Posted by David Hamilton on January 28th, 2009

I talk a lot about our roads.  Most people who aren’t engineers no doubt sit through my road monologue wondering when they can go home and watch paint dry, but the design of roads for Bundoran Farm has been one of our primary challenges and, I’d argue, successes.  The farm’s new roads will, I submit, be pretty difficult to distinguish from the fifty or hundred-year old roadways they connect to, because the geometry, widths, and construction have been guided by an unrelenting deference to the landscape.  One key element is the surface.  A Bundoran Farm road is surfaced with “triple-shot.”  Essentially a kind of stone lasagna, with alternating layers of stone and binders, the road surface is intended to look rustic and informal, but to perform like a modern paved road.  One item we discussed in the early design of Bundoran was the performance of this surface in inclement weather.  As sufferers of my road sermons know, our roadways have tighter turns, steeper climbs, and generally hug the land more closely than conventional subdivision roads.  This is all well and good, with our slow design speeds, in fair weather, but what happens in a winter storm? 

Well, yesterday’s ice storm seemed like a perfect opportunity to test the proposition.  I commandeered my wife’s vehicle: a fifteen-year-old BMW 325i, with tires that may be original equipment (racing slicks!), and took to Hightop,to check out the triple-shot.  First, and most important: this road test was done by an experienced Vermont driver with adequate insurance, little to lose, and a car with too much mileage to go fast.  Don’t try this at home (especially if your home is Bundoran Farm).  Caveats aside, I was thrilled with the performance of our road surfaces.  The triple shot, even without its final finish layer (to follow a year or so after the first two lifts), contains embedded stone chips, which appear to act as a kind of reverse cleat, providing tremendous grip, even in shady spots where the road looked like a glazed doughnut.  The contrast is immediately noticeable upon transition from Plank Road’s asphalt onto Hightop.  The farm’s steepest climb was ascended with confidence, if not panache, and descents were trouble-free as well.  Note that the test was performed prior to the installation of our timber guardrails, which await warm weather.  I perform without a net.

I hope you’ll come out to see the roads at Bundoran Farm, especially as we turn the corner into Spring, when we expect Mother Nature to assist us in blending these roads back into the thick stands of grasses and proud forests that grace this land.  Don’t forget to bring your wife’s car.

Filed under: General, Project Updates