Pond Boss Forums INTRO Common Pond Q&A (archives) USDA Agriculture Handbook # 590 "Ponds - Planning, Design, Construction"

This can be a very useful reference for Pondmeisters figuring out their next pond.
Ponds � Planning, Design, & Construction
Handbook 590 Use the link to download the US Dept Agriculture Pond Building Handbook.
See this link.


See this informative link for installing drain pipes and anti-seep collars NOTE this not simple to download.
http://www.libertynaturepreserve.com/p40.htm

Great book. I've got one, but the USDA told me a few years ago that I couldn't get a new one because they were out of print.

This looks like an archive post.

It's about a 1.8 MB download.

Cody Input.
Here is a good informative thread about questions for building a new dug pond and not one with a dam at the end of a ravine.
https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=578531#Post578531

For those planning on building a pond here is a link to a very good information page about soil compaction. After building a pond and it leaks almost always soil compaction of the dam and or side walls is/are the reason. Important Note To Remember: It often costs almost as much or more to fix a leaky pond as it cost to build the pond. Do it correctly the first time and you will save money and reduce a lot of later problems and headaches. Plus your pond will always look a lot better when fuller of water.


Page is from this thread:
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=389185#Post389185

Discussion of homemade test to check if soil is compactable and will hold water if the pond is built correctly.
The Bucket Test
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=466870&page=1


PROPER CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT FOR THE GOOD AND BEST COMPACTION
Sheepsfoot rollers can exert approximately forty times more pressure than rubber-tired equipment and are often specified where a high degree of compaction is needed. Optimal compaction is obtained by using thin layers of soil, each about 6 inches thick. Thicker layers are not desirable, as the pressure transmitted to the soil decreases with soil depth.
https://extension.missouri.edu/g1555

Note later it says when compacting with a bulldozer the soil thickness layers should be just 2"-3" thick.

A quick summary of PSI from tracked vehicles online. This is from a Hitachi Ex200, 20 ton excavator. The weight is probably twice your dozer but tracks are also larger. You can plug the numbers in from your dozer. In this example despite 20 ton weight the force on your boot is only 7 psi. It would be interesting to substitute the track area vs weight of your dozer. But either way, the PSI from a dozer tread has come up in other threads and the force generally per square foot is not much different than rolling it with a lawn tractor pulling a drum filled with concrete.

Here is the example from the web:

Ground Pressure

Ground pressure is the pressure exerted on the ground by the tires or tracks of a motorized vehicle, and is one measure of its potential mobility,[1] especially over soft ground. Ground pressure is measured in pascals (Pa) which corresponds to the EES unit of pounds per square inch (psi). Average ground pressure can be calculated using the standard formula for average pressure: P = F/A.[2] In an idealized case, i.e. a static, uniform net force normal to level ground at Earth sea level, this is simply the object�s weight divided by contact area. The ground pressure of motorized vehicles is often compared to the ground pressure of a human foot, which can be 60 � 80 kPa while walking or as much as 13 MPa for a person in spike heels.[3]

Note later it says the ground pressure of a sheepsfoot roller is 1400 to 7000 kpa !
One KPA is equal to 0.145038 PSI.

Increasing the size of the contact area on the ground (the footprint) in relation to the weight decreases the ground pressure. Ground pressure of 14 Pa (2 psi) or less is recommended for fragile ecosystems like marshes.[4] Decreasing the ground pressure increases the flotation, allowing easier passage of the body over soft terrain. This is often observed in activities like snowshoeing.

Example: Average ground contact for a Hitachi EX 200 (20 ton)

Calculate average ground contact area (footprint):
A = length x width
A = 132.1″ x 23.6″ =3115.2 x 2 for two tracks = 6230.4

Calculate average ground contact pressure:
P = load / area
P = 43651.5 lbs divided over the area 6230.4″ = 7 lbs per square inch
P = 7 psi or 48.2kpa
For comparison, a 100# woman in high heels applies about 1500 psi!
125 pound person wearing 1/4 inch square spike heels. Rocking back on both heels = 1,000 PSI per heel. Standing on one heel = 2,000 PSI. Hundreds of people walking back and forth in spike heels = one sheepsfoot roller.

This from a Kansas Pond Builder and PB Forum Member:
""There are work around's of not using a sheepsfoot roller.

Now take the square inches that comprise the grousers only on the tracks. That is going to be about 1/32 the surface area of the entire track. So 32 times more psi compaction capability (bulldozer type grousers, not excavator). Problem is you have to go over the area 32 times to get it. You can greatly increase the compaction capability of a dozer simply by making multiple trips preferably at varying angles. The other caveat is it only compacts to about 2"-3" deep so the lifts have to be shallower. I like to cris-cross. Is it efficient? no. If you have a large area to do, finding a rubber tired scraper or sheepsfoot would be a much better idea. But it is a work around, particularly on a small job. When they figure the compaction pressure of a sheepsfoot they do not figure the drum area. They figure the feet area. It takes multiple passes even with a sheepsfoot to realize its full compaction capability. By using the grouser area of a track tractor the compaction factor is greatly increased. But it takes many passes to realize it.

