to me that I get this stuff from for $20/ton and they don't charge me delivery. The 3" chunks I will have dumped at the top of the hill and will shuttle it down by the bucket with my tractor. I would LOVE to have a dump trailer to attach to my tractor but they are HIGH right now, not sure the budget can handle it. But it sure would make this project easier.

It is going to rain here for the next week so things will be on hold probably. In the meantime I would welcome and advice, questions, concerns, comments about this project that has been a long time coming.

 

[scootr]

If you can fill it with earth until it drains off you might consider rerouting the road to better ground

 

[LouNY]

It's abit late now but some heavy highway fabric would have helped.

 

[M59]

HawkinsHollow,

I'm agreeing with Scootr. Do you have option of re-routing the path/ road instead of trying to fill in a mud hole? That might be better use of your effort.

 

[ovrszd]

Until you dump enough material, of whatever type, in the ditch to elevate it to roadway height, it's going to remain a swamp.

This is obviously an old trail that has eroded and compacted down to it's swamp elevation. If you plan to continue the route you will have to elevate it.

An old road grader guy once told me, "a road without a ditch is a ditch". That applies here.

 

[3gunr]

It looks like the ground slopes away ro the right , can you gig a trench that will drain the water out . Also cutting some trees will allow sunlight in helping it to dry out. I have similar issues in spots on my farm and this has helped,

 

[oosik]

Fill it until it's higher than the surrounding ground. Then water will not pond there.

 

[Cougsfan]

I think your plan of using large stuff below and progressively larger stuff as you go up until, as Oosik and Overszd said, until you are above ground level is the best and easiest route. Any improvement to drainage will help.

 

[jigs_n_fixtures]

You need to install a bunch of big stuf until it bridges, and then smaller well drained material, (reject course concrete aggregate) until that bridges. I would probably consider lauing in some type of small culvert.

From you picture it looks like there is an intermittent stream bed, flowing from close left to teh right and away. Don’t know how big it might get, but your mud hole is becasue you have kept crossing there and pushed out fine aggregate, making a low spot full of water, and the problem has gotten progressively worse.

 

[etpm]

I put in a road, a driveway really, at my place and there was a big muddy spot similar to yours but not as long. I dumped about 4 yards of rocks of various sizes into the spot and then topped it off with at least a yard of gravel. Oh yeah, above the rocks and below the gravel I dumped broken concrete chunks about 4 inches in size. It is no longer muddy. It has been at least 8 years since I filled the spot. I was amazed when I was dumping the rocks into the spot that they just kept sinking into the ground. There is no stream or swamp in the area, just this one deep muddy spot in the woods. When the drive was done the muddy spot ended up being a few inches higher than the ground on either side of the drive. Though it has sunk some over the years it is not muddy or wet.
Eric