Hello everyone, my first post here.
I'm a long time pond enthusiast, and currently have a 3 acre pond. I'm looking to expand and add a new section in the future, that will add approximately 4.5 acres more. The pond will be an irregular shape with varying depths, but I have done all the calculations including the angles and slopes ect. Basically what I'm having trouble with is figuring out what size dozer I will need to get the job done properly and how long I should expect to have to hire someone for this job. In a nutshell, the pond will be 4.5 acres with average depth of 17ft ( my depths vary from 2ft to 20ft in some areas). Or another way of describing it is, if it were a rectangle it would be an area 330 ft. wide X 650ft. long X 17ft deep.
I've calculated the material to be removed should be about 135,000 cubic yards or 182,000 cubic yards of swell. This will be in a field of just grass, and the material will only be pushed about 100ft away. The first 5ft of depth is just loose sugar sand, after that it's hard clay....I'm not sure if it would be better to use a big dozer with rippers to get down in this clay or have a large excavator rip it up and then a dozer push it? Also I'm not sure what size dozer to be considering....maybe a D8? I dont know enough about the different dozer sizes and what they can or cant do, and how long to do a project like this? I'm trying to figure it out on my own as I'm not ready to hire someone yet....I'm just planning and trying to get a good idea of how much $$$ I need to save for this project.
Many thx, for any advice 😊