A Corduroy Road Too Far

[Kyle241]

Okay it's a play on one of my all time favourite movies but I thought it was appropriate. I have a low spot on my property that is thick with trees of all kinds and unfortunately is essentially peat for the first 24" down. This makes for difficulty walking in the Spring until about late June when the water has dried up and too hard for my new Kubota to get through as it's too heavy. I cut the trail in Aug-Sept '10 and then this year went in and removed some stumps and cut others to the ground (I used my old B20 to remove the stumps and it was able to remain stable on the peat). After removing some of the stumps though I realized I actually made it worse as their roots were providing some stability to the peat. The trail is cutting through about 20 acres of my property and the plan is by next Fall to have it completed. While I can cut more trees during the winter, it's going to be impossible to lay down the trail with 'X' feet of snow on the ground. So I'm hoping the snow stays away for a little longer so I can push a bit further this year and then I'll get all the trees down and ready for next spring. I will say it's surprising how stable the trail is after the logs go down and fill is put over top. My new Kubota weighs around 7000lbs and the corduroy trail really holds up well.


Start of the trail with about 100ft of corduroy road completed.

One of the areas on the trail that collects surface water

I'm using the trees I cleared for the trail, old fence posts and will have to cut quite a bit more trees to get all the way through.

 

[wawajake]

My trails are not as wide as yours , but I also have taken to doing the corduroy road method. So I can access the back part fo my property to get firewood and do some maple syrup in spring. But I have a few sections that cut thru low "swamp areas" that in spring and fall are quite wet . So I wanted to raise the ground 12 inches where trail is.

My trails are only 5 feet wide , but I use the plentiful Poplar/aspen I have and I cut the straight ones that have only a few branches that are at most 6 inch diameter and I get ussually 3 or 4 lengths 6 feet long from a tree. I pile them close to trouble areas in the winter , then in summer I place them corduroy style and then take tractor and dig holes in bush close by to get dirt to pile on top of the logs 6 inches deep, drive over it a few times with tractor and it settles in. if I have any old pipe I use it to act as culverts if there is any flow to worry about.
I only drive on these trails with tractor in summer when fairly dry or in winter after frost is in ground . But I use the ATV year round on these trails.
I also store up the branches from the cuts and then after frost is in ground I put chipper on back of tractor and spray chips over trails areas when vegetation has not took . This keeps the trails from getting to slippery and adds some 'bulk" to the clay dirt.
Frost is not in ground yet here in Northern Ontario , but hope to do some chipping for trails in a week or two before deep snows come.

 

[IndyIan]

Looks good! I'm going to have to do the same thing for parts of my trails too, to make them tractor worthy. I used slabs from sawmilling for my atv trail but they are too thin to stand up to a tractor I suspect.
Does anyone use sleepers under their road? I was thinking of going through the wet spots once to make ruts and then throw the sleepers in the ruts then put the road on them? I found my atv trail did end up kind of wavy with no sleepers.

 

[Craig Clayton]

It looks like the Canadians are attracted to the corduroy road posting. Yes I am one too.

Craig Clayton

 

[moored4]

Looks good! I'm going to have to do the same thing for parts of my trails too, to make them tractor worthy. I used slabs from sawmilling for my atv trail but they are too thin to stand up to a tractor I suspect.
Does anyone use sleepers under their road? I was thinking of going through the wet spots once to make ruts and then throw the sleepers in the ruts then put the road on them? I found my atv trail did end up kind of wavy with no sleepers.

Ok! What is a sleeper? I think I know but not sure!

 

[PILOON]

It looks like the Canadians are attracted to the corduroy road posting. Yes I am one too.

Craig Clayton

YEP!
We have a section that is about one mile long, close to 45 years old and just repaved last year.
Another section that is a mere 1500 ft and simply graveled.
All this is municipal maintained and serves us well.
I do say that it is a weird feeling when a fully loaded truck drives on it as it sort of jiggles like a bowl of jello.
In our case the tree base is mostly cedars so they last .

I'll bet this kind of construction is not published in any engineering text books!

