farm roadways

dar31

will have to put in new farm roads over the next two year or so, any where from 1.5 - 2.5 km.

what is the best method for constructing them.
part of them will be a main thru way for stock and machinery(silage and slurry), and the rest will be mainly stock and light machinery, with a few stub roads for stock only.
anyone with recent experience, and what kind of costs are involved.
thanks

yog1

has anybody ever though of using that plastic sheet that is lay'd down first then stones put on top, think it's call's cover tan or sumit like that,
ment to be you can build a road in a bog with it, it's expensive at a £1 per meter but wonder would it save on rough stone as a base before the, type 3/ quarry rack/ blue stone on top?

jeff greene

Have you suitable material onfarm? huge cost saving if you do. Remove 4-8 inches of topsoil, membrane may be needed depending on soil type, costs about €2/m, aggregate and top off with quarry dust, roll. Have a 1:25 slope I think, to keep water off.

I remember a picture you posted earlier in the year with a fine looking road

redzerologhlen

yog1 wrote: »

has anybody ever though of using that plastic sheet that is lay'd down first then stones put on top, think it's call's cover tan or sumit like that,
ment to be you can build a road in a bog with it, it's expensive at a £1 per meter but wonder would it save on rough stone as a base before the, type 3/ quarry rack/ blue stone on top?

Teram is the name of the stuff I think...

yourpics

redzerologhlen wrote: »

Teram is the name of the stuff I think...

use geogrid if building on top of vegetation
use terram if you have dug down into bog/peat

sh1tstirrer

Why would you need to remove any topsoil? I built a roadway with loam from my farm. I spread 8-9" of it over the topsoil it went as hard as rock after a few weeks of traffic. If I ever want to remove the road all I need do is dig it down to the topsoil.

I saw on the journal years ago a reversible roadway. The subsoil was brought to the surface with topsoil underneath and reverse it to put it back. In my local town they did this in the town park to make a temporary car park while the car park was upgraded. When the work was finished they simply reversed the temporary car park.

blue5000

Hey Dar31, what have you got on farm? gravel/subsoil, shale etc? Keep an ear out for road planings or anybody needing somewhere to dump rubble/ neighbours digging a tank out. If you could organize the haulage you would be surprised what's available locally, talk to plant hire guys in the area.

Try not to be mean with width, if it's narrow all the wear will be on the wheeltracks only, with more width the wear will be spread out more. With the stub roads this won't be as important.

For cows walking the surface is very important, slig (fine soft shale) works well, but I don't know if it is available to you or not locally. Costwise I've no idea really, depends on what you can supply yourself, ballpark 10e /M but I'm only guessing.

royaler83

This was on last weeks farming indo, mainly about dairy cows but may help

http://www.independent.ie/farming/dairy/minimise-cow-flow-issues-by-building-effective-roadways-2894629.html

sh1tstirrer

Blue, shale or pencil as some people call it isn't great as it will wear away to nothing in 2-3 years. The trouble with it is that gets so brittle from traffic that it goes to dust.

Suckler

Put one in recently, notorius wet area. 3.0m wide, dug down approx 250mm. Used 6" clean first, layer of 804 then a layer of maintenance. Each time the wagon was delivering a load he compacted the previous bit for me as well! Love using maintenance gravel , easy to spread and compact and easy repair as well.

Tipp Man

sh1tstirrer wrote: »

Blue, shale or pencil as some people call it isn't great as it will wear away to nothing in 2-3 years. The trouble with it is that gets so brittle from traffic that it goes to dust.

There is a dust that we put on top of it which is absolutely brilliant. it stops the shale from breaking as much and is unbelievably soft for cows feet, can't think of the name of it though

If you are going to use shale you will need a good strong base underneath it - we put ours down ontop of the existing roadway. Not cheap mind - we spent thousand upon thousands upgrading our roadway 2 years ago. It needed to be done but was worth it. Keeping the trailers (and vacuum tank especially) off them certainly keeps the roadway in better shape

Cavanjack

Saw an article in IFJ some months ago and they were talking about €17/m for a 5m wide road way including fencing if memory serves me correct. It's a big investment but a worthwhile one IMO to get the most from grass. I'm also considering about 1500m of new roadway going through the farm if I am to expand after 2015. Does anyone know the max distance to walk cows to paddocks before it takes too much out of both cow and man? Is 1200m too far?

dar31

thank lads
have our own gravel pit, it is medium quality, sandy gravel, with solid stone 4-9 inch mixed through. it works well if it get a bit of a wetting as its compacted in, almost concrete like, but can turn to quick sand if not layed right. also have a 12t track digger.
the biggest concern is if applied directly on top of top soil how it will work out. but this would be the easiest and cheapest solution.
if i remove the topsoil, i'll then need a lot more gravel to bring the road above field level.
so topsoil or not, if the topsoil is left, should a membrane be put down.

widened the existing roads this year to 17 ft min, but would be looking at 20 ft on new roads esp on main approach to yard, probably the last 0.5 km

dar31

Cavanjack wrote: »

