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

[EddieWalker]

Do you actually have topsoil? Topsoil is made up of organic material and most commonly in wooded areas. The reason you remove it is because it will never compact and if you build over it, it will continue to decompose. Looking at your pics, all I see is grass. If you remove your soil for the road, you have now created a ditch for water to go to. Filling that ditch with soil required serious compaction to keep the water out of that area. This is very hard to do, and even the pros get it wrong and have to go back and do it again.

I would cut the grass as short as possible and just leave it alone. The amount left will not be enough to affect your road when it decays.

Then I would use the scraper and dig down a few inches on both sides of your road, or just the high side to catch the water and spread it on top of your road to create a small crown.

I would only rent a dozer if I felt I needed to dress up the dirt after you have it all spread. With your tractor, I bet you could get it pretty nice without having to rent a dozer. If you decide to use a dozer, the biggest mistake I see people make is going too fast. You can never go too slow, so start out at a crawl as slow as possible and work up to a comfortable speed. Get off the machine and walk what you have done. Everything looks different from the seat then it does when you are standing on it.

 

[Egon]

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

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That is one nice implement! Only thing you may need is a compactor.

 

[Leejohn]

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

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Dadnatron I'm sorry I didn't understand what you had there. I have always called them dirt pans and couldn't tell by the pictures. I would say that well do the trick.

 

[Dadnatron]

I have my road laid out and elevations noted. I am ready to remove topsoil for storage.

This pasture has had soybeans on it the last 2 years. Currently, I have a mix of blue grass/orchard grass and winter wheat, all drilled in last fall. IT is growing well.

My question is concerning Scraping...

Now, I've done it before and had some good and bad times with it. I NOW have a disc, that I can run up and down the road for a while beforehand, but my question is, which do you think would load better? Virgin ground or disced ground? About 25% is in long term grass (fescue I believe) for erosion control. I will be running along this established grass for a bit. I suspect it will load better (or perhaps unload better) disced up, but I'm not sure about the rest.

I'd like to minimize the number of times I have to switch implements, so I'd like your opinion. I will certainly try 'one' and see how well it works. I've worked with it 'virgin' but I've never tried discing it up before. I don't particularly want to disc it up (or a part of it) and then have obvious difficulty because my thinking was ridiculous.

So... 6yd dirt pan... virgin topsoil or disced topsoil?

Stockpiling it for later use.

 

[Egon]

Give a try without the disking. Then you have a choice!

 

[Dadnatron]

I've been slowed extremely due to the weather we have had over the last month.

I went ahead and rented a D6K which carved the road in a jiffy. Well worth it, regardless of my thoughts of doing it with my scraper. The speed at which I was able to cut it made all the difference.

I still have some final grading to do.

I initially had an expected road width of 11ft drive-able surface. This gave me at least 3 feet to the inside for a ditch. My current question is, can I 'build the ditch' simply by pouring gravel on the road surface and then back filling against it with topsoil? Basically, as it is now, I have an 'approximately' 2:1 slope on the uphill side terminating at the current road surface. If I build up the road with 6-8" gravel, leaving space between the side slope, and the gravel covered with topsoil and planted with grass, will that allow for enough of a ditch, given there is very minimal area that would drain this direction?

 

[Rustyiron]

Look's like you were born on that D-6:thumbsup:
I hate giving or taking "internet advice" on dirt. So many different soil's around the country that it's not a single answer other than basic grading & ditching. I've saved a lot of work (and gravel) by using the right filter cloth. (in the right conditions) You got a "local guy" to ask his opinion's on this?

 

[Dadnatron]

My local guy is somewhat ambivalent about fabric at this point. He says, "When its wet season, we typically use it. When its dry, we don't. You are right in the middle of that timeframe."

What do you think about the utility of getting a sheepsfoot compactor and compacting the road? Is that necessary/useful? 90% of the road is on cut. The only thing that isn't is a small amount of build up in one lower area that I dug to sticky clay, then compacted 4" lifts with my tractor and loaded scraper, in order to get it up to grade. I was initially going to get a Vibratory compactor for this spot, but then was recommended to just use my tractor with a full bucket. It 'seems' to be compacted pretty well, but given my complete lack of knowledge on 'how well is WELL' I don't know.

I know how it can be when giving advice online, but if you have anything to add to the above, I'd sure appreciate it.

 

[teg]

What type of rock are you going to put down? If it's only Crusher Run, I would lean towards using the fabric (especially if you have soft spots). I would consider using larger rock as the base (no fabric). Drive on this for awhile... then cover with crusher run. BUT it really depends on YOUR soil type and rain fall amounts.

I can not comment on a roller... seems to be a smart thing but never seen it used.

PS. As for ditches, bigger is better, they tend to "fill in" over time.

 

[Rustyiron]

My local guy is somewhat ambivalent about fabric at this point.
I know how it can be when giving advice online, but if you have anything to add to the above, I'd sure appreciate it.

Would it be possible to only spread minimal stone at this point, use the road normally, and just see what/where problem area's appear and then deal with them? Is this just a farm road?