Building the access ramp
Only a couple of trucks are running today. Most of the quarry deliveries arrive tomorrow.
The second delivery has just come in, and we're building the driveway access. We're working on sand, so the goal is a ramp the trucks won't get bogged on.
My business partner is on the skid steer and I'm on the roller preparing the surface, while one of the team waters the material so it compacts properly. That gives us a smooth, stable ramp into the site, so we're not pushing trucks out afterwards.
Progress so far
Since the last update, about 60 to 70 cubic metres of Type 2.3 road base has been delivered. That's a crushed-rock gravel with a CBR (California Bearing Ratio) of 45, a measure of how much load it can carry. The pink dots are spot levels we took during set-out.
We're placing a 150 mm thick layer, and the dots mark the finished level for that layer. That's roughly what 70 cubic metres looks like: not a huge amount once it's spread out. Next, I'll jump back on the roller and compact it properly.
The arborist's plan for the tree
I forgot to mention the arborist was on site on Monday. They're preparing a report to help us keep the tree healthy.
The blue line running across is where the sheet piling goes through the tree's root zone. The arborist recommends exposing all the roots there and cutting them cleanly with sharp shears before the sheet piling goes in, to help stop fungal or bacterial infection working back into the root system.
Then the sheet pile goes in, and we backfill with the soil the arborist specifies. They also recommended drilling into the ground and injecting nutrients, which we'll repeat on their schedule to give the tree the best chance.
There are never any guarantees with trees. Some bounce back like weeds; others depend on the conditions. If you have a protected tree on your block, budget for an arborist report and ongoing care, as councils can make it a DA condition.
You can see the root work being done in Post 28.
What's next
Tomorrow is the bigger day. We didn't get as many trucks as we wanted today, but we're a bit ahead overall. Trucks will run every 25 minutes while we spread the first layer and place the second on top.
The machine is booked off-hire at 12:00 pm Friday, so we have until 11:00 am Friday to finish.
After that, the geotech comes back to do more DCP (dynamic cone penetrometer) tests and certify that the compacted platform has reached the bearing capacity the engineer specified.
