Road Building

Road building started Thursday February 6, the coldest day of the year at -27 C.  None the less everything ran smoothly, equipment arrived on schedule and the sun eventually warmed things up.  We discussed the soil conditions with our geotechnical engineer and they confirmed our original plans.  We will remove the organic layer, cover with woven geo fabric,  fill with local pit run then add  3-6 inches of 3" broken rock followed by compaction to lock it together.  The road will be able to withstand the traffic from construction equipment, cement trucks and the delivery of building materials.  When the horse barn and home are completed, we will top the road with 3/4" road crush for final grading.
A parking area roughly 30 ft by 60 ft will be created at the end of the road, directly in front of the garage and the area between the garage and horse barn.  This will act as a staging area for building materials and equipment.
We were surprised at the extent of the organics, nearly 20 inches of black dirt on top of the clay.  This adds to the amount of excavation time and extra gravel however we  must remove the organics to ensure stability of the soil.
On Friday we will be running two trucks, since they originate from Kelowna we will load the 3" crush at the pit near the airport at 7:30 AM using a truck and pup combination.  The pups will park at the site and both trucks will dump their loads on the new packed pit run from Thursday..  This will provide maximum stability as they continue to run the single truck loads of pit run on the new road bed.  At the end of the day, both pups will unload onto the new packed pit run.  This process reduces the long haul cost of the 3" crush and optimizes the road building process.
There will be lots of black dirt to deal with after the home and horse barn are completed.