Need advice from the pro's...Driveway Construction

[cityfisher]

Hey all,

Bought a nice piece of land last year and had a local contractor, clear the land and apply gravel...he said Granite screenings would be fine... I was new to gravel and the whole road building thing so i said sure.

Well the driveway is usable, barely, esp after a bad rainstorm the ruts keep coming.

I want to keep the cost down since i already dropped under 5 k on the intial build.

My thoughts.
Cheap option
Get some -2 crusher run and apply on top of driveway and bottom landing by the street, the bigger stone will stop erosion runs .

$$ option
move the granite large boulders out of the ditch area and over to the outside collar, get more if needed. Fill the ditch in with gabion and run fiber behind it.
Put some heavier stone on top and crown the driveway..


Any recommendations?

 

[Carl_NH]

Well the water needs to drain so your option 2 is the better solution then once you have addressed the drainage add and compact some blackpack.

I would then regrade and crown and add some stone to the base and maybe by your old contractor? then put down some "blackpack" tailings which are crushed asphalt.

Once you compact the blackpack tailings they stick together and should not wash as much. But with the grade you have you will still loosen the surface and create washboarding (bumps) from accelerating up the slope.

Long term paving is the best soltution for this grade I think.

 

[cityfisher]

paving will most defiantly be out of my budget
Just want it to make it user friendly and not so mushy uneven

 

[Western]

Hard to tell, but do you have a culvert in the low spot?? If not you probably need one. It appears the water is using the road and not the side ditches. First thing I would do is attack the drainage issues before spending a dime on more road base.

Get the water running in the side ditches and under the road in a culvert if needed. It appears you have allot of native rock, use that to shore up the Berms or low side of your road.

You may need to widen your drive some to accommodate this ,but you have to get the water off the road, or it may be as simple as digging out the ditches for drain path.

 

[cityfisher]

no culverts in place.. looks like theres no easy fix.. i need a backhoe!

 

[radioman]

all of those ruts tells me the water has no place to go. you need a crown for sure. adding crusher run on top and bottom is not gonna do a thing in my opinion. you really need to rebuild the road on the bill portion at least. first, tell me if you have ANY issues on top landing with granite pack other then washing down.

My suspicions tells me you might want to pull the granite pack off from the hill portion and stockpile for top and bottom landing when needed. rebuild the hill with crusher run with a crown should do the trick. good luck.

 

[cityfisher]

all of those ruts tells me the water has no place to go. you need a crown for sure. adding crusher run on top and bottom is not gonna do a thing in my opinion. you really need to rebuild the road on the bill portion at least. first, tell me if you have ANY issues on top landing with granite pack other then washing down.

My suspicions tells me you might want to pull the granite pack off from the hill portion and stockpile for top and bottom landing when needed. rebuild the hill with crusher run with a crown should do the trick. good luck.

On the top landing the granite screenings are ok , other than dusty and a little mushy after a major storm, bottom of the hill also gets mushy after a good rain.

So basically it's best to clean off the screenings of the hill ..add it on top as I have some area that's need fill , then put down a couple loads of a large 3 inch minus or a very Stoney pittrun gravel(4 inch) then top it with something like 7/ crusher run ... Makes sense?

+ add a culvert or 2 if possible...add gaboon rock down the ditch along the rock wall

 

[Rustyiron]

2 driveway rules
1 Get the water off the road
2 Keep the above water and all other drainage off the road.
Looks like you need some ditching and as you mentioned a crown down the center. Looks like you have a good start, spend some time watching what the water does (and where it comes from) during a downpour.:thumbsup:

 

[MarkV]

The last photo is the one that caught my attention. That is a steep grade to hold gravel. In my area we would use crusher run if you couldn't pave. Larger stone will want to migrate down hill from my experience.

MarkV