Gravel driveway repair tips sought

[Bullwinkle123]

Here's what I have. A portion of a long driveway with this shape:


At one point this driveway was nice gravel & grade (1.5 inch crushed "extra dense", which probably refers to the fines).

Over the years the snow plow has pushed a lot of the gravel off to the sides and down the slopes. What remains is a rutted driveway with some mixture of organic forest materials, dirt, and the original gravel.

I'm going to order new gravel (more of the same as before). For tractor tools I have my bucket, and a rear scraper blade. My plan is to do the usual crown in the middle.

Here's a picture which might help:


As you can see, the remnants of gravel is there, the dark material being a part of that, in part. But years of snowplows removing the gravel, and trees dropping pine needles and leaves on it, and it looks to be as much dirt as gravel now.

Anyway, this is part of what I need to repair. My big question is which of the three I'll do in the way of prep before the gravel arrives:

1. Move material from the peaks (from the drawing - sides/middle) into the ruts.
2. Move the side peaks away from the driveway (middle too?).
3. Leave everything as is an just bury it in gravel (but using slightly more gravel to fill everything.

As a general rule of thumb, with the plow action, I get about 5 years between repairs before I have to do it all over again. I do not presently plow with the tractor.

Thanks!

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

Could you get most of the gravel back on top if you pulled a heavy rear angled blade down the ditch area on each side? Kind of hard to tell if it's all still down there, or "gone". If you can find a way to pull it all back up on top of the road bed, you may not need as much new gravel as you think. Also, if you were to even work each side with an angled landscape rake each spring, you might be able to pull the gravel up from the previous season as you go, instead of every 5 years.

And I would get a different guy to plow your driveway. That's just "lazy operator" syndrome. Send him a bill for your gravel (since you've been paying him money to throw your gravel away).

 

[Rebeldad1]

have the dump truck spread the area that needs repair. dress it up from there.
spread some top soil on it and it will get packed down from use.

 

[Bullwinkle123]

Could you get most of the gravel back on top if you pulled a heavy rear angled blade down the ditch area on each side? Kind of hard to tell if it's all still down there, or "gone". If you can find a way to pull it all back up on top of the road bed, you may not need as much new gravel as you think. Also, if you were to even work each side with an angled landscape rake each spring, you might be able to pull the gravel up from the previous season as you go, instead of every 5 years.

And I would get a different guy to plow your driveway. That's just "lazy operator" syndrome. Send him a bill for your gravel (since you've been paying him money to throw your gravel away).

Re: getting gravel back, I could definitely angle my blade to attempt to recover the gravel that's been shoved a couple of feet to the side of the driveway, the only potential problem is that it would also gather a lot organic matter, which I've read elsewhere is not necessarily good because it works against compacting fines and gravel for a good water shedding surface. But it's all "book learnin'" to me.
So my plan was not even to try to recover most of what is off to the sides.

Re: plowing, how would they do better? If they raise the blade it seems like it'll leave a compacting snow and a slicker driveway, if they lower the blade it takes gravel. What should they be doing differently? While the neighborhood regulars will mostly have studs on their vehicles, we don't usually use chains, and visitors have neither.

 

[Bullwinkle123]

have the dump truck spread the area that needs repair. dress it up from there.
spread some top soil on it and it will get packed down from use.

I'm planning on a tailgate spread, except where power lines (and perhaps tree branches) are in the way. Question is whether I should be doing anything with what's there now in advance of gravel delivery.

 

[AHNC]

You all ready have a lot of organic material in the drive. It becomes embedded as time goes by. In order to fix this I think you need to break up the base that is there at least down to the bottom of the ruts. Once that is done and and rough graded then add the new gravel grading to finish. I have to do the same on my place this summer. I am going to rent a big roller to get it finished.

 

[ray66v]

You get ruts from the ground being unable to support the weight, at one time or another.

The most common reason the ground can't bear the weight is high moisture levels.

If you fill those ruts with just gravel, they will hold water when it rains, and that will soften the soil which starts the process all over again.

Coarse gravel bases often used under driveways allow the water to accumulate under the diveway, and that leads to the stone to sinking.

The better way is to use a mixture of gravels and fines that compact and fill in the voids, (#304 or #411) that will eliminate the ability for the base to hold a lot of water.

You should fill those ruts with the stone dust mixture, it will help to reduce the sinking.

The best way to do this repair though, is to start over and put drain tile on one or both sides of the drive. Then, use a Geotex fabric under the stone. That keeps the gravel out of the dirt, so it never disappears. Wet down and compact several 3"-4" layers of stone and fines, capping it with a layer of #57 (3/4") stone.

It is expensive, and a bit of work to do it right. But, you won't have to keep doing it over. So, in the end, it's easier, and cheaper.

 

[Tomtint]

...pave it....and be really done with it

 

[Tractor Seabee]

You really need to get rid of all the organic material first. Then check for any pot holes (these are soft spots that go deep) excavate those out a ways and compact new gravel into those holes. Same with deep ruts; scarfy them down, mix in new gravel and compact well. Dry weather you will need to dampen everything you compact or it won't. Before, adding new gravel look it all over well fix anything you missed, add water to the surface and let set awhile then compact the existing surface. New gravel; you want the maximum fines you can get with 1 1/4" minus crusher run. If it is dry you will need to dampen it up pretty good, grade to crown or to drain then compact with a vibratory roller at a medium vibration cycle. With the right moisture content the surface should turn out almost like concrete. The fines are the key element to bind it all together. A field expedient for checking compaction is to bluntly sharpen a piece of 5/8 rebar and add a cross handle. If it penetrate under you body weight, compaction is poor and that area will pot hole fast. Even compaction is the goal.

Most folks repair pot holes by just adding gravel. Doesn't work. You have to excavate all around, fix whats causing the soft spot, then build it back up.

Building roads is a science all its own. Very often not done well and becomes a continuing problem. Being in VT or other northern latitudes with heavy freeze/thaw cycles and then snow removal the situation is compounded.

Ron

 

[Bullwinkle123]

There are no pot holes, just ruts from traffic and the start of rainwater rut-deepening as well because the water can't escape.

The last maintenance was solid, the driveway has held up well, the fines in the "extra dense" gravel compacted nicely. Anyway, should be pretty easy all things considered (i.e. no potholes - which is good, I don't have scarifiers or a box blade). Just need to decide what to do with those ridges, center and side, which, while there is gravel in them (and lots of bigger stuff in the side), there's non-gravel too, _especially_ on the sides (lots of bigger pieces mixed in with the leaves and stuff).