• Welcome to The Bushcraft Forum

    You are currently viewing the site as a guest and some content may not be available to you.

    Registration is quick and easy and will give you full access to the site and allow you to ask questions or make comments and join in on the conversation. If you would like to join then please Register

Track through a bog? Advice...

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
 
Aye Up again Alan,

100 metres is quite a stretch to deal with from a financial point of view if you want something half decent.

Regardless of whatever surface dressing you use prep of the substrate will be key.

One of my jobs in the Falklands involved laying military trackway over peat bog to help out farmers.
It is really good stuff and whilst intended as a temporary solution I would imagine that it would last indefinitely in your use - provided that the ground over which you will lay it is prepared appropriately, firm enough so that the planks aren’t deformed when traffic’d and almost level crossways, allowing for water run-off. It should also be anchored, because it will slip and ‘ruck-up’ if not, over time. That can be done either directly through the edges of the trackway or by using swr and clips to remote anchor pins in firmer ground.
The trackway is commercially available in the U.K. but I think probably quite expensive. Not sure the situation where you live.

All that stated I would look into the construction industry access trackway situation. At some point I’ve seen a thick, woven synthetic type trackway in a long continuous length which I think might be better than any of the ‘plank’ options - financially, handling wise etc.

Something else that you might consider, and it is similar to the bridging possibility which Ark79 mentioned is that if you have specific spots along the track which can get really bad:
auger (preferably) or dig, small ‘shafts’ through the clay and fill them with concrete (throw in some rebar) creating small piles. (Yes, heard them before! 😆).
You can insert barrels with the tops and bottoms cut out just into the top of the shafts with an appropriate amount protruding to act as formwork. We used 10 gallons metal oil drums on ‘Irish bridges’ in Cyprus along the wadi tracks but nowadays I’d go for those blue plastic chemical barrels. If you set a slot in the top of each pile when you pour the concrete it can be used to place/anchor any bearers that you subsequently use between the piles.
You can then bridge the piles in whatever way/materials you like. If timber is available for example you could create a section of ‘corduroy road’.

Have fun.
8FA23170-26CF-4FFA-9BD4-8CE608D8EABB.jpeg
 
Back
Top