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Creating the Driveway
Steuben County DOT/DPW rejected the original engineering plan because the driveway entrance was on a curve. They
suggested and approved the modifications (moved the entrance ~150' to the south) but did not require a new engineering
drawing. When the road location was moved, this looked like just a little bit more dirt to move.
Well moving the road turned into a much bigger issue. First and foremost, it caused the disturbed land size to exceed
one acre, which requires a NYSDEC NOI and SWPPP. The building code enforcement officer missed it, and the contractor doing
major excavation had no idea about the regulation.
This "little bit more dirt" move added over 100 tons of stone to the drive way, and required an engineered retention
wall comprised of 240 tons of stone in various sizes.
Here's a YouTube video of the HDT and Camper making their first appearance on the property.
Entrance to County Rt. 15
The entrance to the property is on County Rt. 15. The entrance is a wide sweep that required 80' of sluice pipe installed
at the road edge.
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| Starting Point |
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| Sluice End and Walkway |
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| Lower Road |
It took several passes to get the road at final grade. Here's the evolution of the entrance.
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| Entrance First Pass |
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| Levelling Entrance |
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| Starting Lower Roadway |
While the construction entrance allowed 4wd trucks to get in and out of the property, any little bit of rain made it
really difficult to drive in on the slope, so we graded the lower section.
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| Road First Pass Graded |
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| Sluice Pipe Installed |
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| Working the Dirt |
After grading with a small excavator and box blade the construction entrance was usable, but not at final grade.
The contractor brought in a heavy bulldozer to finish the dirt to finish grade.
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| Final Grading |
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| Final Sweep |
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| Lower Road Graded |
Water Everywhere
With the driveway at finish grade, it became obvious that the spring and the sand seam were not going to be properly
retained with a vegetative covered earth berm. A retaining wall would be necessary. The retaining wall turned into a two pass,
two year, ugly project. The full story is here.
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| Spring #1 |
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| Spring #2 |
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| Scope of Spring #2 |
After grading with a small excavator and box blade the construction entrance was usable, but not at final grade.
The contractor brought in a heavy bulldozer to finish the dirt to finish grade.
Lower Road: Thanksgiving 2009
By the late fall of 2009, the roadway is done. The lower section has all of it's base stone cover, final grading,
and water retention systems in place.
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| Vegetative Cover |
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| Spring Seeding... |
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| Flat and Wide |
Creating the Loop Road
Once on the property, the road forms a loop to make it easier to turn around. The loop road is just as steep as the entrance
road. The maximum grade is 1:5. The loop road allows even the biggest rig to pull in and turn around. It has a flat section
at the top to allow toads to be uncoupled.
Loop Road
The loop road required very little grading and was able to make use of the natural slope of the field.
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| Top Of Loop |
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| Turn to Pads |
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| Fork at Bottom of Loop |
A few passes with the dozer, then a box blade, and finally a rake gave the loop road it's finished grade.
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| Panoramic Loop Road |
Loop Road: Thanksgiving 2009
The entire loop is at finish grade. All of the grass has filled in on most of the edges. The last section of the
road, uphill from the power pole is complete, but it will be early spring 2010 before the vegetative cover has time to mature.
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| Y at Bottom of Loop |
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| Up to Power Pole |
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| Down to Power Pole |
The top sweep of the loop road is complete. The access to the barn is gentle enough that Optimus Prime can park there
and be plugged in, all of the base stone cover is in place, and all pads have been parked on by Optimus Prime and Just Weight to make sure that they fit.
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| Sweep Far Left |
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| Sweep Left |
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| Sweep Right |
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| Sweep Far Right |
Next up in the spring of 2010 is to run the septic lines under the road, do a final pass of grading to level out
any settling from the winter freeze/thaw cycle, and put a layer of permeable crusher run over the whole road (about 600 tons
of material).
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