Cutting a road up a mountain...

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JohnFrancis

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Joined
May 16, 2008
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4
I need to cut a road up a pretty steep mountain - it has lots of small hardwood trees and some rocks about (up to 3ft wide) - there's no path already established. The road will probably wind around so as not to make it too steep. I guess it will be about 3/4 mile long and 10-12 ft wide. The road is needed to gain access to the flat land at the top to build a single home - so it would be very low usage. Anybody got any ideas how to get this road built as cheap as possible? I'm clueless. Thanks! John
 
Joined
Nov 1, 2007
Messages
11
The word "cheap" and what you are describing don't fit together. With fuel prices the way they are and not actually seeing what you are doing, hiring somebody to go out there with a dozer and a crawler loader and putting down some sort of road base, this could be a $150K problem. I could see having 1000-1500 hours tied up, a 80 or 90 horsepower unit will go thru around 4 gallons per hour (rough guess) at around $4.50 a gallon. Your least expensive way out of this is to go buy some decent used equipment and learn how to use it, maintain it, then when you finish, put it back up for sale. Doing it this way you are still going to have $75-85K tied up if you bought the equipment right. When it's done, if you didn't tear up the equipment too bad, still recover $30-45K when you sell them. About 15 years ago I read an article about the most expensive thing the government does, it's not war, armed forces, or welfare. It's new road construction, this estimate put new road construction, from the point that they just have the idea of building it, to the lay out, purchase of land, engineering, materials, etc, to when cars are actually using it, at $50 a square foot. I'm sure that number has doubled by now.
 
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JohnFrancis

New member
Joined
May 16, 2008
Messages
4
The word "cheap" and what you are describing don't fit together. With fuel prices the way they are and not actually seeing what you are doing, hiring somebody to go out there with a dozer and a crawler loader and putting down some sort of road base, this could be a $150K problem. I could see having 1000-1500 hours tied up, a 80 or 90 horsepower unit will go thru around 4 gallons per hour (rough guess) at around $4.50 a gallon. Your least expensive way out of this is to go buy some decent used equipment and learn how to use it, maintain it, then when you finish, put it back up for sale. Doing it this way you are still going to have $75-85K tied up if you bought the equipment right. When it's done, if you didn't tear up the equipment too bad, still recover $30-45K when you sell them. About 15 years ago I read an article about the most expensive thing the government does, it's not war, armed forces, or welfare. It's new road construction, this estimate put new road construction, from the point that they just have the idea of building it, to the lay out, purchase of land, engineering, materials, etc, to when cars are actually using it, at $50 a square foot. I'm sure that number has doubled by now.
I really appreciate your reply. Your suggestion of buying some equipment did cross my mind - what would you classify as the right kind of equipment for this job? Some model numbers / descriptions would help me. I did receive one quotation from an engineer/contractor for the job that came to about $92k - it went like this - Cut road with D9 bulldozer 144 hrs @ $135 ($19,440) plus... remove debris from main road 24 hrs @ $85 ($2040) plus... supply, deliver, grade and compact marl 212 cu.yds @$19 ($4028) plus... Apply MC oil (what's that?) to prepare marl base 5300 sq.yd @ $1.60 ($8480) plus... Apply 1.5" thick Asphaltic concrete 5300 sq.yd @ $10 ($53,000) plus sundries items... $5,000 TOTAL $91,988 - that's the whole quote right there - does it sound right?
 

pondfishr

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Joined
Oct 11, 2005
Messages
216
I really appreciate your reply. Your suggestion of buying some equipment did cross my mind - what would you classify as the right kind of equipment for this job? Some model numbers / descriptions would help me. I did receive one quotation from an engineer/contractor for the job that came to about $92k - it went like this - Cut road with D9 bulldozer 144 hrs @ $135 ($19,440) plus... remove debris from main road 24 hrs @ $85 ($2040) plus... supply, deliver, grade and compact marl 212 cu.yds @$19 ($4028) plus... Apply MC oil (what's that?) to prepare marl base 5300 sq.yd @ $1.60 ($8480) plus... Apply 1.5" thick Asphaltic concrete 5300 sq.yd @ $10 ($53,000) plus sundries items... $5,000 TOTAL $91,988 - that's the whole quote right there - does it sound right?
You say 3/4 mile 10 to 12 feet wide up a mountain. What is the elevation change from bottom to the top? How steep is the grade?
 

pondfishr

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Joined
Oct 11, 2005
Messages
216
I think it's about 200 ft elevation.
My partner is one of the best dozer operators around. I will ask him what he thinks. Should have something back to you in the next couple of days. The 150k appears high but I can't exactly see what you are looking at,We cut one in last summer similar to your situation and I think about it every time I drive by there. It really looks nice with the house way up on the hill and was done for considerably less.
 

perry

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Joined
Aug 22, 2006
Messages
869
My partner is one of the best dozer operators around. I will ask him what he thinks. Should have something back to you in the next couple of days. The 150k appears high but I can't exactly see what you are looking at,We cut one in last summer similar to your situation and I think about it every time I drive by there. It really looks nice with the house way up on the hill and was done for considerably less.
I bought an old farmhouse on 12 acres and wanted to clear about 5 acres, an old heavy equipment operator advised me to purchase a piece of equipment, clear my land and sell it. He was right!, I even made a couple of K when I sold it.
 

triad

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Joined
Nov 10, 2007
Messages
65
I really appreciate your reply. Your suggestion of buying some equipment did cross my mind - what would you classify as the right kind of equipment for this job? Some model numbers / descriptions would help me. I did receive one quotation from an engineer/contractor for the job that came to about $92k - it went like this - Cut road with D9 bulldozer 144 hrs @ $135 ($19,440) plus... remove debris from main road 24 hrs @ $85 ($2040) plus... supply, deliver, grade and compact marl 212 cu.yds @$19 ($4028) plus... Apply MC oil (what's that?) to prepare marl base 5300 sq.yd @ $1.60 ($8480) plus... Apply 1.5" thick Asphaltic concrete 5300 sq.yd @ $10 ($53,000) plus sundries items... $5,000 TOTAL $91,988 - that's the whole quote right there - does it sound right?
For a single family home I wouldn't use Asphaltic concrete. If graded right stone would stay in place, of course every so often you would need to spread some in places. I use asphalt millings a good bit and like the way it turns out. Millings wouldn't work in a neighbor hood where people would turn there nose's up though.
 

bobcat_ron

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Joined
Aug 6, 2007
Messages
334
For a single family home I wouldn't use Asphaltic concrete. If graded right stone would stay in place, of course every so often you would need to spread some in places. I use asphalt millings a good bit and like the way it turns out. Millings wouldn't work in a neighbor hood where people would turn there nose's up though.
I would buy a Hitachi EX120 excavator for something like that or even a bit smaller, they last forever and sip the fuel, a dozer would just be too sloppy.
 
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