Dirt Work in Ruston, LA

The ground under a Ruston hill lot

At the center of town the soil survey maps Sacul very fine sandy loam on 5 to 12 percent slopes. Ruston is genuinely hilly, and that is the steepest town ground in our working area. Within a few miles the map runs through Bowie, Briley, Darley, Dubach, Mahan, McLaurin and Ouachita soils. Nearly all of them drain well or moderately well, so slope governs here, not standing water.

Dig into a ridge and you find sandy loam over red clay. Darley soils formed in iron-rich clay sediments and often carry gravel at the surface. A building pad on that kind of lot is cut and fill work. We strip the topsoil, cut the high side, then place select fill in lifts and compact it. Louisiana 811 gets the call before we dig, and the law puts that on the excavator.

The wet ground sits in the creek bottoms. Guyton and Gurdon strips follow Barnet Springs Creek, Moncrief Creek, Ross Creek and Chautauqua Creek. The mapped flood zones around Ruston follow those same creek corridors, not a river valley. Flash floods show up in the record at Vienna, Simsboro and Chautauqua Springs. A lot here can be dry at the road and soft at the back.

Why does a gravel drive wash out on a hill?

Slope and rain do it. Louisiana takes 45 to 60 inches of rain in a year, and it comes in hard spells. Water picks up speed on a long grade and carries loose rock down with it. Ruts open, the crown flattens out, and the base starts showing through.

A gravel driveway that holds up starts under the rock. We cut the topsoil out and shape the base with a crown so water leaves the surface. Crushed limestone comes in on our dump truck and goes down in layers. On a drive that has already washed, we regrade what is there, reshape the crown and top it up.

The pipe at the road is somebody else's call. Outside the city, Lincoln Parish Public Works issues residential driveway and culvert permits. Inside the city, permits and inspections run through Ruston's One Stop Center. We build the drive itself and point you to the right office.

Timber land and the growth around Louisiana Tech

Lincoln Parish is timber ground. Darley and Sacul soils cover a large share of the parish, and loblolly pine is the main commercial tree. Clearing a home site or a pasture edge here runs on the excavator and the skid steer. Stumps and root balls come out whole, and the debris leaves in our dump truck.

Ruston is a college town, and that shapes what gets built. Louisiana Tech sits in the middle of it, and Grambling State is about five miles west. The city counted 22,166 people in 2020. The census five year estimate since then runs a little higher, which is rare up here. I-20, US-80 and US-167 all cross the north side of town, and the highway ground gets built on.

Ruston runs its own permits. The city building permit application lists demolition as a class of work. So taking an old house down inside the city goes through that form. Bigger projects go through a predevelopment meeting with the city departments first. Outside the city limits, Lincoln Parish Public Works handles project permits. It publishes nothing on clearing or fill, so ask before you start.

We come over from Bastrop on I-20

Bastrop to Ruston is about 59 miles, roughly an hour and ten minutes. We run US-165 south to the Monroe area, then I-20 west for about 32 miles. Ruston is out on the west side of the ground we cover, and it is a straight run. The machines and the truck come over together.

Lincoln Parish takes real weather. On April 25, 2019, an EF3 tornado cut an 11 mile track through Ruston with winds near 145 mph. The damage survey describes snapped and uprooted trees along University Boulevard, Wade Drive and Shelor Drive. Light poles bent on the Louisiana Tech athletic fields, and trees came down on campus and at Ruston High School.

That was not a one-off. An EF1 hit Grambling in 2018, and another touched down at Barnet Springs two weeks after the Ruston tornado. Laura and Delta both crossed the parish in 2020, and a winter storm followed in February 2021.

Storm cleanup here is the grapple and the truck. We pick up what is already on the ground, tear out damaged sheds and barns, and haul the pile off. Standing or leaning trees near a house go to a licensed arborist, and the utility handles anything on the lines. Once the debris is gone we grade the yard back out.