How do paved driveways tolerated falling trees?

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Treehouser
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Central Idaho
Of the thousands of trees I have fallen I can't ever recall falling any of them on pavement. I have a few to fall on and across a driveway and I'm wondering if I need to take any precautions?
 
Asphalt or concrete?

Flat ground or slope? Solid ground or fill beneath? Old construction or new?



I've put down plywood and crippled trunks and crotches to break/ absorb energy on impact.

Brush and branches have a lot to do with it. Trunk angles, too.

You can put logs on both sides of the driveway and bridge a spar over the driveway.

Pic of the tree you want to drop?
 
Ime it will totally depend on the thickness and the ground/prep underneath. But also ime a good sized tree is plenty capable of punching holes in pavement. It all depends on the lay. Cribbing/bracing and mats even with other appropriate sized tree parts can go a long ways to preventing damage. Also depends if it's a whole tree or a spar and then it's shape,limbs, health, species. A lot of factors.
 
You use bumpers on each side of the driveway, to make dang sure it remains untouched by any trees you fall across it.

And you better be dang sure you nail both bumper logs dead center!

Works a charm, provided things are straight, no bent trunks n stuff.

Jomo
 
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  • #6
Asphalt. They are all ponderosa pine, maybe 14"-20" diameter on the stump. The driveway sits slightly higher. I have one log I will put on the edge of it so I don't cave it in. I also have some 3/4" plywood I can put down. No pictures...
 
You can use a thick hinge and a pull line, plus a hold-back line, cut with a big open-face/ birdbeak face-cut. Slowly tip the tree.

As the tree trunk and the hold-back rope become more parellel, the load will exponentially increase. If you have the hold-back in a Portawrap, a mid-line tie to the tree can allow (arbitrarily let's say) 20' of standing-end/ tail of the rope. As the tree tips, using up the 20', and the load starts increasing significantly, the end of the rope can be let to go through the POW.
 
Consider let down rigging rather than free fells. If the right adjoining trees are available, it's an easy mitigation.

Parking lots/driveways are almost always of lighter construction than roadways...thus, fragile and easy to punch through or crush.
 
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  • #9
I have 9 trees to remove so I will start with a few of them that don't need fell on the driveway. I will use them to armor both sides really well. I'm afraid the asphalt is just laid over the top of compacted roadmix, so it probably won't be bomb proof.
 
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  • #10
Pull them over (because they are leaning towards the house and deck), hold them back and armor the driveway. I think I can do that....
 
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  • #13
Thanks for the vote of confidence. I'll try to get some pictures too. And hopefully they aren't of a tore up driveway.
 
I believe Norm Hall demonstrated a long while back to use several sheets of plywood, with straw bales for some big wood.

Beware of falling trees/ spars can launch a log if you hit it on the end. As was said, hit the center of the log on the ground.
 
I flop Pondos regularly onto roads, concrete, asphalt drives... if the crown is going to hit, it's usually a soft landing, unless it's a big one with wolfy limbs. Definitely want to avoid the trunk hitting first. Log cribbing works well. I also like to utilize old tires and plywood.
 
I feel much better when bridging a driveway than protecting it with plywood etc. have seen the latter done successfully with a boat load of tires and lots of wood, but much better to bridge .. that's where a loader comes in extra handy, able to pick up big logs and set em just right for the fall.. and of course get rid of all the stubs... also you need to leave some extra height in the bridge to account for flex in the log as it hits.. I have tried for years to get spars to come over slow with different cuts, but never figured out.. Had one small elm stop about three feet off the ground, as the hinge was strong enough to stop and hold. had one go 45 degrees then stall, which was kind of cool. think that was an unintentional angled notch so one side of the face closed early, but it still hit pretty hard... There must be some way to do it even on big wood, with a series of narrow notches. anyone ever dial that in?
 
Don't lay the bumper logs along the driveway too close to it. A good hit can drive the logs into the ground, making a long hole but also bulging the ground around and raising part of the driveway.

Often the trunk tends to move a little forward when it hits the ground. With the bumper logs, it can slide several feet on it. I broke a concrete curb (the 2" wide model) like that with an oak log. Second possibility, a crotch or a bump on the trunk can catch and push a log against the driveway during the slide. I've done that too...:D
Well, I didn't laugh at the moment.
 
My best anti damage experience was when a guy hired me to fall a fairly large tree from the edge of a shrine grounds into a parking lot, a low fence in-between. He's a construction worker. When I was pondering removing the fence, he said he would put an old pipe scaffolding over the fence wide enough to cover where the tree would hit plus some. He said it was no problem disposing of the damaged scaffolding. Unique alright, but I wasn't so keen on the plan, but since it was his job really and was assuming all responsibility, I followed his idea. Crash boom it went, pretty wild and it worked. I can't say it wasn't fun to watch and is easy to remember. Some insight into the mind of a construction worker.
 
Granted this was deliberate and a 50" DBH 40' red oak log. Driveway was getting replaced the following week.
 
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  • #23
I hope I don't have any "divot" pictures to post when I'm finished. I should know tonight, starting this job today and hope to have all 9 trees cut and cleaned up before dinner.
 
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  • #24
We didn't get to the 3 trees that have to be fell across the driveway but we did get some logs laid out for tomorrow. The are 9 trees total that need removed and we got 5 of them today. Could have gotten 6 but the wind was blowing a good breeze and I thought it better to wait until tomorrow.

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