Sunday, March 24, 2019
Views of Chatham Gravel work
On 23Mar2019 I went to Shad Road in Apex (Google Maps says it's really in Wilson NC) to see some recent work by Michael Michaud of Chatham Gravel. This is what I saw:
Tuesday, January 15, 2019
2018-19 Baer Hill Flat
The flat part of Baer Hill started having a lot of trouble in 2018. Big potholes every few feet, and water running down the road, all the way from the lowest two houses, across the power cut, and almost to the mailboxes.
The first movement of the project was in Feb 2018:
http://elgneighborhoodmaintenance.blogspot.com/2018/02/09feb2018-saving-gravel.html
That made the road muddy, though, and we didn't have cash for gravel after fixing the culvert. It eventually dried out but people didn't like it. Throughout 2018 I tried different drainage features at the north side of the power cut. None really kept the bad stuff from coming back.
I repeated the first exercise in December 2018, planning to use the last of the year's gravel money for gravel to reduce muddiness. This time I was very aggressive with the east side where Baer Hill water flows into the power cut, losing traction in the mud a lot and getting stuck once. After many passes with the tilted scrape blade, and some spade work, we had decent drainage at that point for the first time I can remember.
On the west side of Baer Hill Road, where tract 4407 meets the power cut, I used the Merry Tiller to make new drainage before a certain big pine that was kicking water across the road. That was about an hour total, between breaking roots with the tiller and spading the dirt aside.
All this work was done with water flowing and mud soft. 2018 had a lot of rain, 62 inches measured at RDU.
Right around Christmas I bought 30 tons of Recycled ABC (RABC). That reached from 4407 Baer Hill Road (formerly Olive's now Davida's), across the power cut, and about halfway to the mailboxes. It ended just a little short of where the water has been exiting the road to the south anyway and running into the woods.
That gravel cost $775 and came in two loads from Mellott's in Carrboro (919) 967-2241. Lessons learned:
* paint arrows in the road where you want the gravel to go
* mark the center of the track where the road is wide
* tell Mellot you want the gravel in the road STARTING AT an address. They mistakenly put a whole load in Davida's driveway.
Mellott charges sales tax, but is otherwise only a little more expensive than Scott's long time supplier, Ben Ferguson. Ben retired, at least from ELG, in the summer of 2018 after a misunderstanding over gravel placement. On this project, Mellott gave us the load they dumped in the wrong place, and only charged us for the gravel they put in the right place. I count that as a win.
RABC, it turns out, has a lot more fines than ABC (aka crush run). Even though the thick layer of RABC compacted well (thanks Art!) and established a new crown on that curve that prevented water from meandering back and forth across the road, people didn't like their cars getting muddy.
On 15Jan2019 we purchased 18 tons of 67 gravel from Mellott, to cover the RABC. That reached much further than expected, from the 4407 driveway to the culvert by the mailboxes. The driver agreed to make it a "light coat", or a 1.5 inch layer. It seemed thicker near the end, but covered the RABC very well. Lessons learned:
* 18 tons of 67 gravel comes in a truck that is much bigger than 15 tons of RABC.
* Tell Mellott that the driver should reverse at the mailboxes and back to the delivery point.
* Quarter the tonnage of ABC gravel to get the 67 topcoat weight. To cover the original 30 tons of RABC, I should have ordered just 7.5 tons of 67's.
This is the new drainage pattern on the east (Anita/Audrey) side:
This is the new drainage pattern on the west (Olive/Davida) side:
2021 Followup: We had Marc Johnson Grading cut turnouts at these locations. Drainage is very good now.
The first movement of the project was in Feb 2018:
http://elgneighborhoodmaintenance.blogspot.com/2018/02/09feb2018-saving-gravel.html
That made the road muddy, though, and we didn't have cash for gravel after fixing the culvert. It eventually dried out but people didn't like it. Throughout 2018 I tried different drainage features at the north side of the power cut. None really kept the bad stuff from coming back.
I repeated the first exercise in December 2018, planning to use the last of the year's gravel money for gravel to reduce muddiness. This time I was very aggressive with the east side where Baer Hill water flows into the power cut, losing traction in the mud a lot and getting stuck once. After many passes with the tilted scrape blade, and some spade work, we had decent drainage at that point for the first time I can remember.