Another work around with a dozer on a dam, especially a small rather narrow dam, is to compact it with the dozer while going over center. If you only have the center part of the tracks touching, say half, you have doubled the compaction force. Again it is a work around. Is it efficient? No. But it is another method that an experienced operator can do to "make do".

About the only BOW's I have seen a sheepsfoot used in this area is on government jobs. Rubber tire scrapers are used more often but mostly on larger jobs. I would hazard to say thousands of ponds in my area (of Kansas) have been built with nothing with a dozer and by and large nearly all hold water. I know of one that did not but my "guess" is that the area it is in was undermined (old shallow coal mine shafts). Maybe a sandy area of soil was a factor"

If I put new terraces in a field in Kansas and get a low spot, I have a pond. It holds water till it evaporates.

I know this forum obsesses over sheepsfoot rollers, but not all areas of the country or soil types require their use. Are they a good idea on any project? Sure. And on a significant size project would be very good insurance. But on a pond less than one acre? However a leaky pond is still a constant problem to deal with especially if it could have been easily avoided. I would say they almost are never used in my neck of the woods. I never used one on the three new ponds I have built on my property (did use a rubber tire scraper on the dam and core, but nothing on the bowl). But we have clay pan soils with the subsoil measuring water permeability in very low hundredths of an inch per hour so have excellent material to work with. That is natural, uncompacted subsoil.

So I would not have him filling it back in and starting over just because it was only compacted with a dozer. A good operator on a small project can do quite a bit with a dozer as far as compaction. Sheepsfoot rollers are just not easily rented in all areas. Especially for small jobs. They would be hard to come by here. There are work arounds IF you have especially good material to work with. If you have marginal material........... better do it right.""



Compaction discussion.
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=428419#Post428419

Discussion of using a Scraper for pond compaction
The main reason the weighted scraper is not a good compactor is because it does not knit and intertwine the lift layers together. The scraper smashes the layers however the two layers smashed together sheets can eventually have seepage between those layers of lifts because the smashed lifts are not well knitted together as one compacted unit. If scrapers were really good at compacting layers of dirt/clay there would not be specialized equipment of sheepsfoot types of soil compactors. Also the mechanical sheepsfoot compactor squeezes water out of the soil so it less likely will allow seepage through it.
Think about it. Use the best tool for the job if you want the best result with the material you are working with. Where this really becomes very important, is dirt for building almost all pond basins has patches or spots where the clay is not at optimum structure and looser soil exists. In these areas the soil should be mixed together and these spots are where OPTIMUM compaction becomes very important to minimize seepage and leakage in freshly built ponds and then also years later as the seepage can increase between the sheet formed layers as pond ages.

I would never use a loaded scraper to build a pond. Way too many chances for leakage spots to occur even with all good clay material. It is much cheaper and quicker to rent the right sheepsfoot than to fix a pond leak. Just finding the seepage area/s can be a BIG challenge. Is it one spot, two spots or several areas where seepage is happening? Fixing just one may not really fix the leak. That is why it is very important to do it right the first time. Cheap way is rarely the best way.

Padfoot rollers: Padfoot — or tamping foot — rollers break the bonds between soil particles to compact them better. The tapered feet prevent the soil from fluffing, decreasing its ability to absorb water. Padfoot rollers have large lugs and could either be static or vibratory. The static models are also known as tamping rollers. The drum is covered with bumps that knead and knit the soil layers together and increases its overall compacting strength. Typically, padfoot rollers are used for clay and other fine-grained soils. They operate at high speeds and can also break large lumps. Padfoots are versatile, typically used to compact cohesive soils like clay and silt. They feature a heavy vibrating steel drum with rectangular or cylindrical pads that pierce and compress the soil, resulting in a compacted surface.
From construction websites. The sheepsfoot roller is most effective for compaction of plastic soils like clay or silt, according to Bomag Americas a leading roller manufacturer. The sheepsfoot compacts from the bottom of each lift towards the top. High contact pressures cause the feet to penetrate through the loose material and actually compact the material directly with the foot tip to reach optimal soil compaction levels. A number of passes are required with a sheepsfoot roller because of the small area compacted by each foot. Self-propelled embankment compactors, are capable of higher productivity than towed sheepsfoot rollers because they can travel at higher speeds. A tamping foot mechanical roller has feet, or pads, that penetrate the soil, compacting from the bottom to the top for uniform density. The forces of gravity and vibratory impact simultaneously compact from the top down. Due to the foot shape, and in combination with vibration, these rollers achieve a kneading and impact effect while the imprints left contribute to a reduction of water content.

