yoderjac
5 year old buck +
Great advise from all and thanks for the kind words. My heavy clay can be problematic for some things when it comes to food plots, but it is great for roads. Hopefully things will dry out by the next time I get down. If not, I have other projects removing stumps nearby that I can work on. I think once I'm done, I'll just wait and watch. If I see issues after storms, I 'll have to look into rip rap or concrete wings.
I completely agree that for intermittent streams, a concrete or even just a rock crossing depending on soils can be a lower installation cost and lower maintenance item. Even in small streams they suggest that for infrequent crossings a ford is preferred over a culvert. I did consider the options. In my particular case, transporting rock or cement to the location would be costly and problematic. Since I have the excavator for other road maintenance and habitat work and we have good clay soil and I could get a culvert pipe for a couple hundred bucks, it was certainly the least expensive installation option by far. Time will tell if maintenance costs become a problem. You can't really do a cement crossing easily as this stream is not intermittent. Flow level changes but there is water flowing all year.
I hope to post a few more pics as things progress.
Thanks,
Jack
I completely agree that for intermittent streams, a concrete or even just a rock crossing depending on soils can be a lower installation cost and lower maintenance item. Even in small streams they suggest that for infrequent crossings a ford is preferred over a culvert. I did consider the options. In my particular case, transporting rock or cement to the location would be costly and problematic. Since I have the excavator for other road maintenance and habitat work and we have good clay soil and I could get a culvert pipe for a couple hundred bucks, it was certainly the least expensive installation option by far. Time will tell if maintenance costs become a problem. You can't really do a cement crossing easily as this stream is not intermittent. Flow level changes but there is water flowing all year.
I hope to post a few more pics as things progress.
Thanks,
Jack