On the west side of Baer Hill Road, where tract 4407 meets the power cut, I used the Merry Tiller to make new drainage before a certain big pine that was kicking water across the road. That was about an hour total, between breaking roots with the tiller and spading the dirt aside.
All this work was done with water flowing and mud soft. 2018 had a lot of rain, 62 inches measured at RDU.
Right around Christmas I bought 30 tons of Recycled ABC (RABC). That reached from 4407 Baer Hill Road (formerly Olive's now Davida's), across the power cut, and about halfway to the mailboxes. It ended just a little short of where the water has been exiting the road to the south anyway and running into the woods.
That gravel cost $775 and came in two loads from Mellott's in Carrboro (919) 967-2241. Lessons learned:
* paint arrows in the road where you want the gravel to go
* mark the center of the track where the road is wide
* tell Mellot you want the gravel in the road STARTING AT an address. They mistakenly put a whole load in Davida's driveway.
Mellott charges sales tax, but is otherwise only a little more expensive than Scott's long time supplier, Ben Ferguson. Ben retired, at least from ELG, in the summer of 2018 after a misunderstanding over gravel placement. On this project, Mellott gave us the load they dumped in the wrong place, and only charged us for the gravel they put in the right place. I count that as a win.
RABC, it turns out, has a lot more fines than ABC (aka crush run). Even though the thick layer of RABC compacted well (thanks Art!) and established a new crown on that curve that prevented water from meandering back and forth across the road, people didn't like their cars getting muddy.
On 15Jan2019 we purchased 18 tons of 67 gravel from Mellott, to cover the RABC. That reached much further than expected, from the 4407 driveway to the culvert by the mailboxes. The driver agreed to make it a "light coat", or a 1.5 inch layer. It seemed thicker near the end, but covered the RABC very well. Lessons learned:
* 18 tons of 67 gravel comes in a truck that is much bigger than 15 tons of RABC.
* Tell Mellott that the driver should reverse at the mailboxes and back to the delivery point.
* Quarter the tonnage of ABC gravel to get the 67 topcoat weight. To cover the original 30 tons of RABC, I should have ordered just 7.5 tons of 67's.
This is the new drainage pattern on the east (Anita/Audrey) side:
This is the new drainage pattern on the west (Olive/Davida) side:
2021 Followup: We had Marc Johnson Grading cut turnouts at these locations. Drainage is very good now.
2018 Summer: Pond Road Hill
In the summer of 2018, the hill of Pond Road was in trouble. Water was running down the road instead of the ditches, and puddling so badly at the bottom that the road was softening. The project took about a monthto complete, but the big picture was this:
* set the tractor blade as described for Baer Hill flat:
http://elgneighborhoodmaintenance.blogspot.com/2018/02/09feb2018-saving-gravel.html
* Push black organic soil out to the side. On the south side, it went into the ditch, which was too deep anyway. On the north side, a new ditch-like feature emerged at the road's edge.
* Cut inorganic dirt to the center to reconstruct a crown.
* Get ABC gravel tailgate-spread up the middle to make the crown a little higher.
* Compact. Because of the steepness of the hill, you have to orbit side to side, and overlap each time, to cover the hill. The technique is described here:
http://elgneighborhoodmaintenance.blogspot.com/2017/10/14sep2017-gravel-and-compaction-on-baer.html
* At the bottom, dig out all roadside turf so water runs freely off the road into the culvert area.
* About halfway down the north side, move some cut wood back from the road and dig through with the Merry Tiller. The area had silted up because of the wood sitting there. That was one of the worst places kicking water into the roadbed.
This is how it looked at the end:
ELG List Posts:
30Jun2018 ROADS: Pond Hill Day needed
Re: [ELG] ROADS: Pond Hill work tomorrow morning:
* set the tractor blade as described for Baer Hill flat:
http://elgneighborhoodmaintenance.blogspot.com/2018/02/09feb2018-saving-gravel.html
* Push black organic soil out to the side. On the south side, it went into the ditch, which was too deep anyway. On the north side, a new ditch-like feature emerged at the road's edge.
