G
Guest
·I need both the voice of experience and engineering brains here.
I'm going to have to put a loong driveway up a hill which has about a 22 degree slope. When I say driveway, I mean a very primitive farm road type of trail, very simple, and I have no intention of it ever being used by heavy equipment...a very occasional loaded 4wd pickup would be the biggest vehicle, and the rest of the time it would be minor ATV, bike, or foot traffic only, and there won't be any hay trucks, well drilling rigs, or septic tank pumpers so please don't argue with me about this. The nearest fire station is 125 miles away so emergency vehicle access isn't a consideration.
The hill has about 7" to 1' of topsoil, beneath that is rock. I don't want to dig perpendicular to the slope, especially in the two closely parallel lines of a switchback for fear of slope failure. There's a highway at the bottom of the hill and as you can imagine a landslide would be unspeakably horrible.
Something on top of the existing soil that would allow water to pass through, yet slow soil loss, and let the road's surface still be reasonably good, is my goal here. Maybe two layers of wooden pallets?
So what I'm shooting for is something that won't worsen erosion, preferably even something that would slow erosion, and something that wouldn't become a massive drainage problem, and a big built up dam-like road is not an option financially. I'm hoping to get these benefits by intelligent shape design and maintenance of existing vegetation along the path rather than expensive materials.
I realize that a road shooting straight up a hill is bad for several reasons, the main thing being drainage. As far as switchbacks go, it sounds like they do well at erosion and drainage control only if they are industrial strength, since otherwise they have massive side pressure from the slope.
The other option, and as far as I can see the best one, is a road shaped like a "C", or in other words just ONE large, extended switchback rather than a series of them. Or how about a straight but diagonal road up the slope?
I'd really like some advice on this. Thank you.
I'm going to have to put a loong driveway up a hill which has about a 22 degree slope. When I say driveway, I mean a very primitive farm road type of trail, very simple, and I have no intention of it ever being used by heavy equipment...a very occasional loaded 4wd pickup would be the biggest vehicle, and the rest of the time it would be minor ATV, bike, or foot traffic only, and there won't be any hay trucks, well drilling rigs, or septic tank pumpers so please don't argue with me about this. The nearest fire station is 125 miles away so emergency vehicle access isn't a consideration.
The hill has about 7" to 1' of topsoil, beneath that is rock. I don't want to dig perpendicular to the slope, especially in the two closely parallel lines of a switchback for fear of slope failure. There's a highway at the bottom of the hill and as you can imagine a landslide would be unspeakably horrible.
Something on top of the existing soil that would allow water to pass through, yet slow soil loss, and let the road's surface still be reasonably good, is my goal here. Maybe two layers of wooden pallets?
So what I'm shooting for is something that won't worsen erosion, preferably even something that would slow erosion, and something that wouldn't become a massive drainage problem, and a big built up dam-like road is not an option financially. I'm hoping to get these benefits by intelligent shape design and maintenance of existing vegetation along the path rather than expensive materials.
I realize that a road shooting straight up a hill is bad for several reasons, the main thing being drainage. As far as switchbacks go, it sounds like they do well at erosion and drainage control only if they are industrial strength, since otherwise they have massive side pressure from the slope.
The other option, and as far as I can see the best one, is a road shaped like a "C", or in other words just ONE large, extended switchback rather than a series of them. Or how about a straight but diagonal road up the slope?
I'd really like some advice on this. Thank you.