New property has rutted tire tracks drive come in here and educate me on what to do

[MechanicalGuy]

To me, it doesn't look like that road is all that soft. There is gravel in the foreground. 4" of crusher run, tailgated out by the dump truck. If the photo is all you have, maybe two truck loads and your road should be higher than the grass.

If it is undriveable because of mud, there is -2" crusher run (2" rocks) then top with just regular Crusher Run. I don't think there is any need for 1" rock at all....

So here is the road breakdown


The brown area is where I have brought dirt and packed it up to fill gaps several times. I don't know what it is like underneath the dirt I have brought in except that it is low and water pools in it. The silver area is where the road is fine. The culvert #1 limits where my road can be, it is like a 10-12' concrete culvert section. Of course I could move it or replace it, but the thought hasn't really crossed my mind until now.

Maybe I should just strip away all the dirt I've piled onto the road bed and see if the underlying road is good to build up with crusher.

 

[MechanicalGuy]

So here is what it looks like if it is driven on when it is wet;



That is right above the culvert area.

 

[MechanicalGuy]

Maybe I've been doing wrong by bringing fill dirt in but here is a pic of recently laid fill dirt.

View attachment 647083

 

[LouNY]

There are several ways to go about fixing that soft spot.
Personally I would wait for it to get dried down grade it smooth, give it a bit of a crown.
Then lay down a geo textile fabric (road fabric) then top dress it with fine (one inch and under) gravel or crusher run with fines.
3 to 4 inches compacted down and you will have a fine driveway.

You could excavate down a foot layer in rock then finer rock then gravel and it would most likely work for a long time.
I notice in you location it's beautiful south so I would assume no snow plowing of frost heaving to worry about.

Good highway fabric will in most situations work better then almost any reasonable amount of stone and gravel to provide a stable base.

 

[fried1765]

We had a water problem and water was flowing down the drive when it rained. That has been taken care of with a culvert. Now we have pooling in the tire tracks. We can't even think of driving on it when it's wet because the tires will sink down badly and rut up deeply into the clay soil. What has to be done to build up a road bed? Does crush and run need to be laid down and then 1" gravel on top of that? Can I build it up with more dirt and then put gravel on top?

I'm not really looking to do this several times, and this long drive will be expensive at $20.00/ton for crush and run $21.50/ton for 1" gravel. I have a gravel company very close and access to a 10ton dump truck. Tell me what you know?!


View attachment 646931

Never heard of...."crush and run" ....... you likely are describing what is correctly called.... crusher run.
It is the material as it comes directly from the crusher,.....not screened for size.

 

[MechanicalGuy]

Never heard of...."crush and run" ....... you likely are describing what is correctly called.... crusher run.
It is the material as it comes directly from the crusher,.....not screened for size.

Looks like I'm good here:


Home depot even sells it under that vernacular.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Has no one thought of driving maybe a foot to the right or left?

 

[MechanicalGuy]

Has no one thought of driving maybe a foot to the right or left?

The concrete culvert dictates the drive for now. It is narrow and that's where the muddy area is. Not sure why you think the mud wouldn't be 1 foot to the left or right either.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Driveway or not. In my experience, I always find it beneficial to travel in a new track. Less chance of getting stuck and easier to repair the rut damage later. The exception might be in deep snow, but it depend how much ground clearance you have.

 

[jjp8182]

Continuing to filling with small amounts of dirt probably won't help much since most will easily "migrate" when it's used as the top layer as well as compact into low spots, creating puddles/pools ....which in turn make it easier for the dirt/mud to be removed from the location perpetuating the cycle.

The goal should be to build the road up enough that it's the localized high point, and build it so it can shed water rather than retain it. For example starting with a layer of larger rock allows the water to more easily flow through and out while helping to provide a base for higher layers, topping that layer of larger rocks with smaller ones helps create a smoother surface in addition to helping lock the larger rocks into place.

The US DoT's Federal Highway Administration has a publication (found here: https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/construction/pubs/ots15002.pdf ) that contains more information than any homeowner will ever need to know, but it can be a handy resource to skim through and determine how to approach fixing road/driveway problems.