Road costing advise or opinions!

[RickB]

First off, a lot of these newer trucks have hot shift PTO;s and cannot raise body and drive spreading materials at the same time. Some guys can raise their body, shut off their PTO and spread as best they can. Not many are willing to do this. Second, fuel and insurance on dump trucks are beyond reasonable now.. Even though gas is under two dollars per gallon, fuel is still closer to three dollars per gallon, Around here, a tri axle driver with no accidents, no tickets or other problems what so ever, are paying eleven grand per year in insurance,.. within two years they will be paying a thousand a month,.. Trucks costs 150 grand plus,, They only get five year notes even though the truck cost like a house,, A home can get 30 yr payoff's. A truck, 5,. It is common to hear the guys say 2800 per month and up for payment, So, the guy is well within reason even though you do not think so.,

The reason it's difficult to get anyone to tailgate spread anymore is not an equipment issue. It is a talent and revenue issue. The contractor can't charge a bunch of machine time to spread piled loads if it is tailgated. And 85% of dumptruck drivers don't know what 'tailgating' is, let alone how to do it without flopping the truck on its side or twisting the frame. The talented drivers are piloting semis for higher pay. Further, tailgating unprocessed shale would be risky for anyone to do because of inconsistent partical size and the potential for bridging.

To the original poster, I couldn't buy the materials or hire the work "here" for the amount of your quote.

 

[jgrinn]

A shale base is a good solid base, but is not an easy tail gate job. It more or likely will need to be dumped and spread with a dozer. The dozer will also help to compact the shale.

 

[woodlandfarms]

It doesn't look like your house is built yet? If so, you are like our neighbors. Their contractor told them to NOT put down anything but the large rock until the house was built. It is not a comfortable drive, and a PITA to walk but it works and with the heavy equipment coming and going it has saved him some bucks.

 

[Lloyd_E]

We just had our road resurfaced this past summer with class A. About 1000', graveled, bull dozed and rolled. Taxes in it was just under $4300. I would say you are getting a reasonable deal.

Lloyd

 

[3RRL]

His pricing doesn't sound bad to me at all. Low in fact.
I live in a remote area and getting trucks into there cost $$$. I've got a 1/2 mile drive that I was gonna put a six inch layer on top. This was a few months back when diesel was still 5 bucks a gallon. I got a quote for approx 600 yards or so of #2 crushed rock which is $10 bucks a yard...ok not too bad out here. The trucking company figured they could get it up to my place in 25 loads, but they wanted $250 bucks a load!!! So that's like 12 grand for material and trucking alone. No fabric included, no spreading included, no labor or dozing.

 

[dirtworksequip]

SamWalton,looks like you did a good job at getting the road cut in,. Now you need to take it to the next step. There is plenty more work you can do on your road with your tractor. Just keep in mind the key to having a good road is drainage. I don't want to be too critical, but your road doesn't look like you have any drainage. Your road needs to be higher than the surronding terrain. You need to have a ditch on both sides. A road profile should look like the below pic I posted. It takes a lot of work to get it right,but it will save you thousands in the long run. When you have some rain, check out your road if you have any water laying on the road this will become a pothole in the future. I'm not sure what your purpose is of having shale hauled in? Is there no stone available in your area?

Sincerely, Dirt

Yellow line shows the proper profile with ditches on both sides of the road. Blue line shows water drainage.

 

[CurlyDave]

Dirt is right -- you need ditches. Even where you have a cut at eh side of the road, you need to make the road wider so you can have a ditch.

The difference in local customs is just amazing. Around here if I buy a truckload of either shale or gravel the driver wants to spread it for me. If I want it in a pile for me to spread later with the loader, I have to spend a few minutes convincing him that is what I really want.

 

[mjncad]

The difference in local customs is just amazing. Around here if I buy a truckload of either shale or gravel the driver wants to spread it for me. If I want it in a pile for me to spread later with the loader, I have to spend a few minutes convincing him that is what I really want.

Maybe the driver used to work at a gas station in Oregon and is used to doing service for his customers. I always heard that is was illegal to pump your own gas in Oregon.

 

[coopers]

Wow, maybe it's just because it is 1am right now but I swear his post says his calculations end with $3,500 plus some dozer time added in after that, yet a contractor quoted him $1,250? He's asking if the contractor's price is off? Is it supposed to be $10,000 or $1,000? Because that's around 11 hours of dozer time plus the $250 for trucking if it's 1k which is about right. That's reasonable. Does trucking mean trucking or what? Where's the cost of the gravel?

 

[SamWalton]

From the pictures it looks as though he could tailgate spread the rock. I'm not familiar with shale base, here we use granite, but we spread most of the rock with the truck and only dress it with a tractor or dozer. If you are planning on building and there will be construction traffic I would use a larger stone such as 4's or surge stone and then come back after construction and put down a layer of 57's or GAB.

Your method sounds good but would it cost less? How much of a large stone would I need? Keep in mind I have 800' of driveway.