Have low drainage spot in my yard that I want to put new bins on other side of

[poorboy]

Clay soil here that expands and contracts a lot when it is dry/wet/frozen etc. Cracks 1.5" wide when dry.

Have about a 250' long x 50' wide low drainage spot that I need to cross with loaded super b's to access future grain bins on the other side.

Thinking to dig it down 14" and lay down geotextile cloth and fill the 14" back up with pit run for 10" or so and top it off with 1.5" road crush. Idea is to keep the area as the low spot and allow the water to flow across it, but have it solid enough underneath for the trucks to cross. I will only have to use it when wet once in a while, normally it will be dry or frozen. Only looking to gravel 2 spots to cross the low area about 40'x50' each.

Think it will work? Gravel is very expensive here and 80+km one way to haul it. But not sure that 14" is thick enough, though the geotextile should help some.

Also what do you think the conversion is from loose yards of gravel at the pit or tonnes of gravel to packed gravel once placed? I am thinking that it will shrink 1/3 from loose yards to packed yards or is that too high?

There is no way to divert the water around this low spot and a culvert is possible if small, but would have to be 300' long which also gets expensive.

Any other ideas are welcome.

[foragefarmer]

Does the pit run have enough clay in it for compaction?

Is the water flow going over it very intense?

[Grahamp]

I’m sure you thought of this but make sure the low spot is not your swing auger length away from the new bins. Depending how much water/how soft 14” seems a little light. The bigger concern to me is how close to your bins it is. If it is a good ways and you’re very firm to both load and unload your bins, do the 14” for the majority, but make entrance and exit points at both ends maybe twice that and you’ll never have problems. If you are close to bins though for load and unload I don’t know what to say, you’ll need lots of gravel lots of clay and lots of packing to make it firm as you want.

[poorboy]

The low spot does not flow a lot of water, but would be softer than the surrounding area as some of the flowing water will soak into the gravel.

The low spot runs 90 degrees to the bins and will be crossed on the narrow width rather than the long dimension thankfully.

Swing auger will be sitting in this low spot for 1 bin. Right now the low drainage area is 4-6” lower than the surrounding area and I am hoping to keep the finished grade the same once it is dug down and refilled with gravel.

I can buy a 3” minus product where the pit run gets screened and everything 3” or smaller gets put on the truck and hauled in. This would pack better, but unsure if the smaller rocks will shift around more under heavy loads than pit run will.

[wrongway]

we can get a product called "road bed". looks like a mix of dirt and gravel a bit of clay. 1st time i used it i thought it would be crap...but packed and covered with 1 iinch crushed rock is simply amazing. packs and bakes extremely hard

[LEP]

The low spot does not flow a lot of water, but would be softer than the surrounding area as some of the flowing water will soak into the gravel.

The low spot runs 90 degrees to the bins and will be crossed on the narrow width rather than the long dimension thankfully.

Swing auger will be sitting in this low spot for 1 bin. Right now the low drainage area is 4-6” lower than the surrounding area and I am hoping to keep the finished grade the same once it is dug down and refilled with gravel.

I can buy a 3” minus product where the pit run gets screened and everything 3” or smaller gets put on the truck and hauled in. This would pack better, but unsure if the smaller rocks will shift around more under heavy loads than pit run will.

3 in minus is good. Especially if there is a mix of sand and clay in it. Too big of rock isn't great.

Like others have mentioned a mix of gravel and clay will pack nicely.

[poorboy]

Heard a company that does cement work for the oil patch can mix cement with the soil and make a base.

Anyone have experience with a product like this? Think Magnum cement is one company that does it somewhat close by.

[blackpowder]

Pit run pointless.
Product called soil cement the base for hwy 63 i believe.

[LEP]

Heard a company that does cement work for the oil patch can mix cement with the soil and make a base.

Anyone have experience with a product like this? Think Magnum cement is one company that does it somewhat close by.

Around here they call it sandcrete. Heard they use it as a base but don't know details.

[jdg364]

When you dig back your topsoil, have you thought about digging a trench and putting some weeping tile/ crush rock down underneath your gravel. You can have it flow to a natural outlet or stick a 24” culvert vertically into the ground and then pump the water to a desired location.

[poorboy]

weeping tile is a good idea. Will have to look into that more.

[poorboy]

How deep would weeping tile have to be below the road surface so it does not get crushed?

[jdg364]

How deep would weeping tile have to be below the road surface so it does not get crushed?

In our new area (from top to bottom) we’ve targeted 6-8” gravel, a layer of fabric/matting/geocloth, then we dug a trough 12-24” deep depending on grade and back filled the trough with a 4” weeping tile and 2” crush rock.

Depending on your fabric, it will slow the water from going into your weeping tile but I feel that it’s a must as it keeps the claye from pushing through the gravel.