Greg Stoneburner
New Member
Hi everybody, hopefully this is in the correct section... I'm hoping to gain some great knowledge from some old school blade hands, I have a bit of a dilemma going on.
I am the blade guy for our HOA here in CO. Lots of experience moving dirt, it's one of my every day jobs. Pioneered/ built/ maintained lots of dirt road and driveway. We live at about 9000' and get a bunch of snow, and a bunch of drifting. The only access to our subdivision is about 6 miles of well maintained county dirt road (magged, bladed, compacted) that is petty well built and has decent drainage, but it's anywhere from 5-12% grade and switchbacks the entire way up the hill. Then we have another 2 miles of HOA road that runs up through another hill/ switchback at about an 8% grade. Needless to say, access isn't easy, and it takes a good 6 hours in our old 772BH to do the entire route to pavement, plus wing back.
The last "operator" that I'm replacing really didn't understand drainage or proper blading/ plowing, but he did it so long that everyone on the board thinks that his way was "the way."
The old SOP (created by the board with no members that had any equipment/ plowing experience other than their hobby tractors) was to leave 2-3" of snowpack on the roads all winter long, and as you can probably guess, the pack on any warm day would either glaze over and be too slick to drive on (lots of cars over the edge) or the bottom would fall out and anything other than 4wd trucks/SUV's would be stuck.
This winter I took over the blading and moved over to the best practices that I was taught from the old blade hands around here, and would only leave 1/2" on the road, lightly exposing the crown so it would bake off before it had a chance to melt into the subgrade and the freeze and make a muddy mess after it broke up the bed. The snowmobile crowd is exceptionally unhappy, but I think we have a workaround there. My big issue is that I'm having is that the board believes that my way of plowing is doing more damage to the roads, and I cannot convince them otherwise. The snowmobile crowd moaning isn't helping either.
My argument is that we are in a place that someone will eventually need emergency services, and fire trucks/ ambulances (even 4wd) will get stuck in the pack/ slide around on the glaze. It is a life safety issue.
I also believe that removing the pack all winter keeps it from melting out from underneath and keeps the moisture out of the subgrade.
Problem is, I cannot for the life of me, find any documentation of best dirt road plowing practices, etc. It should be common sense, and every blade hand in this area says it's correct, but they are pushing back. Does anyone have any documentation/ experience with this? I would quit, but then I lose access to my house....
I am the blade guy for our HOA here in CO. Lots of experience moving dirt, it's one of my every day jobs. Pioneered/ built/ maintained lots of dirt road and driveway. We live at about 9000' and get a bunch of snow, and a bunch of drifting. The only access to our subdivision is about 6 miles of well maintained county dirt road (magged, bladed, compacted) that is petty well built and has decent drainage, but it's anywhere from 5-12% grade and switchbacks the entire way up the hill. Then we have another 2 miles of HOA road that runs up through another hill/ switchback at about an 8% grade. Needless to say, access isn't easy, and it takes a good 6 hours in our old 772BH to do the entire route to pavement, plus wing back.
The last "operator" that I'm replacing really didn't understand drainage or proper blading/ plowing, but he did it so long that everyone on the board thinks that his way was "the way."
The old SOP (created by the board with no members that had any equipment/ plowing experience other than their hobby tractors) was to leave 2-3" of snowpack on the roads all winter long, and as you can probably guess, the pack on any warm day would either glaze over and be too slick to drive on (lots of cars over the edge) or the bottom would fall out and anything other than 4wd trucks/SUV's would be stuck.
This winter I took over the blading and moved over to the best practices that I was taught from the old blade hands around here, and would only leave 1/2" on the road, lightly exposing the crown so it would bake off before it had a chance to melt into the subgrade and the freeze and make a muddy mess after it broke up the bed. The snowmobile crowd is exceptionally unhappy, but I think we have a workaround there. My big issue is that I'm having is that the board believes that my way of plowing is doing more damage to the roads, and I cannot convince them otherwise. The snowmobile crowd moaning isn't helping either.
My argument is that we are in a place that someone will eventually need emergency services, and fire trucks/ ambulances (even 4wd) will get stuck in the pack/ slide around on the glaze. It is a life safety issue.
I also believe that removing the pack all winter keeps it from melting out from underneath and keeps the moisture out of the subgrade.
Problem is, I cannot for the life of me, find any documentation of best dirt road plowing practices, etc. It should be common sense, and every blade hand in this area says it's correct, but they are pushing back. Does anyone have any documentation/ experience with this? I would quit, but then I lose access to my house....
