Need driveway/road suggestions

[RAW]

Howdy, all.
My wife and I are building a house in the WNC mountains (north of Asheville).
The project got derailed by some construction problems (requiring lawyers and engineers and such to resolve . . . which is still in process).
(Read about the whole thing HERE. Our oldest blog entry is at the bottom of the page, newest at the top, 5 pages)

But I'm thinking things are about to get rolling again.

And I need some help with the driveway.


It's 3/4 mile long. Some curves, steady incline. We had originally thought that we would pave the driveway. But aside from the expense, it may not be the best choice for the winters up there. We'll have ice and snow and there's no guardrail!

What other options do I have for surfacing the driveway? Is chipseal too expensive? Gravel has done pretty well over the last 2 years, but . . . a lot of it does get pushed down the drive. And it makes riding a motorcycle up and down from the house a little more challenging than I might like on a daily basis. I know that I could use my tractor to pull a box blade up the driveway every month, but . . . it would still require a load or so of gravel every year to maintain. Those costs add up, and it'd be nice to come up with a better solution.

Here are some pictures from 2005.
headed up the driveway:

headed down the driveway:

The vegetation on either side of the road has grown up quite a bit. There are only a few places on the upper bank that need more attention (hydroseeding, mulch blankets, etc). There's also a pretty decent-sized ditch on the inside edge of the road. That ditch carries a LOT of water and dirt and gravel. After a couple of months of not digging out the culverts, I had to pay a neighbor with a mini-excavator to come clean the ditch out again. I'm gonna have to stay on top of the ditch situation a little better (but it's tough when we're currently living 3 hours away).

Any thoughts?

 

[RAW]

Here are some pics of an unfortunate incident with my dually on that driveway in Feb of 2006.

This was headed down the driveway from our house-site. About 12 inches of snow. Decline is worse than it looks. Slid to the ditch. Couldn't pull out of the ditch (Dodge dually's only have limited-slip in the rear . . . no selectable locker available).

For those days, I'm gonna eventually look at a snow blower for my tractor. Since it has a reversible operator's station, I can drive with a 3PH blower facing "forward"

 

[hockeypuck]

I love the spot. It looks like the part of the country I live in. Have you considered what we call "blue stone"? It consists of small 1/2" sized stone with stone dust mixed in. It packs very well and keeps the dust down. It tends to hold well agains running water. It is not cheap, about the cost of processed gravel. Make sure you have adequate drainage and all of your culverts in place. It looks like you have had a year to see if your driveway works. If it does, put down the finish layer.

 

[RAW]

I love the spot. It looks like the part of the country I live in. Have you considered what we call "blue stone"? It consists of small 1/2" sized stone with stone dust mixed in. It packs very well and keeps the dust down. It tends to hold well agains running water. It is not cheap, about the cost of processed gravel. Make sure you have adequate drainage and all of your culverts in place. It looks like you have had a year to see if your driveway works. If it does, put down the finish layer.

This driveway has been in place for 2 years now. I haven't had any extra gravel delivered. There look to be a couple of spots where an extra culvert or two would be good. The water in the ditch builds up too much velocity at those spots and clogs up those culverts or undercuts them.

I'm reluctant to put the finish layer down until next summer. We think the construction will get started again in the spring. So there will be several heavy trucks running up and down the road until mid-summer, delivering concrete and such.

 

[coobie]

I have found two products that work great for gravel roads.The first one is if you can find if anyone in your area that is resurfacing any roads.The old ground up asplute(spelling?) is great and hardens like cement after driven on for a time.The second is a product called Slag from steel mills,it works great also.coobie

 

[hockeypuck]

I have found two products that work great for gravel roads.The first one is if you can find if anyone in your area that is resurfacing any roads.The old ground up asplute(spelling?) is great and hardens like cement after driven on for a time.The second is a product called Slag from steel mills,it works great also.coobie

I will second the ground up asphalt. Seen it in action and works great.

 

[schmism]

The water in the ditch builds up too much velocity at those spots and clogs up those culverts or undercuts them.

you need rip-rap to control the speed of the water so as to eliminate those problems.

from what i understand oil and chip is about 1/2 the cost of asphalt

 

[RAW]

Keep the ideas coming!
I'm making a list so that I can ask our landscape architect at our next meeting.

 

[MODiesel]

I've got a shorter -- but steeper -- driveway (pics here, from when we cut it in) and have been contemplating much the same thing. Asphalt millings are becoming pretty popular, and a guy I know did his old barn floor with them. He parks a heavy truck on it all the time, and says it has packed so tight that it's almost like a paved surface.

I'm going to consider that, or chip-seal, when we finish our construction as well. I'll leave it as gravel for the construction period, though, so I can easily fix any damage caused by the heavy trucks.

- Jay

 

[rgood]

I'm very interested in this Chip Seal - How can a guy find someone that does that in SW Iowa? Is there an association or something that would have a list of providers?