Gravel road maintenance

[rickdavis81]

After advice on here I purchased an EA land plane to maintain my mile of gravel road. Does an amazing job. Talked to the road grader and he cut some of the ditches awhile back to help where they had filled back in. Should I blade the dirt/rock mound on to the road and smooth it out with several passes. Or should I load it in the dump truck and haul it off to keep all the dirt off the road? Figured If I blade it back on I’ll use my hydraulic grader blade since it’d clog up the lane plane in now time.

 

[Hay Dude]

If it’s dirt, I’d get rid of it as itll become mud and make a mess. Fill low spots with gravel and compact them.

 

[s219]

Got any pictures? But I agree, if it's not gravel or gravel fines, it's not good for the road.

 

[repete]

Any gravel road needs a crown or slope to get water off the surface. This is especially important with wet areas. Can your land plane maintain a crown?

 

[oosik]

If your road is gravel - then I would remove the dirt and not incorporate it into the gravel.

 

[Hay Dude]

If your road is gravel - then I would remove the dirt and not incorporate it into the gravel.

This ^^^
I just got doing a cheapie rebuild on a gravel road that had been let go for too many years. The road ran through a woods and got tons of leaf litter dropped on it. As we all know, leaf litter turns to mud and said mud was compacted into the top 4” of the road.
Not wanting to spend the money for a full rebuild, I was convinced to simply add new gravel to the top and compact it. I could tell it would help for a little while, but the long term solution was a complete rebuild.

 

[ponytug]

@rickdavis81 I think the devil is in the details. How much dirt to "rock" is in what you have? What does "rock" mean, 6" stones, or gravel? How coarse is the existing gravel on your road, i.e. do you need some fines to better lock things in place?

If you do decide to add it to the road, if it more than just half an inch or so spread out, I would mix it in to as deep a layer as you can to make for a uniform road road bed.

All the best,

Peter

 

[rickdavis81]

No pics. At work at the moment. I’d say 98% dirt and the gravel is small road rock. Usually the grader operaters just smooth it back onto the road and we get flats for the next month or so around here. I set my side linkage so it cuts more on the outside and then after a couple passes I wind up with a full box and it pushes it to the center of the road with the angled blades. Roads pretty sad but county claims no money for rock so I just try and keep the holes filled in and maintained best I can. Neighbors appreciate it

 

[rickdavis81]

Neighbors and I all have nice new houses and pay dearly in property taxes. It’s irritating

 

[ponytug]

No pics. At work at the moment. I’d say 98% dirt and the gravel is small road rock. Usually the grader operaters just smooth it back onto the road and we get flats for the next month or so around here. I set my side linkage so it cuts more on the outside and then after a couple passes I wind up with a full box and it pushes it to the center of the road with the angled blades. Roads pretty sad but county claims no money for rock so I just try and keep the holes filled in and maintained best I can. Neighbors appreciate it

I'm not sure that it is worth spreading, but when you have lemons, you make lemonade...

Neighbors and I all have nice new houses and pay dearly in property taxes. It’s irritating

Run for county supervisor? Get permission to spread your own road base?
Lemonade...

 

[rickdavis81]

It crossed my mind for the road grader job but I don’t need everyone on my butt all the time. And between a 60hr a week plant engineering job, gun shop and starting a trucking company I don’t need another job lol

 

[Bill Guenthner]

Any gravel road needs a crown or slope to get water off the surface. This is especially important with wet areas. Can your land plane maintain a crown?

Some gravel roads need a crown. Short of a torrential downpour water runs right through crushed limestone, even roadpack. My drive is 1200 feet up the side of a hill and acts as a big French drain that has pretty much stopped erosion off the hill. I have a base of fist sized rock, then #2, then dense grade roadpack on top. Despite it being very steep, I lose very little gravel to rain runoff. I grade it flat with a box blade (no teeth) or a rock rake. In my experience, the key to keeping gravel in place is to slow down the water.

 

[tommcintire]

Long-time reader, very rare poster...

