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Track through a bog? Advice...

Gulfalan67

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Hey folks.

Hope all are well.

A query.

As you know we're back in the wet season down under. We recently put in some new fencing infrastructure at our property entrance (fences, gates, end assemblies). This changed the route of our track through some very soft clay soil that gets saturated after protracted rains.

Yesterday I bogged the LandRover driving back into the property. Not a bad bog. Just the mud tyres get clogged with mud and don't get traction. Winched out but made a bit of a mess.

So now I'm going to need to put down an all weather track through or over the bog. Its not something I've ever had to do before. It occurrs to me that you pommie blokes would know a thing or two about mud..

Saw an interesting idea on You Tube using old tyres buried, filled with pebbles or gravel and layered with gravel and sealed with road-base (cracker dust).

Any ideas? How to build an all weather road through a deep bog.

Alan
 
We use what you are calling cracker dust but they are called scalpings around here, the large (2” to dust) granite stone chips that are added to bitumen to make the base layers of asphalt. Bedding them into tyres seems like a good way of containing them because without doing that our paths need recovering every couple of years as the chippings get pushed down into the mud as the track is used.
The only downside to tyres is moving sufficient numbers of them into place and the time it takes to ensure that all the voids are filled and packed down with stone.
Are you thinking of covering the whole road or just the wheel tracks? Covering the whole road would probably create a more stable and durable surface but the effort involved would be huge.
 
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Are there any mines or quarries that you could get the stone from for a reasonable cost? Our biggest cost is the transportation.
 
You would definitely have to stabilise the clay with a dug out trench along the path around 2 foot wide with rock ,nothing smaller than 3 inch , better with two trenches following the wheel track …along with drainage as anything you put over clay will eventually move as you will know it’s slippery as heck … big job ! Then a layer of type 1 (cracker dust ) around 40 to 60 millimetres deep , pack this down with a thumper and then cover this with your choice of stone…..
 
Aye Up Gulfalan,

Interesting challenge.

How long is the section in question?
How deep is the clay?
Do you know what lays beneath the clay?
Is the track level (width wise)?
Are there any inclines?
Where will any run-off go?
Do you have access to suitable materials nearby (In the likely quantity required)?
What weight of vehicles need to use the track?
What frequency will it be traffic’d?
How deep are yer pockets?🤣
 
Aye Up Gulfalan,

Interesting challenge.

How long is the section in question?
How deep is the clay?
Do you know what lays beneath the clay?
Is the track level (width wise)?
Are there any inclines?
Where will any run-off go?
Do you have access to suitable materials nearby (In the likely quantity required)?
What weight of vehicles need to use the track?
What frequency will it be traffic’d?
How deep are yer pockets?🤣

We could gather a few "sappers" together and pop over to assist ;) :whistle:
 
Another option could be land drains assuming that there is somewhere lower, near enough for water to be drained to and it wouldn’t impact the plants/trees too much
 
I bet @Sharpfinger could lay his hands on some class 30 :whistle:

download.jpg


However on a serious note , what about some kind of trackway ?? could it be an option ? no idea on cost or availability in OZ for that type of thing.
 
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Don’t believe them for a second Alan…the only work that they would do would be working on their tan…plus you’d have to buy enough beer to float a ship. :sneaky:
No. Really?

Thought never entered my mind! 😆

Strangely I’ve had a certain ear worm since Robs post.

‘Beer, beer, beer said the sappers, merry merry men are we…………’ 😉
 
I bet @Sharpfinger could lay his hands on some class 30 :whistle:

View attachment 41450

However on a serious note , what about some kind of trackway ?? could it be an option ? no idea on cost or availability in OZ for that type of thing.
Bloody ‘ell - flashback!

At one point I was that soldier!!! The bog roll driver 😀😀

Loved class 30, hated class 60.

It was one of my thoughts for gulfalan but I bet it would cost a fortune now just on the prices that metal has gone up, although one of my lads said that they had been experimenting with man made composite materials in one continuous mat as opposed to individual connected planks.

Many of the military trackway solutions would work for a while - summerfield; chespaling; psp etc but it sounds like stabilising his terrain would be needed first if they were to be used longer term.

On a more positive note - revisiting gulfalan periodically to recover and re-lay some class 30 could be…….mutually beneficial. 🤗
 
Good point about composite, another option would be a wide layer of Terram geotextile under the stone chippings. It keeps the stone from being pushed into the clay and assists drainage.
 
I hate being stumped lol so after a little research it seems you may have a few choices Alan 👍🏻

In order of search on the Google lol

Gravel top would last around 3 months on top of clay

Full excavation in which the clay is removed from the width and length of the drive and filled in with gravel…very costly

Polymers
Soil treatment that bonds the clay together (apparently) so therefore less movement and the gravel last longer it lasts around 6 to 18 months depending one weather

Perma-zyme

works by interacting with the clay particles and inducing an electrochemical reaction that permanently bonds to the soil particles together (thank god for copy and paste lol) last 10 years apparently 👍🏻
 
Wow!

Lots of advice fellas. Most of it on the mark too. Sadly I can't re-route the track. Our legal corridor down to the bitumen road is only about 60m wide so our track has to go that way. Down at the bottom of that corridor the soil is very clay rich which becomes supersaturated after a regular heavy rainfalls.

Previously I have dug drains either side of that section of track and built up the path over layers of geotextiles. Worked great for about a year until somebody graded that track too deep and ripped it all up.

For context, the worst section (until the land rises out of the clay) is probably only 100m, but that's plenty to bog in! I would want a track of 3-4m width. During really wet conditions (like now) we wouldn't expect heavy loads to come onto the property. My own 4wd Loader and Tractor probably come in at about 3.5 tonne each, and of course the LandRover Toyota and other road legal vehicles usually less than that.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I actually like the army 'bog roll' concept. I saw similar materials used in old WW1 images from Flanders, where the situation with mud and bogging was awful.

The closest commercially available product I have found is this. True Grid ( although there are various brands available).


Anybody know anything about this stuff? Does it work?

I would dig down a few inches, put in a layer of road base, then a layer of geo textile, then this stuff filled with gravel. Or something like that.

Like I say, I've never built a stabilised track before.

Cheers

Alan
 
I’ve seen similar used on showgrounds where we do antique fairs but they’re usually flat and well drained. The stuff I’ve seen comes in large plastic tile sections, not on a roll and is then filled with fine chippings. It is now about five years old and starting to suffer from fading and is going brittle. While it lasts it works brilliantly but I’m not sure how applicable it is to soft clay, you may be expecting too much of it.
I’m also familiar with the interlocking version of this made from concrete which was used to make “temporary” airfields during the 2nd world war…. I put temporary in inverted commas because a lot of it is still there today.
 
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