Logging Road Damage

[Rabland]

I'm a landowner who shares a new gravel easement that passes through a neighbor's property to get to my property of mature timber. I want to hire a forester to manage the logging of my property, but the neighbor is very concerned with damage to the gravel driveway. I know contracts are written that roads, etc. must be restored to their original condition, but I wonder if that really happens so that I eliminate potential problems after a harvest and restoration of the driveway.

[barbender]

Put a bond amount in the timber contract that will be released when the road is restored to original condition. Make it enough that you can hire someone else to do it if the logging contractor fails to come through on it.

[thecfarm]

I have a 500 foot gravel driveway and about 2000 feet to the wood yard. 
My driveway was done with ground fabric, maybe a foot of gravel was hauled in. You would not even know that a loaded log truck took any wood off my land. Had my land cut 4 times. once they use a trailer truck to get the wood out. The other 3 times was with a straight job truck.
I have about 500 foot more that I worked on over the years with hauling rocks, none no bigger than 4 inches and gravel that I raked out of the grass when they plow the road in the winter time. I live on a dirt road. That faired out well too. 
The other 1000 feet had some problems.
Some of the road went through a wet spot. That sunk down about 6 inches. This had some gravel on it, but no fabric. There is a small hill coming out of the wood yard, not much damage was done there.
What I am saying, a good base will hold up a loaded truck. Well did at my place.
You did say new gravel, so the truck might push that down some, but that will just be in the wheel tracks. 
I know they brought in gravel for new logging roads on top of the hill. Nice and level at first. When they get done the wheel tracks are down about 4- 6 inches. 

[Andries]

I see two types of road building fabric used for a new road. 
There's the mesh type, that looks like squarish chain-link fence, but made of plastic.
Then there is the fabric type, that looks like French drain soil block.
Sometimes, both are used next to each other on a new build with 3 or 4 inch rock/gravel being spread out on top of them.
Does someone here know the difference between these uses, and if it's worthwhile to pay for the fabric for a forestry road?

[thecfarm]

Well worth it.
I've only seen the plastic type here. 
My father and me had some gravel hauled in about 30 years ago. 
No one told us about ground fabric.  :(
That gravel is long gone now.
As I mentioned it was used on my driveway. Makes a BIG difference.

[barbender]

I have seen most manner of roads get beat up by our trucks, good base or not. I think the rate it is hauled has a lot to do with it as well. If they are only hauling a load or two per day, the ground has a bit of a chance to spring back between loads. Jobs I was working on it wasn't unusual to have zero trucks until I had 1000 cords piled up, and all of a sudden there are 10 or 15 trucks in there. That pounds a road out fast!

[Ron Scott]

What barbender said:

Put a requirement for a performance bond, preferably cash, in the timber harvest contract. This will allow the road to be put back to its original condition to before the timber harvest should the timber sale contractor not keep, maintain, and leave the road in its good or better original condition. The bond is held until you and your neighbor are satisfied with the road's condition as left after the harvest.

The bond dollar amount can be determined by what you think road repairs may cost should a Non responsible timber contractor be awarded the contract to harvest. 

[Rabland]

Thanks to everyone who responded, I really appreciate you all taking the time to respond. Including a bond requirement really makes a lot of sense and will be what I do.

[Ron Scott]

Have a good timber harvest contract prepared with the necessary and reasonable road protection clauses in it. You can get some good advice from your local County's Conservation District Forester and get a copy of Wisconsin's Best Management Practices for Timber Harvesting.

[Old saw fixer]

We used a professional forester for our thinning/select cut.  10% is a nominal fee for having timber cruise done, a proper contract written, timber auction handled, and follow up on the operation.  No way we could have done it ourselves and working full time. I would certainly recommend  my forester to neighbors and friends.

[Tom King]

It's a good time to have road base packed down by heavy trucks, even if you use fabric closer to the surface.  A friend of mine owns such a road that people use to get to their places at the lake.  There is one hill that has always been a problem.

 It was in Winter, and he had 90 acres of timber to cut.  Being Winter, the ground was soft, so the trucks rutted up the hill pretty bad. 

I suggested he keep having loads of railroad ballast put on that hill as the trucks went in and out, and blade it daily.  He did, and that road has never been in better shape now several years later.  By the time they were near the end of the couple of weeks cutting and hauling, the trucks were not sinking into the No. 3 stone.

[PoginyHill]

I see two types of road building fabric used for a new road.
There's the mesh type, that looks like squarish chain-link fence, but made of plastic.
Then there is the fabric type, that looks like French drain soil block.
Sometimes, both are used next to each other on a new build with 3 or 4 inch rock/gravel being spread out on top of them.
Does someone here know the difference between these uses, and if it's worthwhile to pay for the fabric for a forestry road?

Woven fabric is intended for roads. It is much tougher and rather impermeable to water. The "fabric" looking stuff is non-woven and resembles felt. Also known as landscape fabric and is intended only to separate types of material (e.g. backfill from a retaining wall or soil from rock mulch around plants) and readily passes water through.
Even with road fabric (which does wonders for a muddy area), a road should set for a couple weeks before use.

[barbender]

I've seen many a "fabric hemorrhoid" when having to run trucks over really soft soil without it getting to sit and firm up😊

[ID4ster]

The time of year that you do the logging will have the most affect on the road. If the logging can be done in the summer after the ground has dried out then the road should be good to drive on without pushing the gravel into the road base. Personally, I like to schedule my logging jobs for the winter time after the ground has frozen and the trucks can drive the frost into the ground. That makes a road that is as hard as concrete and minimizes or eliminates any rutting. Winter logging does require cold weather though that will allow the ground in the forest and the road to freeze up. If you can put a foot or so of snow on top of that so much the better. Your logs will be a lot cleaner and look better when they are delivered to the mill.

As mentioned you can require a bond of the logger and put any required restoration of the road into the contract before the bond is released. If your forester hires a good logger than the road work won't be much of a problem.

Make sure that you look at the type of gravel on the road before you start logging and make sure that is has enough clay (fines) in with the crushed rock to make the gravel "set up". If the gravel has no clay it will be pushed off the road bed when the trucks haul over it. If the gravel does have the right amount of clay fines and you log in a dry summer than you may have to run a water truck over the road bed periodically to keep the gravel in place.

This is all stuff that the forester that you hire should be familiar with so don't be hesitant about asking these questions when you are deciding on which one to hire. 

Good luck. 

[barbender]

I've seen plenty of roads pound out in the summer, too. Most gravel roads and especially township roads and driveways are not built for the amount of hauling that modern logging jobs will subject them to. Winter is absolutely the best for preserving your road, if you live in an area that gets sufficient frost.