 

[oliver28472]

I remember when I was probably10 years old (56 now) we had a driveway up the side of a hill to a trench silo. Had to go in there several times a day to load up a feed truck to feed silage at the dairy and dry cow lots. We kept a big tractor parked at the bottom to pull the truck up the hill and this was an everday thing when it was wet. Then Dad went to the brick plant with our ten wheeler grain truck and got several loads of broken brick. These were placed in the deep dual wheel ruts all the way up to the trench silo. Problem solved.

 

[moored4]

YEP!
..................................

I'll bet this kind of construction is not published in any engineering text books!

A quick Google got this and others Search for "corduroy road construction engineering text books"

Full text of "Highway Engineering Rural Roads And Pavements"

 

[GPintheMitten]

Ok! What is a sleeper? I think I know but not sure!

In this case a sleeper would be a log put parallel to the road. Then you would put the other logs perpendicular to the roadway on top of the sleepers.

 

[moored4]

In this case a sleeper would be a log put parallel to the road. Then you would put the other logs perpendicular to the roadway on top of the sleepers.

That's what i thought but we have always called them rails, as in building a train track but up-side down! Thanks for the come back!

 

[IndyIan]

That's what i thought but we have always called them rails, as in building a train track but up-side down! Thanks for the come back!

Is using rails a good idea then? I'm probably going to try a wooden culvert too as I have to cross a little little stream. I think I'll use white cedar, as I'll have to cut some right there for widening the trail for the tractor anyways.

 

[Ivan49]

A lot of the road in this area are cordaroy roads they were put in years ago and the county now just adds gravel over them. I saw a picture a few years ago of the road that I live on when it was built and how the cordaroy was laid down. This is northern mich

 

[Kyle241]

The need to use sleeper/rails really depends on your soil. I considered them but decided not to as the length of the trail I am building would make it more work. The wettest areas for me is what I'm going through now and the trail is working great. I just need another 5-6 guys to help lay down the logs while I bring in the fill with my tractor and then I would be done in no time!

 

[mwb]

'I gots to know', what is the movie title you are referring to?

 

[jimmyj]

'I gots to know', what is the movie title you are referring to?

I think A Bridge Too Far.

We use these roads in the bush here too, but nothing as nice as what the OP has done. There are a few spots where the ATV would sink to China without them.

 

[mwb]

I think A Bridge Too Far.

I thought so... good movie for sure!

 

[Kyle241]

I think A Bridge Too Far.
.

That's the one!

 

[jimmyj]

Hmm. Looks like this thread has been taken over by Ontario members!:thumbsup:

 

[Kyle241]

So after building around 200 feet or so of trail, I have realized this is going to take a while :laughing:. I had scheduled to be complete by next Fall but after several days working on it, it's tough to cut the trees down, cut them into 10' sections, drag them to where they need to be placed, repeat, repeat, repeat and then move the fill on top. The last is the easiest by far! So I am entertaining the idea of purchasing some lumber from a local small mill that is desperate for business. He's willing to cut me some hardwood into 4" slabs by 10' long and charge $150 for a 4'x4'x10' load. I figure each load would get me approximately 50 feet which is not far but that also equates to 100-150 sections of trees (between 4"-8" diameter). While it would cost, I could get a lot more laid down with the lumber. I might even be able to get the cost per load a little cheaper if I order 6 loads.

Hopefully I'll have some more pics by the weekend of how far I have gone but I am please with the results so far. The trail is nice a solid now.

 

[jpm1]

I have build several hundred feet of road like this, they last forever in the water. I use Hemlock because its readibly available. The best part about this build is the branches. You got to get rid of them so put them down first, pull the logs over the branches and drive over them. If slabs are available, fill in the holes to level out the road. I don't suggest covering them immediately with dirt. Use the road for a few months, fill in low spots and them cover. In my area there is an orangish dirt about 6" below the surface. I push off the top brown stuff and use the orangish dirt as cover on the Corduroy. This packs tight and dries out fast. Its cheap and best of all it doesn't mud up.