Road building, stockpiling topsoil, subbase buildup. Scraper tips appreciated.

[Dadnatron]

I priced out a 1/3m road... it was far to costly. $26.5K... I think they think I am rich, so they are going to soak me.

I have decided that I have 3 choices.

1. Use what I have available to me already. 100hp tractor with FEL, 6yd scraper, 12' Killifer blade (drag/land leveler), box blade with hydralic shanks and 8ft disc.

2. Rent a dozer or excavator

3. Use the scraper to remove topsoil, then rent a dozer to grade the road myself.

...

I am very mechanically inclined, but I've never driven a dozer before.
I have used and am comfortable with an mini-excavator.

I have a laser level OTW - Bosch GRL-500. I know I have a lot of work to do with it, so decided to buy it rather than keep renting.

I am unsure of the grade of the road, but it is up a small hill over the entire course. One portion of about 20yds is a slight 'dip' resulting in a short higher grade. My intent is to fill that dip in with subbase, compact it, then put the road over it.

Overall... my questions are

1.When removing topsoil with the scraper, I suspect that I stockpile it by simply taking it somewhere and dumping it, continually driving over the pile making it larger and larger until done. Is that correct? Seems to make sense, but I suspect there are some tricks that will help me avoid some difficulty, and I suspect some of you might know them.

2. My other concern is determining when I am no longer in topsoil and into the clay. I understand 'color change' etc. But is that about the only way to know when I've moved from topsoil to subsoil? I have Maury soils throughout my place. But I know, I've gotten into clay on at least one part of the place below about 3ft.

3. With the cut, should I just go until level and ignore that it might still be in topsoil? What about half the road (downhill side) being on topsoil and the top side of the cut getting into clay? does that cause any issues with road stability long term? I suspect that a large portion of the road will be part topsoil and part clay, if I make a straight cut into the shallow slopes.

4. Is there any issue using clay 'fill' to fill in dips in the road without first removing topsoil completely? In one area, I need to build up the road about 1-2' in order to smooth out the grade. And in order to get down to clay, I might have to remove 1-2ft of topsoil making the 'dip' even deeper. I want to do what will make for the best road long term, but don't want to chase small % improvement that won't really make a difference in the road stability and usability.

5. Which option or combination of options would you recommend? I've asked this on the Heavy Equipment Forums, and most there think my current equipment is enough to handle the job. They don't recommend fabric... but I an hesitant NOT to use it, for the long term.

Pics added.

 

[RNeumann]

Based on the pics I think it's safe to skip the excavator. The dozer will speed things up but with a 100hp machine you could put that toward another Implement or TnT.
With regards to soil- you definitely want to remove the top 6-12" in the grass. The high organic content doesn't make good base. With that removed and moved to an area away from your project you can work to level and build a nice base. If you have soft areas we would put landscape fabric or filter fabric down between the native material and the imported base. You will have to weigh the cost vs fabric or additional base.
The idea with most any dirt work is compaction. Don't just dump 3' in a low spot and drive over it. Do it in 6-12" lifts and compact with the dozer or roller.
Road work is like painting- 90% prep and the final 10% will be the imported road base.

Happy to answer anymore questions. You have a project ahead of you!

 

[Egon]

You should have enough of the right equipment aside from a packer. The one of choice would be a footed vibratory but it may be what's available.

Squeeze a handful of soil. If it stays crumbly it's topsoil. If it form's a cohesive shape it should be clay.

Then for shaping the road.

Try and remove all the topsoil under the to be road. Start by ripping and disking to loosen up the planned roadway sod. To remove the sod you have three options, use the blade to roll it over to one side, use the bucket or the scrapper or a combination of all three.

Shaping the road will requireing cutting on the high side and droping it on the low side. Crowns cut Down to fill dips. Ditches pulled up for road. If more material is needed make wider ditches. No sharp drop offs. Gentle transistions. You'll have to figure out which piece of equipment for the different aspects of the shaping.

On the fill areas keep them smooth and blade often. You may even want to disc after each layer of fill. This levels, smooths and mixes. The more levelling and smoothing you do the better your finished product will be. Do your packing as the lifts of fill go on.

 

[Dadnatron]

Concerning the uphill ditch.

If my intended drivable surface road is 11ft I was expecting to clear 13ft of flat top. Given this, how much wider do I need to clear to make an appropriately sized ditch? This will not have much water coming off given that it is close to the top of a small ridge. Also, is a 2:1 upper bank grade for the ditch, adequate in this instance?

Mowing will be done by a verge flail mower on an arm, so the angle won't be difficult to manage.

 

[RNeumann]

11' road plus a little berm on the downhill side to capture the imported base plus a little berm on the uphill side plus the ditch you are near 14'. I'd also add a pipe/culvert pipe across the road rather than having water flow over the surface in a few natural spots.
2:1 is the normal max slope for dirt work. That will be fine.
As another side note your BB holds more than the FEL. So for most of the cut and fill the BB will be the most efficient. TnT will take the ho hum BB and turn it into an awesome and versatile tool.

 

[Dadnatron]

TnT will take the ho hum BB and turn it into an awesome and versatile tool.

I have one on order from FitRite... but I'm likely 2mo out. Hopefully, this road will be put in long before it arrives.

I do wish I had gone ahead and pulled the trigger on the TnT last fall though. It would make this a whole lot easier to do.

 

[Egon]

Go 4:1 or is it 1:4 (memory don't work good no more ) on the slopes. This is what a lot of highways use. It's gentle and easy to work/drive over.

 

[Leejohn]

With a 100hp tractor I would find a used dirt pan and go for it.

 

[Sprinklerman]

If you need fabric , heres what a friend did . He went to a advertizing company that did roadside bill boards and got the old signs , the ones that that are pre printed . They throw them away . They are heavy duty fabric .

 

[Dadnatron]

With a 100hp tractor I would find a used dirt pan and go for it.

How about the 6yd pan I have on site? Heh...