Frozen Ground Gravel Application

[HawkinsHollow]

Help me think through this please. Don't deal with frozen ground a lot and haven't spread tons of gravel definitely not this large. I need to get gravel down on my mill site. If has been a little wet so I have been stalled out, now the ground is frozen pretty good and it probably won't thaw much for the next week. My goal is to get some 2-3" chunks of crushed concrete down, I plan on using geotextlie material under it entire area. It seems to me that this is a blessing. My main question is how will it act when it thaws? I won't be able to really pack it well and build my mill base on it until we get a good thaw in a week, which is a bummer. The dirt was moist but pretty hard when it started t freeze. Anything I should be aware of putting gravel over frozen ground.
Edited to add:
This is for my new sawmill site that will have a 6x6 pressere treated base. It is not going to be a house or shop of anything. But I obviously still want it pretty well packed.

 

[bmaverick]

When I lived north of Nashville TN, the temps got down to 9F. The guy who comes to clean out the septic with his heavy semi-truck with big tank thought a frozen ground would be fine to back across the lawn and pump it out.

Well, let's say his tandem axles didn't make it with the 1/2 filled tank, the truck sank to the axles completely. A specialized towing semi had to pull him out. And on top of that, the guy said, if our asphalt driveway got ruined, he would pay for a new one.

Lucky, he got his truck out. In the Spring I repaired the lawn with a 1/2 load of dirt.

When you say, going down to the mill site, know that it's a slippery slope to get back up with a heavy truck of concrete if you need a tow!

Fronzen ground is only 2 to 4 inches deep. And at the 3-4 inches deep it's still slush. Basically the frozen ground is just a skin over the wet loose soil beneath it.

 

[HawkinsHollow]

No No nothing like that. It has about 18" of nice compacted fill at the back end. Pretty flat.

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[BlueKnife]

If it was already fairly hard to begin with you should be fine. Just spread as you would normally. If you intend to run a compactor over it, wait till it's thawed to do that.

 

[2manyrocks]

From a Middle Tennessee viewpoint, our ground is much more saturated this January than it was back in October. If the snow falls as they are predicting tomorrow, it will become even more saturated. There comes a point where equipment can get stuck this time of year.

 

[4570Man]

From a Middle Tennessee viewpoint, our ground is much more saturated this January than it was back in October. If the snow falls as they are predicting tomorrow, it will become even more saturated. There comes a point where equipment can get stuck this time of year.

This was before it rained 4” last week. Trying to do anything in the dirt is pretty useless right now at least in my area.

 

[Rockbadchild]

In your area I doubts the ground is frozen very deep, I wouldn't be concern... for use up north you can expect ground shift once it thaw out but it freeze 4 to 6 feet deep... just recompact once the frost is all gone and you will be good.

 

[2manyrocks]

If you got the same rain we got today, it's going to be a while before either of us dries out.

 

[HawkinsHollow]

If you got the same rain we got today, it's going to be a while before either of us dries out.

Well I already have a good layer of 3" crushed concrete down and I put geotextile fabric under it so hopefully that solves my mud issue. That is why I wanted to get it down while it was frozen. I am going to go over tomorrow to pack it down. I won't mind if it sinks down into the dirt a little bit, it will lock them into place.