I have a similar situation on my driveway. 1/4 mile through the woods, up a hill, with one part that is approaching about 8% grade. The wheel ruts tend to catch water and cause erosion problems instead of flowing into the swale. Driveway is built of crushed gravel, and is topped with recycled asphalt (reground, with whatever other junk falls in). My biggest issue with it is I am losing fines, leaving just stone (which is generally round-edged in recycled asphalt around here).

Any thoughts for how to keep the thing "happy"? If I grade it and then it rains before it repacks, it washes out. Have dreams of taking a 2x5 foot tank I have and making it into a roller, and then putting a vibration motor on it, but I have plenty of other projects ahead of it in line.

 

[ponytug]

Long-time reader, very rare poster...

I have a similar situation on my driveway. 1/4 mile through the woods, up a hill, with one part that is approaching about 8% grade. The wheel ruts tend to catch water and cause erosion problems instead of flowing into the swale. Driveway is built of crushed gravel, and is topped with recycled asphalt (reground, with whatever other junk falls in). My biggest issue with it is I am losing fines, leaving just stone (which is generally round-edged in recycled asphalt around here).

Any thoughts for how to keep the thing "happy"? If I grade it and then it rains before it repacks, it washes out. Have dreams of taking a 2x5 foot tank I have and making it into a roller, and then putting a vibration motor on it, but I have plenty of other projects ahead of it in line.

An 8% grade is always going to need recurring maintenance. Vehicles can apply more force than the road will hold. You might consider paving that one section, or just make peace with the recurring maintenance. I would say though that the more force that you can apply to compact that section, the more it will take before coming apart.

Generally, you need to add back the fines (stone dust) that are being lost, mix them with the existing material, and pack them in. Don't grade before the storm; rain will just wash the fines out faster. Grade afterwards so that you can use the damp material to consolidate better. (Damp, not wet!) Once you have graded it, pack it down as best you can; a roller, multiple passes with a heavy vehicle with small tires, whatever works to get it smooth and compacted.

I don't know about your material, but around here straight recycled asphalt is too coarse by itself. It doesn't have enough (any) fines to hold the road bed together and tends to roll around under pressure. You may need to blend in some stone dust, or pack what you have, spray asphalt/tar on it and then chip and seal it to get a layer that won't roll apart.

Good luck!

All the best,

Peter

 

[oosik]

Two days ago I dropped my rear blade and hooked up my LPGS. Drug it thru my short muddy section. Scarifiers full down - it chewed everything up and filled the ruts. It's now driveable but a tad cobby.

I'll need to hit it again with scarifiers up - when it's dryer. Waiting IS difficult.

 

[deezler]

I just got doing a cheapie rebuild on a gravel road that had been let go for too many years. The road ran through a woods and got tons of leaf litter dropped on it. As we all know, leaf litter turns to mud and said mud was compacted into the top 4” of the road.

A large amount of my driveway length is in the shady woods also. Some people think I am nuts when I spend more time each fall getting leaves off my gravel driveway than I do getting them out of my lawn, but it's worth it.

 

[deezler]

Long-time reader, very rare poster...

I have a similar situation on my driveway. 1/4 mile through the woods, up a hill, with one part that is approaching about 8% grade. The wheel ruts tend to catch water and cause erosion problems instead of flowing into the swale. Driveway is built of crushed gravel, and is topped with recycled asphalt (reground, with whatever other junk falls in). My biggest issue with it is I am losing fines, leaving just stone (which is generally round-edged in recycled asphalt around here).

Would you say you have a nice big crown on your road surface, or is it pretty flat? You really have to get the water OFF the road, as quickly as you can. If you have a proper crown and ditches/drainage on each side, then no water should be flowing down it. Also, why do you have wheel ruts? Perhaps because the water stays on it so much that it stays wet and mushy? A driveway of all rock shouldn't have wheel ruts in the first place.

 

[jyoutz]

Neighbors and I all have nice new houses and pay dearly in property taxes. It’s irritating

Time to have a meeting with your county supervisor. That’s what I did to get our road improved. The roads department supervisor kept saying no money. The county supervisor met me on our road and saw the issues. Then he requested the funds in the next years budget to do the work.