What would you guys consider to be essential equipment for building ponds from 2 acres up to 10 acres in size and up to 30 feet deep? Also with moving dirt a mile or more from the site. Please be as specific as you can with sizes and types of equipment.
Thanks a bunch
Hope alot of people respond to this as well but here is my two cents worth
In a few months I will be building an 8.5 acre lake at 30 feet deep. So I better know what I am talking about!
1. Very large Track Hoe "Excavator"
For digging core and extracting clay for dam
2. Real good Dump Truck
For moving and placing dirt and for compacting dirt after it is placed
3. Tractor Loader backhoe
For clearing all topsoil under the foot print of the dam site. Also, for over all shape up and any other misc tasks.
4. Possibly a vibarating sheeps foot. this depends on how well you can compact with the dump truck. May not need this.
these are ordered importance first.
could always use a track loader or a dozer.
A lot of what you need will depend on what your site looks like to begin with, there is no essential list of equipment as things are different with each project. My grand father built ponds for years, over 400 of them in fact, without ever having an excavator or a backhoe. A man who is good with a dozer and a towed scraper can do a great deal in a days time. If you have a wet area you will likely need a newer style low ground pressure dozer or a good dragline operator to shift the muck, wheeled eauipment is useless in mud and mud requires an entirely different approach than dry spoil does. I know this because I have been fighting with a wet area for a couple years now, with my own dragline, and I have just gotten most of this figured out the hard way, heh heh. Not two situations are the same, if you are in dry soil, lucky you, if you are digging mud, you have my sympathies as I know what you are going thru. If you are building a pond in a gulley where a waterway exists, my best advice is to hire the dam work done at least, the contractor who builds that dam is responsible for it for the rest of his life, so he will build it right, and he has probably built a dam or two in his day as well.
Our equipment of choice has been a Cat 235B excavator, Cat 35-ton articulated off road dump, and John Deere 850 dozer. We need the excavator because it is a gravel pit type pond. We will need to lease a long reach excavator to get the deeper portions of the pond. You could substitute a scraper for the excavator and dump depending on your project. I would think that many impoundments can be completed mostly with a dozer. Our needs require moving sand long distances and we can't use a scraper due to the high water table.
JoeG
I think I will also be in a wet area, which means a dragline. Any tips on how to appoach this? Am I limited to the size of the pond I build if I have to dragline it? If so, how big of a pond is practical?
Thanks
