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Land Preparation
I think I'd check with the contractor to see if the site has any grade requirements. If so, is the contractor expecting the site to be delivered to him with specified grades, or is he going to do the final grading? That's an issue that would be good to be real clear about. Of course, if the contractor intends to grade the site, then removing the sod and top-soil burden wouldn't be much more work. A dozer and experienced operator would make short work of the project, grade requirements or not. Removing the burden and meeting grade requirements might be a little much for a compact and box, especially if it's a first time experience. However, just removing the burden with a compact shouldn't be too big a job. I would keep in mind comments regarding the amount of material that has to be moved though. Ripping sod with scarifiers does take a lot of traction. I can't rip meadow (similar to your field grass) in the sandy soil around here in one pass with my 6' box, 24-hp and turf tires, but two passes does just fine (maybe one pass if I had ag tires). The scarifiers don't clog with sod, but the box will fill up fast if the cutter is low enough to pick up sod while ripping it. I fully extend the scarifiers and then ride the 3ph to maintain traction and cut the sod just deep enough. After cutting, I usually can remove the sod with a combination of the box rear cutter and the loader. The meadow sod here tends to break into small chunks easily, but I guess the loader blade could be used to cut sod strips into shorter lengths if necessary. Dozing the sod backwards with the box tends to work much of our sandy soil off the sod, and I don't have to stop to remove too many sod piles with the loader.
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Land Preparation
Cutter: Removing the topsoil with your compact sounds like a tempting project. However, I guess the job becomes sort of 'make-work' for the tractor if a contractor is coming in with fill and gravel. In a way, that's too bad. I did similar work for a construction trailer pad with a 6' box and loader last summer. The pad is about one-third the size of your site, and of course the requirements for a trailer aren't very fussy. It took about a day remove the sod and improve the existing grade. Most of another day to build up and compact the gravel, and probably another day for the trailer anchors. It was a good project.
However, using the tractor for finish grading and a road sounds like a good compromise. Boxes aren't very expensive, but I'd get one as heavy as possible. In addition, I said in another discussion that a hydraulic top-link greatly adds to a box's usefulness. I think I'd wait to see what happens to your grass road. We were quite surprised that our grass survived tracked hi-hoes and dump trucks (my Ford 1710 too) at our camp for half the summer. I guess we'll now see if the grass survives regular 1/2 ton traffic. If I did build a road at our camp, I'd remove the topsoil and start spreading and compaction gravel at the rate of a load per 70' or so. I'd let the gravel compact through use for awhile and then add more gravel and crown the road from time to time until a good surface is achieved. Gravel around here is from glacier deposits and is a mixture of sand and small rock. It compacts well, and the surface sand washes out leaving a fairly durable layer of small rock. The roadbed will end up somewhat above grade-level. You do have to figure out if surface drainage goes with, or across the road. Provision for drainage that goes across a road has to be made, or no amount of gravel will ever make an adequate surface. Most people around here don't use crushed rock for roads. It doesn't compact or freeze very well. Of course, this approach to simple road building isn't going to work very well for a road that crosses wet ground, is subject to erosion or carries heavy trucks.
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Dave, that's very good advice. There should be a prime contractor on any sizable job, and the contractor should have the plan and clear all work. Property owners who plan to do some of the work should think of themselves as sub-contractors who only work to order and spec. Incredible screw-ups are common when that sort of coordination breaks down. Unfortunately, screw-ups aren’t exactly uncommon even with a prime contractor on site.
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I imagine the sub-contractor know his stuff, so I'm not necessarily talking about this particular project. However, it is good to pay close attention to compacting and drainage, especially in my area. The frost goes down 3' or more most years (well-feeds are put in at 5'). Inadequate compacting or drainage can do astounding damage in a short time. We ended up not buying a property with a house and restaurant/garage because frost-heave had virtually destroyed the restaurant over a few years during which it was unheated. The frost cracked a corner of the house foundation over one winter it unheated. The code approved building techniques in an area have to assume a worst case soil condition. A bad year around here (heavy rains followed by a sharp freeze) and every unheated structure is at risk. Even something minor like a blocked eavestrough can turn into a problem. Of course, it good not to get too obsessive about these things--a few frost cracks can be ignored. However, it's a real good think to know if the soil/drainage conditions are marginal for a particular building technique. Spending some extra money on site preparation can end up being cheap insurance. Extra fill to raise a building site and weepers around the perimeter can improve drainage. Of course, the problem with weepers is where they weep to. When weepers are needed, the soil is already saturated along with any gravel sump. It has nowhere to drain unless it's pumped somewhere downhill. Some of the best money we ever spent was for a building tech who does field work for a PEng company. Most of these ideas and a few others come from him. Ironically, the most durable unheated structures here use the oldest technique. Logs are lain on the ground and a log house is build on top of the logs. Works, it's just that the floor is more uneven some winters than others. It's ironic because, because that's a technique that can't be used here anymore.
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Slab on grade is designed to float and to tolerate moderate frost heaving. Drainage is a key to ensuring that the frost heave stays moderate. Filling, tiling and other techniques can help marginal sites that have drainage problems, but they ordinarily aren't necessary. A site on top of a hill probably doesn't have a problem, but an experienced contractor in the area should know what works and what doesn't for your particular site and structure design. I think it’s important to keep in mind that site preparation and structure design are parts of an overall plan. Experienced contractors generally have an overall view, but people like me don’t, so I always ask somebody who knows about these things. Left to my own devices, I could as easily put up a 100% code approved structure that, in fact, could be a really dumb design.
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