Gravel Driveways

[MossRoad]

I live in northern Indiana and put in about a 400 foot drive. That's when I bought my first tractor, about 11 years ago. A guy wanted $5000 to do it for me, so I bought a $5000 tractor with FEL and did it myself. Went to the local soil and water conservation district and got a soil survey of my property. It is mostly Tyner ABC and D, which is sandy soil on slight slopes(A) to steep slopes(D). What was interesting is that there was a pocket of soil called FOX right where the state said I had to put the driveway. Looked up FOX soil and found that it was a deep pocket of gravel covered by a shallow layer of sand. Dug in and removed several hundred yards of gravel. Spread it out 12' wide and about a foot thick for several hundred feet. Then I had many 20 yard loads of SLAG brought in from the steel mills in Gary, IN. I was paying about $300 a load. SLAG is great stuff. Gravel is round, and after you drive on it, it tends to push out to the sides and you have to re-grade your drive several times a year. SLAG is rough, about 1/2 inch to 1-1/2 inch in irregular sizes, and tends to lock together, and gets harder as you drive over it. Don't know if it makes a good base for asphalt, but imagine it would, if compacted properly. If it is available in your area, you might want to check it out.

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[MarkV]

Buckeye,

As you can see, there are as many different recipes for gravel roads as there are for potato salad./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif What we do down here in Georgia with our red clay is to lay a base of #4 gravel and let the construction equipment work it in. If I were doing it over again, I would first put down a road fabric. Although not cheap for a long drive I believe it will pay for itself, over time, by requiring less gravel. If your grade is not to steep, we would then lay layers of “57 “ stone. And finally put down the 21A crusher run that MarkC talked about. (Mark thank you for the definition, I always thought crusher run was crusher run)

Others may have different conditions and experiences, but it takes time to build up a gravel road base that holds. You need to plan on the expense of more gravel for several years. Also never forget that drainage is the key to making your road hold up. Without proper drainage, it does not matter how much gravel you put on, you will still need more soon.

MarkV