Univ of Missouri Advice for Leaky Ponds.
https://extension.missouri.edu/publications/g1555

USE OF BENTONITE AND POLYMERS
https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=529641#Post529641

https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthre...rds=bentonite&Search=true#Post125536

Here is another thread that has easy to understand, very good advice for you and your pond building contractor about soil compaction for dug ponds and ponds with a dam and a core trench.
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=395066#Post395066

Choosing the best compaction device. esshup says: You can also pull a large sheepsfoot roller behind a dozer, but it won't be a vibratory one. The different lifts need to be KNITTED together with a sheepsfoot and not use a smooth barrel roller. You will end up with a pond bottom that looks like pages in a book when using a smooth barrel roller. Water can work it's way through each page, move horizontally until it finds another crack/fissure, go down a page, years of rinse and repeat until it leaks out of the pond. In a pond that has the lifts knitted together that won't happen - the water cannot move horizontally.
Compaction Discussion thread
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=409653#Post409653

Here is some pretty good discussions how to determine if your soil is good enough to use for a pond.
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=421698#Post421698

Fixing leakage around a drain pipe - options:
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=423269#Post423269

Link about what makes clay/soil compact - seal.
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=454136#Post454136

More information in a thread about compacting soil.
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=462372#Post462372

QUESTION. "I’ve now had a second round of meetings with three contractors and am getting quotes. I asked each about compaction and use of a sheepsfoot roller. One of the contractors, who digs lots of ponds in the area, said he instead uses a loaded wheeled earthmover, and drives over everything so that the wheels have covered and compacted every square inch."

Commentary: Using a loaded earthmover can when used in proper soil /dirt conditions can compact good quality clay soil. Importance HERE is good quality clay. However very Important points are:
1. dampness of the clay material during construction; too dry of clay does not compact well.
2. thickness of the lifts that are placed on top of each other. Thicker the lifts less compaction there is between lift layers.
3. number of passes over each lift layer.
4. quality of the clay and dirt materials and amount of grainy sand veins can cause compaction problems IN BETWEEN and among the lift layers. Lift layer integrity is very important for sealing an entire pond basin and a dam that is very important for a watershed drainage pond.

These ALL four have to be in good condition for best clay compaction for building a minimal leakage pond.
When all the above items are optimum,,,, then clay compaction is adequate using a wheeled earthmover. Those four unknowns are too much of a gamble for leakage IMO. All have to be optimum for optimum results; less than optimum means leakage. When anyone of the above four are present,,, it or they can contribute to leakage pathways. Same goes for sheepsfoot rollers but leakage is less of a chance whenever the marginal conditions occur.
If it was my pond being built and the contractor was to use a Loaded Wheeled Earthmover, I would want a signed contract that if more than 12"-14" of water was below the overflow pipe during annual dry weather conditions, the contractor guarantees to return and find the leak and repair it no charge. The signed contract IMO emphasizes to the contractor to pay special close attention to clay compaction efforts. A neighbor's 0.3ac pond was built with a loaded wheeled earthmover. Pond receives house roof drainage. Clay was damp during construction, contractor was well experienced. Luckily clay was damp in spring and lift layers were spread thin when pond was built.

My contention is, if loaded wheeled earthmovers are adequate at clay compaction then why do specialized soil compacting sheepsfoot rollers and vibrating sheepsfoot rollers exist?

Remember the sheepsfoot roller KNITS, importance here is KNITS and interconnects the two clay lift layers together. Wheeled compactors just squeezes or presses the two clay layers together. Pressed together clay layers leaves a seam between the two layers and when soil/s are grainy or too dry, or too thick water can work its way more easily between the compressed layers. Subsoil has various soil type veins, textures and layers depending on how nature laid down the soil in Indiana during the periodic ice ages. Unknown subsoil layers can be a problem when building a dug pond.

Machines Built Specifically for Compacting Soils - Mainly Clay Like Soils Used for Pond Building.
Material was gleaned from the Internet

The sheepsfoot roller is most effective for compaction of plastic soils like clay or silt, according to Bomag Americas, a leading roller manufacturer. The tamping foot, which combines the advantages of a vibratory roller with a sheepsfoot. A sheepsfoot compacts from the bottom of each lift towards the top. High contact pressures cause the feet to penetrate through the loose material and actually compact the material directly with the foot tip. A number of passes are required with a sheepsfoot roller because of the small area compacted by each foot.

The pads on sheepsfoot drums penetrate through the top lift and actually compact into the lift below. When a pad comes out of the soil, it kicks up or fluffs the material. The result is a loose layer of material on top. When more fill is spread, the top lift will be fluffed and the previous layer will be compacted. A sheepsfoot compactor truly compacts from the bottom up. Using a sheepsfoot compactor has one definite benefit. Because the top lift of soil is always being fluffed, the process helps aerate and dry out wet clays and silts.

