Qustions on using Recycled Asphalt Millings to refresh old gravel private drive

[Rustyiron]

They started milling in my area well before they new what to do with the millings. This was 15-18 years ago, and before "they" started adding it back into new mix's and the public found out about millings for their driveways. I used to get tri axle loads for $50 including the trucking.

 

[Dadnatron]

I've been trying to decide about roads as well. Currently, I have a gravel road into the center of the property, and am putting in an additional road (excavated at this point) and ready for fabric and gravel. All the horse farms in the area have put in blacktop. But... I think this is mostly because it is supposed to be 'the best'. The issue I have with it is simply my horses. This concern is also consistent between several Vet friends, 2 of the top Vet surgeons in the land. Both have said that asphalt/blacktop is the cause of many of the horse patients.

Horses will be shod and/or simply spook on the asphalt for some reason, and they have no traction. In fact, the day I brought up my concern, one of them had been fixing a horse who fell that day and broke his leg. Both Vets have gravel only on their farm.

I grew up on gravel, so other than the dust, I have no qualm. But I was thinking about RAP as an upgraded alternative. Not because I want 'inexpensive blacktop' but because I want a good traction road which holds up better and has less dust than gravel.

Some of what I've been reading here is surprising. I kind of expected it would act more like a 'sticky gravel' and less like an asphalt road which breaks down easily. Apparently... that might not be the case and if so, I'd rather have gravel, perhaps with a stabilizer sprayed over it to minimize the dust.

 

[crazyal]

Start off fixing the lowest problem first. You wouldn't fix a house without first fixing the rotten foundation so why would you do the same to your road. If your gravel is sinking into the sand then, like others have said, put down fabric (I think it's called WF200 geotextile fabric) to stop that from happening. You'll need to fix the potholes by digging up the road as deep as they are then packing it back down to fill them in. If you have enough gravel you could try to remove it first, roll out the fabric, and then put it back down otherwise you'll just have to have gravel trucked in. I would put gravel down vs millions because it'll have plenty of fines. Then I would wait a year to see what shape the road is in before deciding what else is needed. Does your land pride grading scrapper have ripping teeth? If so you can dig deeper (if needed) by shortening the top link. The rippers work great for digging up the potholes.

 

[Fallon]

The county put in a stretch of recycled asphalt on our dirt road. It was nice for less than a year. Then it started falling apart in places. You could see where the county grader tried to fix potholes & cracks. Just scrape marks along the intact compacted asphalt & no help filling in the damaged bits.

They generally tear up worn out asphalt for a reason. Most of the binders are worn out. There are different grades I'm sure. And different qualities within locations in a given batch.

Personally I won't ever put in recycled asphalt on my driveway. To hard or impossible to maintain with my equipment. Crushed rock or recycled concrete might get hard & packed, but not so much I can't rip it loose with scarfiers on the box blade or LPGS. I can re-work things after its ripped up. Not so much with asphalt chunks.

Since I wrote that a few years ago things have changed. A neighbor got many truckloads of recycled asphalt. presumably for free on a buddy deal. I spread it out for him in exchange for about a truck load. Maybe 12 tons on a 12' X 35' pad. I graded out an RV pad & put down geotextile then covered it in recycled asphalt. I don't have a compactor or roller, but packed it down with tractor wheels carying as much weight in my bucket as I could. It never packed in well at all. Backing my 5th wheel in required 4wd & the trailer tires left ruts. Truck would spin out & spray recycled asphalt around trying to back the trailer up on th pad.

I gave up & has 20 tons of class 6 granite roadbase delivered. I spread it over the top of the recycled asphalt & regreaded stuff. Night & day difference. The top layer is hard & has good traction. No ruts. I can back the trailer with only high range 2wd.

Spraying it down with diesel or something to melt the tar a bit might have gotten it to pack in better. But I didn't want to dump that much fuel on my property.

If I buy it here in the Denver area, recycled asphalt, recycled concrete & virgin class 6 roadbase all cost more or less the same. Going forward, I'm just going to stick with class 6, graite. Maybe recycled contrete if there is a good deal on it.

 

[RonF]

Any road needs two basic things....good drainage and a compacted roadbed. Potholes are the result of poor drainage. Need to cure that first.