Power Pole Project #1

The next door neighbors have a back-in area in their driveway that needed a rework.  The crane truck that removed the property line trees this spring dealt out some wear and tear, and then when additional work was done in their backyard, one of the dump trucks caught the end of the RR ties and the thirty year old wall gave up completely.  It is a short retaining wall that levels the driveway and keeps people out of the landscaping on the other side.  In NY state, residents are no longer allowed to purchase or transport used RR ties.  I'm not sure what makes them environmentally acceptable when they are under a RR track but deems them a hazard when they are lining your driveway, but that's the way it is.  Someone we know mentioned that they knew where we could get fragments of broken power poles for free, so we pursued that avenue and came up with enough to do this project and one for me too.

Removing the old ties

Digging a proper trench with the backhoe

We pulled out the three layers of old RR ties and cleaned out the trench first with the backhoe, and then by hand.  The wall was about twenty feet long, but we decided to shorten it a bit, making it easier to get big trucks past it in the future.

When we were done digging, we had a straight, level surface to start with and we lined it with some gravel to fill in any unevenness.

One of the power poles was cedar and fairly uniform in width its entire length.  With a chainsaw we cut lengths of pole between 14" and 20" long.  The idea was to randomly mix the widths and heights.

As we mixed chunks from both ends of the pole, we started plumbing and straightening the wall.

Just another inch this way...

We put a tall chunk at the end which will have reflectors nailed to it.

When we were satisfied with the pattern and straightness, we filled both sides with crushed stone.

Tamp.. tamp.. tamp..  more tamping

Water will fill in any little voids and firm up the gravel

Now all that's left to do is put the driveway back

The change in grade is about one foot

The driveway side will be low enough not to catch any bumpers

Now the neighbors are going to freshen up their landscaping with a rock garden, mulching with gravel which is very low maintenance.  The grasses are divisions from my own grasses on the other side of their drive.  For three hours of work and almost no material cost, the driveway is fixed and the landscape bed has an attractive backdrop.

Even with all of the work going on, I still had time to watch some butterflies.

Do you see that their are two on the Milkweed?

Don't overlook this little Azure