Located in western NY, Putting a 100 x 100 pond in at my fathers house. The area has a 6-7 foot drop from one end to the other. Plenty of water running through the property... run-off and bubbling springs. I watched a guy put several ponds in around the area, and he always dug a 3 - 4 foot trench around the bottom of the dam. He called it a "keyway" He said it locked the ground together on the dam side. Any suggestions on doing this or not. I have been clearing the land of 10 -18 inch trees with the dozer. digging around the trees then pushing over. Below the topsoil is good clay. Will be renting a 9000 lb excavator at $250 a day from rental place. Figure 2 - 3 days with the excavator and my komatsu d20 pushing should have the pond dug deep enough. then can finish the rest with the dozer. Any thoughts or suggestions. thanks Scott
your looking at moving 2,200- 2,600 yards of dirt for that job. That's a bunch of scoops with a 9000 Lbs mini and a little dozer pushing. It'll take some time. A core also called a "Keyway" is a must for any pond. It prevents the pond from leaking under the dam and locks the fresh ground to the existing soil. Check out my thread pictures of my work. You will see tons of ponds I built from start to finish with explainations too.
Yes, you have to have a keyway of good, solid, compacted clay the entire length of the dam. Not only does it keep the structure from actually sliding down slope with all the pressure of the water behind the dam, it also prevents any seepage through a vein of sand, or a layer of organic material, or stuff like that. Spend a couple of days with your dozer first pushing all the topsoil out of the pool and dam area and place it behind the dam to use on the backslope. That way when you're paying rent on the excavator you can just dig the core trench and throw clay. Don't forget about your overflow pipe and emergency spillway.
Ur gonan need at least a 120 size excavator and D4 size dozer to get that done in 2 days......maybe even longer
dig it with a D8 lol
100x100 may not seem that big, but for the time you stated, you wont get much done with a 4 tonne excavator and a D20.
D6 would be a nice machine to dig it..... except for the keyway
I dunno the way i read the first post, he already has the slope of the pond naturally in the area he wants to build. What he plans on doing is stripping the topsoil off, then excavating enough soil to build the dam, not digging the whole area out. If he had 1.5' of topsoil over the entire area that would be 555 yards of topsoil to move. And if his dam was a 8' x 6' square 200' long that would be 355 yards of fill to move. then back the dam up with the topsoil that had already been pushed out. That totals out to 910 in cu. yards, right? I do agree that it might take more than two or three days though. When I've seen ponds done the first thing they do is strip topsoil, then trench the area to be excavated and let it dry out a little. If it were me i'd let the area drain into the trench for a week of two to let is dry so i didn't have to play in the mud with the d-20
The area is dry, but we will hit water about 3-5 feet down. I am trying to locate a larger excavator to do the digging. The dozer will do allright, its just the diesel and our time. I have off road diesel from the farm. The oldman is retired and has nothing but time, and working equipment is relaxing for me so I consider this enjoyable. :usa
Get a 43,000 pound hoe and a D7 or D8.