* Cut inorganic dirt to the center to reconstruct a crown.
* Get ABC gravel tailgate-spread up the middle to make the crown a little higher.
* Compact. Because of the steepness of the hill, you have to orbit side to side, and overlap each time, to cover the hill. The technique is described here:
http://elgneighborhoodmaintenance.blogspot.com/2017/10/14sep2017-gravel-and-compaction-on-baer.html
* At the bottom, dig out all roadside turf so water runs freely off the road into the culvert area.
* About halfway down the north side, move some cut wood back from the road and dig through with the Merry Tiller. The area had silted up because of the wood sitting there. That was one of the worst places kicking water into the roadbed.
This is how it looked at the end:
ELG List Posts:
30Jun2018 ROADS: Pond Hill Day needed
30Jul2018 ROADS: Volunteers needed for Pond Hill compaction on Saturday morningNeighbors -
This morning I propped my tractor up well enough to move some dirt around on Pond Hill. The hill needs more work and some gravel, but the real problem is drains:
* The ditch flattens out on the north side (Art/Marion/Gail/Trace) about halfway down near a cut up tree that is rotting in a picturesque manner. Because the ditch is clogged there, water kicks into the road. This blockage is the root cause of the worst of the erosion on lower Pond Hill. The tree needs to be thrown further back and the ditch redug for those 20 or so feet. My Merry Tiller may help here.
* The low roadside ridges of dirt from today's grading need to be raked/hoed into the road center.
* The dirt I couldn't get to with the tractor, mainly mud and leaves, between the road and the ditch, needs to be dug out and removed so we can have one slope from the road center to each ditch. That's a shovel job
* Leaves and muck need to come out of the ditch, entire hill, both sides. I think the leaves are mixed with dirt and too heavy for a leaf blower.
* The new pile of mulch at the top of the hill on the north side needs to be removed before it washes back down. It's up for grabs.
Once that's all done, and my tractor is fixed for-real, I can grade some more. Then we can put some gravel up the middle and compact the whole shebang.
I'm flying next Sunday and really don't want to commit to road work the day before. Coming back the following Saturday. Who can come out on Saturday 21July?
If anyone wants to organize something sooner than that, you will not hurt my feelings.
Thanks,
Larry
There was a rain delay, but eventually this was posted on 18Aug2018Hi folks,
I put a few more hours into Pond Hill on Saturday, and just arranged for a load of ABC gravel from Ben Ferguson.
Now I have a couple of requests for you-all:
1. Could a few people come out Saturday morning to help compact the new gravel and the dirt that I have cut in from the roadsides? It should be 3 or 4 person-hours so the more the easier.
2. Could people take it easy driving on Pond Hill until Saturday, so not too much gravel gets kicked out?
This link shows what I want to do on Saturday:
http://elgneighborhoodmaintenance.blogspot.com/2017/10/14sep2017-gravel-and-compaction-on-baer.html
That job, on Baer Hill last September, washboarded. But Baer Hill always does that anyway. Pond Hill does not usually washboard, so I am hoping that compaction will allow the road to keep its new shape for a while.
I'm going to start around 9. Feel free to come late and relieve me. Pond Hill is pretty steep, and you get tired fast.
If enough people come out, we might form a separate bucket crew for potholes. It worked real well about 6 months ago to have people drop gravel off the back of a truck. Potholes are like cavities in the road. They reform in the same places until you fix the road. But while we are getting around to the real fixes, we can fill the holes from buckets for less than $500/year.
Thanks,
Larry
Re: [ELG] ROADS: Pond Hill work tomorrow morning:
I want to thank Joe, Senga and Rusty for coming out this morning. Pond Road should be ok for a while now. We improved drainage, raked some washout gravel back up, smoothed and compacted everything in less than 3 hours.The mystery mower turned out to be Dick Snow.
Thanks also whoever mowed the flat part of Baer Hill Road including behind the mailboxes. It's been a couple of weeks now and I've been meaning to say something. You're a great neighbor, whoever you are.
See y'all,
Larry
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