Saw an article in IFJ some months ago and they were talking about €17/m for a 5m wide road way including fencing if memory serves me correct. It's a big investment but a worthwhile one IMO to get the most from grass. I'm also considering about 1500m of new roadway going through the farm if I am to expand after 2015. Does anyone know the max distance to walk cows to paddocks before it takes too much out of both cow and man? Is 1200m too far?

regularly walk the cows over 1 km with no problems, and the last 250m to yard is a bit of a climb.
good care and maintenance of feet and hooves is critical though.

foot bath with formalin every 4 - 6 weeks for 3 consecutive days, changing the foot bath for fresh stuff every 150 cows

keep going

the big issue is the type of traffic.cows only and topping/fert no need to remove topsoil but if there is going to a good bit of silage/slurry traffic on it you got to remove it.

awaywithyou

we concreted 2 of our 4 roadways last feb/march........ the only job.. costly but well well worth it.....

Tipp Man

dar31 wrote: »

thank lads
have our own gravel pit, it is medium quality, sandy gravel, with solid stone 4-9 inch mixed through. it works well if it get a bit of a wetting as its compacted in, almost concrete like, but can turn to quick sand if not layed right. also have a 12t track digger.
the biggest concern is if applied directly on top of top soil how it will work out. but this would be the easiest and cheapest solution.
if i remove the topsoil, i'll then need a lot more gravel to bring the road above field level.
so topsoil or not, if the topsoil is left, should a membrane be put down.

widened the existing roads this year to 17 ft min, but would be looking at 20 ft on new roads esp on main approach to yard, probably the last 0.5 km

Surely the roadway will sink if put straight down on topsoil, it might be ok for a while but with a wet year I think it would sink

Have always taken out some of the topsoil so i'm open to correction

jeff greene

Tipp Man wrote: »

Surely the roadway will sink if put straight down on topsoil, it might be ok for a while but with a wet year I think it would sink

Have always taken out some of the topsoil so i'm open to correction

Same here, I guess it acts as a foundation, stopping it spreading out.

funny man

I have put in 5km of roadways in the last 20 years most on dry land and the only one that has given problems is one that was placed on the top soil, it had to be repaired every year until i dug it up and relayed it four years ago. All i'll say is what works for me dig out soil down to firm sub-soil, shale rock (fall for water), quarry dust (not limestone), vibrator roller again.

Sorry to dissapoint the guy that thinks he still has top soil under his pass, when covered top soil turns to channel!

reilig

funny man wrote: »

I have put in 5km of roadways in the last 20 years most on dry land and the only one that has given problems is one that was placed on the top soil, it had to be repaired every year until i dug it up and relayed it four years ago. All i'll say is what works for me dig out soil down to firm sub-soil, shale rock (fall for water), quarry dust (not limestone), vibrator roller again.

Sorry to dissapoint the guy that thinks he still has top soil under his pass, when covered top soil turns to channel!

I agree. I have made some roadways through the farm recently too. For machines as opposed to dairy cows. I got surface blast rock from a local quarry delivered at EUR2 per ton. It has a lot of 4 to 6 inch rubble in it and a lot of quarry dust. Its easy to sort the bigger stuff with the teeth of the digger bucket and just pull the dust over the top to leave a smooth surface. Definitely remove the topsoil (no more than 4 inches in this part of the country) or you will end up with slop.

dar31

funny man wrote: »

I have put in 5km of roadways in the last 20 years most on dry land and the only one that has given problems is one that was placed on the top soil, it had to be repaired every year until i dug it up and relayed it four years ago. All i'll say is what works for me dig out soil down to firm sub-soil, shale rock (fall for water), quarry dust (not limestone), vibrator roller again.

Sorry to dissapoint the guy that thinks he still has top soil under his pass, when covered top soil turns to channel!

the last major extension of the roads way was over 15 year ago, and according to the father they were all put in on top of the topsoil, they were meant to be temporary jobs, but turned out fairly good.
they all get yearly maintenance still to date, but ive often drove the good car home across them after a few scoops, so they are in reasonable order.
however there is only 2 -3 inches of topsoil across a lot of the farm.
think ill remove the topsoil for the main road to yard and see how it fairs from there

Figerty

Put the roads on the north side of a wall so in the Satellite photos. They don't show up on the photos to easily that way!!!:D

dar31 wrote: »

the last major extension of the roads way was over 15 year ago, and according to the father they were all put in on top of the topsoil, they were meant to be temporary jobs, but turned out fairly good.
they all get yearly maintenance still to date, but ive often drove the good car home across them after a few scoops, so they are in reasonable order.
however there is only 2 -3 inches of topsoil across a lot of the farm.
think ill remove the topsoil for the main road to yard and see how it fairs from there

Conflats

http://www.farmersjournal.ie/site/farming-Good-road-is-vital-piece-of-farm-infrastructure-11069.html This might help was in the IFJ about a new roadway built in Lyons estate

reilig

Picture of a farm roadway built with the material and method as described above. Land leveller is pulled on it every year to fill any potholes that may be appearing. It's in place about 7 years now and has needed no top-up of materials.

funny man

That looks like a good job rellig, the quarry dust binds it well. my last roadway was rolled with a viberator roller and no pot holes to date, the only road that i haven't had to maintain.