Marine Clay in drainage ditch

[TD Tractor]

Morning everybody, I maintain a section of my private road frontage ditch line. There is a section of it about 150 foot long that for some reason has developed at least six patches of this watery clay that swells up and acts like a dam, making the ditch a smelly, watery muddy mess.The clay patches range from 1-2 foot in diameter to 3-4 foot. In the past while trying to clear the clay high spots I've gotten the 871 stuck a couple times when the front end sank all the way to the frame. Now that I got the L4701 with 4 wheel drive, I'm about halfway afraid of sinking it or rolling it while trying to clear the high spots. Has anybody got experience or lessons learned working with this stuff or similar? I've asked allot of people from around here about it and they call it Shrink/Swell clay and say it's been known to crack the foundations of homes and it is some nasty stuff.

 

[85Hokie]

when I read your post, I was thinking you might be in NC, based on the past problems with the same soil in foundations that have gone to hell in a hand basket. I see you are in VA,

Is it possible to "dig" out this soil, replace it with something else? Shrink swell soil is really a huge problem, and I could see a lot of time dealing with it, but I feel the only way to "fix" it would be to remove it, and replace with a soil/gravel/ rip rap mix allowing for drainage. Might not be possible but worth a shot!

 

[Tooljunkie]

Rent a small excavator. At least then you can stay away from the bad spots and remove the nasty stuff.
Any chance you can talk to the local road maintenance authority?
If this drain affects drainage from a municipal road they may assist you with cleaning it up.