Hi,
I am currently in my third year of product design and looking into developing an easier in-expensive solution to cutting slopes and ditches for the general public. If I can take a moment of your time would you mind answering a few questions for the research part it would really help and I would be extremely grateful!
If you have ever had to deal with the task of cutting slopes on a steep incline, what sort of issues come with doing it?
What sort of machinery or tools did you use for the job?
What drawbacks were there with using the tools or machinery you had?
If a product were to be developed for cutting steep slopes, what characteristics or features should it have to improve it for the job?
What do you believe would be the ideal set up of the machinery for tackling the task e.g. blade/ strimmer cable, pulleys for extended reach down the hill etc?
What sort of power assistance would you recommend best for the job out of battery motor, petrol or a manual method?
Are there any issues to consider when working alone?
What sort of vegetation is most commonly in need of being controlled?
Once again thank you for your time, it will be a great help.
Issues with cutting and maintaining steep slopes
If you have ever had to deal with the task of cutting slopes on a steep incline, what sort of issues come with doing it?
A) Initial access. Steep slopes are not usually found by themselves, but are in cities on hills. Transporting tractors and materials into such a location means navigating the local hilly, often narrow streets, and managing traffic flows in such a location while construction is going on. When we have worked on larger properies away from a city the access is a lot easier in terms of traffic issues, but there is still the problem of locating materials and equipment at the site.
B) Finding places to put soil that has been cut and may need to be returned to the site, and staging the materials for the retaining wall. Example: Cutting footings and piers generates the soil to be used as back fill, but the backfill cannot be placed until the retaining walls are built. The materials to be built into a retaining wall need to be close enough to be easily brought to the location to be used, but cannot be in the way when they are initially delivered. In steep terrain there is generally not much room for such maneuvering.
What sort of machinery or tools did you use for the job?
The company I work for has tractors that are tracklayers, and have about the lowest pounds per square inch on the soil surface. These are Takeuchi TBO35 and TL26. We have a lot of interchangeable parts for these two tractors (many buckets, augers, other things) We also rent whatever tools are needed. The men on the crew have been in construction for many years, and work well together.
What drawbacks were there with using the tools or machinery you had?
These tractors do not always fit into the yards where we work. Occasionally we need to rent smaller tractors, or do work by hand (pick, shovel, wheelbarrow). Smaller tractors are much slower, inferior tools. We usually turn down jobs with such narrow access. Sometimes we get a contract that calls for larger equipment. Then we contract out that portion of the job.
If a product were to be developed for cutting steep slopes, what characteristics or features should it have to improve it for the job?
I think any feature you think up will generate other problems. Smaller, narrower tractors give better access into small, narrow yards, but are less stable on slopes, and do less work per hour. Larger, especially wider equipment, is capable of working faster, but you need to cut a larger roadway into the work location, and often a platform to work from.
What do you believe would be the ideal set up of the machinery for tackling the task e.g. blade/ strimmer cable, pulleys for extended reach down the hill etc?
Equipment that does the cutting needs to stay off the cut slope and the dangerous areas where the soil could collapse. So, cutting and reinforcing needs to be done quickly, before the slope breaks down. Longer reach can help, as long as the main weight of the equipment can be kept in safe places.
What sort of power assistance would you recommend best for the job out of battery motor, petrol or a manual method?
In general the largest, strongest tool that will...
a) Fit into the setting (through fences and gates, between houses and trees)
b) Do effective work (no sense in bringing in equipment that won't do the job)
The work breaks down into 2 basic parts: Excavation- soil cutting and moving equipment and Building- whatever is needed to reinforce the slope, hold it in to place. Materials need to be moved into place and put together.
Soil moving is generally hard, heavy work, usually calling for gas or diesel powered equipment. Construction of retaining walls depends on the type of wall, but can call for any type of power tool from forklift and tractor to deliver materials, to battery and hand powered tools to do the actual construction.
Are there any issues to consider when working alone?
Alone or a crew faces several safety issues when digging.
Timing is difficult when too few people are working on a job.
It can be difficult to move materials and assemble the materials in a proper manner- there are techniques for a single worker to build plumb, level and square, but these methods take more time. In many ways, having 2 workers makes the work go more than twice as fast.
What sort of vegetation is most commonly in need of being controlled?
This depends on the location. Each area will have its own weeds, pests and other specific problems. Locally, Bermuda grass and various tunneling rodents (Gophers, ground squirrels) are probably the worst pests.
To see some of the projects our company has done, see
www.stubblefieldlandscape.com
especially the section on retaining walls.