45 Tons of rock and 10 tons of gravel later...

[Scooby074]

OR: Really impressed by B21

Over this last weekend I moved approximately 45 tons of rock to rebuild and stabilize a bank that had given way. Part of that was installing 5 french drains to hopefully remove some of the groundwater that was causing the bank to erode every spring.

I was very impressed with the rental B21 I had. I've used and worked on much larger excavators and loaders,but pound for pound it held its own. And i only used $35 worth of fuel over 2 days!!!

My camera died on Saturday so im lacking before pictures, but i have some during and after pics to share.

The Pucker factor was pretty high for most of this job. The pictures dont do it justice. before i started it was a sheer drop of 20 ft to the first level then about a 40-50 ft drop to the ocean. The soil there is a loose sandy type. I actually had the B21 chained to a tree for a bit when digging the french drains!

 

[Scooby074]

Heres a couple pics of the view and my assistant in training. Shes only 3 but is a tractor nut like her dad

 

[Egon]

Very nice view.

Those slopes do look steep even on the pictures.

 

[jinman]

Wow! That is a serious slope. Did you have that rock hauled in? I guess you did or you wouldn't know its weight. That looks like some good riprap above your french drains. As Egon said, that's a very beautiful spot. Hopefully your erosion problems are over.

 

[LBrown59]

Heres a couple pics of the view and my assistant in training. Shes only 3 but is a tractor nut like her dad

What a great
assistant in training.

 

[czechsonofagun]

Scary hill, but nice job.

 

[Scooby074]

Thanks for the compliments guys. Yeah it was a big job. I still got to put topsoil over the new piece so hopefully i can get some grass to grow to hold it together. And i got to repair the damage to the lawn that the backhoe caused lots of fun left.

The section i rebuilt would probably be around 30-40 ft across, 4-5 ft out from the eroded face at the top, and about 15-20 ft tall depending where you are. Hopefully next spring the bank holds. The lower bank is pretty stable. most of the erosion is happening on the top.

The neighbours on either side have had to remove all the topsoil back to the bedrock, then rebuild with 4" rock with large boulders around the base to act as a breakwater. The neighbour on the left did his, cost over $130000, neighbour on the right side did his, and the rumour is he got 200K into it, but they had to move his house back as part of the job. I really dont want to have to go to that extreme So i really am hoping this works.

Jim, it was hauled in. Im not blessed with a natural quarry, most of the ground here is sandy loam or sandstone rock. It was 3 full tandem truck loads of rock and 3/4 full tandem load of 3/4gravel for the french drains.

 

[frwinks]

now that's a bank/view worth savin' very cool spot.

 

[Eaglebait Ranch]

Hey... Any of you guys want rock, come to my place here in Southern Oregon. I get rid of the rock on my place, when I clear the area for a pasture, but making huge rock jacks for fence corners and stableizing. I think at last count I have 67 rockjacks, which are all at least 4' in diameter.

As a matter of fact, my wife is moving our vegetable garden and had to clear out the rocks in the new garden. So, I made 4 cages for rock jacks, placed the cages where I wanted them, and she filled them up with rocks. So, that puts us overthe "70" mark for rock jacks. If Home Depot ever wants to start selling rock jacks, I can undercut their price selling mine. hekc, I will make a killing on "delivery" charges

 

[skipro3]

You mentioned the pucker factor. You didn't run that tractor up and down that grade, did you? I'd like to see a photo of that!! Do you have any photos of the tractor working this job?

BTW great looking job and view!