The sheepsfoot roller is highly demanded for compaction of plastic soils like clay or silt. These rollers penetrate through the loose soil material and compact the material directly with the foot tip. Pneumatic-tired rollers compact the soil from the top of the lift downward. The principle of working of vibratory rollers is by rearranging the soil from dynamic forces produced by the drum hitting the ground. A tamping foot roller also known as pad roller has feet, or pads, compacting the soil by penetrating deep into it and tilt the soil from the bottom to the top for uniform density. All these soil rollers work in accordance to their combination of vibration speed and foot shapes, thereby compacting the soil by producing a kneading effect.

Vibratory compactors work on the principle of particle rearrangement to decrease voids and increase density and load bearing strength. They come in two types: smooth drum and padfoot drum. For increased versatility, smooth drum compactors can be equipped with optional padfoot shell kits, which allows the use of smooth drum rollers in padfoot applications, albeit with limited performance.

Sheepsfoot roller contractors used for varied soil and aggregate compactors. A sheepsfoot roller is most popular as this type of roller can compact the soil directly beneath the foot tip. Because of the high compaction speed and high pressure applied to the soils, it is very useful in the construction of both small and big dams.
CHARACTERISTICS SHEEPSFOOT ROLLER:
1. the coverage area of the ground is less. 8-12 % ground coverage under the lugs on the drum.
2. Ruler pressure up to 1400 to 7000 kpa.
3. normally at speeds of work Sheepsfoot roller from 6-10 km/h. (3-6 mph)
4. The roller pressure on the feet may be increased by filling the drum with some wet external other material or sand.
5. Sheepsfoot roller Mostly used for cohesive soils such as heavy clays and silty clays except for sandy soil.
6. Compaction efforts are kneading and static weight.
7. The thickness of the compacting layer is kept a minimum of 50 mm(2inches) or more, which depends on the length of the foot.

Tamping Foot Compactors
Tamping foot compactors are high-speed, self-propelled, non-vibratory compactors. They usually have four padded steel wheels and are equipped with a dozer blade. Their pads are tapered with a rectangular face.
Tamping foot compactors compact from the bottom of the lift to the top. Because the pads are tapered, they can walk out of the lift without fluffing the soil. Therefore, the top of the lift is also being compacted and the surface is relatively smooth and sealed. Tamping foot compactors are capable of speeds in the 16-32 km/h (10-20 mph) range, but they typically operate in the 10-15 km/h (6 to 10 mph) range.
Generally, two to four cycles (4 to 6 machine passes) will achieve desired densities in 200- to 300-mm (8- to 12-in.) lifts although four cycles may be needed in poorly graded plastic silt or very fine clay. Tamping foot compactors are effective on all soils except clean sand.

Tamping foot compactors leave a fairly smooth, sealed surface so hauling units are able to maintain a high speed when traveling over the fill. Also, since dozer-equipped tamping compactors do both spreading and compacting, the contractor may be able to reduce the number of track-type spreaders.

Tamping foot compactors are best suited for large projects. They need long, uninterrupted passes to build up speed that generates high production. On lifts greater than 300-mm (12-in.) thick, tamping foot compactors are about two to three times more productive than single-drum vibratory compactors.

Pad foot/Slash Presser rollers are similar to sheep foot roller. However, they have lugs on their cylinders, which have larger area than the feet of sheep foot rollers.
They are also sometimes termed as tamping rollers having static weight in the range of 15 to 40 tons. They can achieve more degree of compaction than sheep foot rollers. They also operate on high speeds and can break down large lumps of soil. They are best suitable for compacting cohesive soils.

Padfoot rollers generate static pressure, vibration, and impact on the materials. However, they also generate manipulative force. This allows for uniform compaction during the entire process.
Padfoot compactors have tapered pads that penetrate and compact the soil to build up the soil’s strength. Gravity and the vibrations compact the material from the top down.

Padfoot drum machines expand the material range to include soils with more than 50 percent cohesive material and a greater percentage of fines. When the pad penetrates the top of the lift, it breaks the natural bonds between the particles of cohesive soil and achieves better compaction results. The pads are involuted to walk out of the lift without fluffing the soil and tapered to help them stay clean.

Bill, glad you resurrected this thread. Great advice top to bottom. I'm seeing a trend since March, 2020...lots of people are spending lots more time on their recreational property. And lots of people are buying recreational property, typically within 1 1/2 hours from their city. Lake building is a big deal today. I've got more than 20 clients in different stages of building their new lakes. There's a lot to learn about that process and what's in this thread is significant. I tell each person they have two important jobs...building the dam and creating that living, breathing entity behind the dam, their lake.