PIERCE
LAND
CLEARING
A ranch road is the first thing built and the last thing anybody budgets for. Get it wrong and every trade behind it, every trailer and every concrete truck pays for the mistake all winter. Built properly it is a cut, a crown, base rock and somewhere for the water to go, and it lasts.
Roads do not fail because trucks are heavy. They fail because water sits on them or runs down them. A road that sheds water off both sides and has somewhere for that water to go will carry loads for years on the same rock. A flat road with no crown holds water in the wheel ruts and turns into a trench by the second wet spring.
A crown is the slight arch across the width that pushes water to the shoulders. It is the cheapest single feature of a road and the first one skipped by anybody spreading rock over a track. If somebody quotes you a driveway without mentioning the crown, they are quoting you gravel, not a road.
Rock on top of soft, wet or unshaped subgrade disappears into it. The order is cut and shape first, drain it, then rock. Rock spread over a rutted two track is money you will spend again next year, which is why the cheap driveway quote is usually the expensive one.
Anywhere the road crosses a drainage line, water needs to go under it rather than over it. Pipe sized to the flow and set at the right grade. Skipping a culvert to save a few hundred is how a road gets cut in half in one storm.
Cut through standing growth, shaped, drained and rocked. On a new tract this is usually the first job, because everything after it depends on getting machines and materials to the work.
From the county road to the house or barn, built to hold a concrete truck and a moving van rather than just a pickup in August. Base rock and surface material are quoted as their own lines.
Reshaping a rutted two track, restoring the crown, cutting drainage that was never there and re rocking. Usually cheaper than people expect, because the alignment already exists and the trees are already out of the way.
Ditches, swales, culvert pipe set at the right grade, and crossings where the road meets a drainage line. This is the part that decides whether the road survives, and it is quoted separately because pipe is a material.
Full write ups with acreage, machines and day counts.
Dozer or excavator work is $3,000 per day plus transport, with a one day minimum. Most driveways and short access roads are one to three machine days once the alignment is clear. Long ranch roads through standing growth take longer because the clearing comes first.
Base rock, surface material and culvert pipe are quoted as materials rather than buried in a day rate. That is deliberate: rock is the line most likely to move with haul distance from the pit, and you should be able to see it rather than discover it.
A road through standing brush is two jobs. Clearing the corridor is quoted separately from building the road, because they are different machines. On a wooded tract the clearing is often the larger half.
Every separate visit pays to load, haul and unload the same machines. If the road, a pad and forty acres of pasture all need doing this year, one mobilization is materially cheaper than three. This is the single biggest saving available on ranch work.
I cannot say enough good things about my experience working with Pierce Land Clearing. We have a large piece of very heavily wooded and overgrown property and their equipment was able to clear a clean, wide road and open several acres.
Jenna Kelly-Landes, Google review
Just had a fence line for a 50 acre tract cleared. Some ravines, trees, trash trees. It is amazing! Will with his magic machine cleared that path and much more. Stumps, dead trees, things that the pioneers could have only dreamed of.
Jeannie Thurmond, Google review
Pierce cleared 36 acres for us in Spicewood, Texas. Will the operator was absolutely brilliant. Great comms / delivered as promised. Both Cedar eater and excavator work was top!
Wolfgang Maasberg, Google review
Machine work is $3,000 per day plus transport with a one day minimum, and most driveways and short access roads run one to three machine days once the route is clear. Base rock, surface material and culvert pipe are quoted as separate material lines, because rock is the item most affected by haul distance from the pit.
Water management, not thickness. A crown that sheds water to both shoulders, ditches or swales that carry it away, and culverts wherever the road crosses a drainage line. Rock on unshaped, undrained ground sinks into it. Shape and drain first, rock last.
It is the slight arch across the width of the road that pushes water off to the sides. Yes, you need one. It is the cheapest feature of a road and the first one skipped by anybody just spreading gravel over a track. A flat road holds water in the ruts and becomes a trench.
Yes, and it is usually cheaper than owners expect. Reshaping the alignment, restoring the crown, cutting drainage that was never there and re rocking. The route already exists and the trees are already out of the way, so most of the expensive part is done.
Yes, but they are quoted as two lines because they are two different machines. On a wooded tract the clearing is often the larger half of the job. See forestry mulching for how the corridor gets cut.
Yes, sized to the flow and set at the right grade wherever the road crosses a drainage line. Pipe is quoted as a material rather than folded into the day rate. Skipping a culvert to save a few hundred dollars is how a road gets cut in half in one storm.
Depends on what is available near you and what the road has to carry. Caliche is common and cheap in much of Central Texas and packs well; crushed base holds up better under heavy repeated loads. We will tell you what is coming from the nearest pit and what it will cost delivered.
Most are one to three machine days once the route is clear, plus material delivery. A long ranch road through standing growth is longer because the clearing comes first. Your quote states the day count rather than leaving it open ended.
Statewide for dirt work, with documented access and road work from Llano and Melvin through San Marcos and Elgin. Mobilization is a written line reflecting the distance rather than a surprise at the end.
Send the length, where it runs from and to, and whether the route is clear or wooded. You get machine days, materials as separate lines, and a written number. Call 512-400-2693.
