Road costing advise or opinions!

[wushaw]

I know your in OK and that ain't too far north of me so I am just gonna guess that there is not enough base material, like crushed concrete or simular and all that nice looking rock is just gonna sink when it gets wet.
My driveway and parking area is nothing but crushed concrete since feb 02.
We don't use any geo fabric and I have never seen anybody in Texas use it for any driveway.

 

[Dirthog]

looks like a very poor job I will put 8"-10" of good shale down (start at the road end) and back the tri-axles down the road and I have never had a road that did that in the rain even on a small drive where we only used a couple of loads and could not pack it in with the trucks. also most of the time we will not top the road with crushed stone till the last thing so that the construction trucks are through driving on the road.

 

[dirtworksequip]

Sam, just a couple of observations. By looking at your photo's the grading work with the shale looks like it turned out good. It looks to be graded so that it will drain and keep your road high enough to keep it dry. I think there are a couple of reasons that when you attemped to drive in after a rain that you were leaving ruts. The shale needed to be "rolled in" either with a flat drum roller or "wheel rolled" with one of the trucks that were delivering the stone. That would have compacted the shale and sealed it from moisture. The other thing is it looks like you went with a straight stone product and not a "crusher run" stone. The straight stone will let moisture down into the subgrade and soften it,as you have already found out. You will also see that the straight stone will tend to push down into your subgrade.Thats why I like to go with all crusher run. It will spread out the weight and not sink into the subgrade. The grade was probably fine until you got the rain. For now stay off of it. Any ruts you leave will hold more water and just mess up your grade making the problem worse. Once things dry out top the stone you have down now off with crusher run. One question. Why are you going so wide with the stone? One truck wide on a private drive is plenty. The stone will tend to widen out anyway after it gets some traffic on it. Not all is lost, so don't worry. It will eventually tighten up and be okay if you get it topped off with some crusher run. The main thing now is to stay off of it! Don't make it worse by rutting it up just because you want to drive in on your new road. One other point. The stone needs to be at least 6 inches in depth, otherwise it just won't hold up. At $240 per load for the stone..............that's a steal, it's twice that here.

Sincerely, Dirt

 

[radioman]

I was about to say the same thing about stones laid down. I can see some of the dirt is working its way up to the surface due to a soggy conditions and it hasnt been rolled down yet. Since no fabric was used and the even sized stones was the only thing used, the only thing i can think of to save it now is to get it rolled and then have crusher run spread on top with at least 2 inches, preferably 6 inches and have that rolled down as well. Once it rains the first time on the crusher run, resist the urge to test out your new driveway. Let it dry out and bake in the sun and the crusher run topping will give you a very decent surface.

 

[SamWalton]

looks like a very poor job I will put 8"-10" of good shale down (start at the road end) and back the tri-axles down the road and I have never had a road that did that in the rain even on a small drive where we only used a couple of loads and could not pack it in with the trucks. also most of the time we will not top the road with crushed stone till the last thing so that the construction trucks are through driving on the road.

We have had a few months of dry weather so the moisture was low on the shale when it was installed and I drive on it during a the last storm where we got 4 of rain. I believe after it dries out and get some heave traffic it will be fine during future rain events.

 

[SamWalton]

Sam, just a couple of observations. By looking at your photo's the grading work with the shale looks like it turned out good. It looks to be graded so that it will drain and keep your road high enough to keep it dry. I think there are a couple of reasons that when you attemped to drive in after a rain that you were leaving ruts. The shale needed to be "rolled in" either with a flat drum roller or "wheel rolled" with one of the trucks that were delivering the stone. That would have compacted the shale and sealed it from moisture. The other thing is it looks like you went with a straight stone product and not a "crusher run" stone. The straight stone will let moisture down into the subgrade and soften it, as you have already found out. You will also see that the straight stone will tend to push down into your subgrade. Thats why I like to go with all crusher run. It will spread out the weight and not sink into the subgrade. The grade was probably fine until you got the rain. For now stay off of it. Any ruts you leave will hold more water and just mess up your grade making the problem worse. Once things dry out top the stone you have down now off with crusher run. One question. Why are you going so wide with the stone? One truck wide on a private drive is plenty. The stone will tend to widen out anyway after it gets some traffic on it. Not all is lost, so don't worry. It will eventually tighten up and be okay if you get it topped off with some crusher run. The main thing now is to stay off of it! Don't make it worse by rutting it up just because you want to drive in on your new road. One other point. The stone needs to be at least 6 inches in depth, otherwise it just won't hold up. At $240 per load for the stone..............that's a steal, it's twice that here.

Sincerely, Dirt

Thanks, Our dozer guy will go over the road to remove the ruts and we are going to tail gait some SB2 or crusher run over top.

 

[Flatheadyoungin]

man, i hate that.......that's exactly what i don't want to happen........it looked so nice......

thanks for sharing info!

 

[Dirthog]

Still think that was a poor job don't know for sure what you call shale there but what was put on the road looks more like dirt with a few stones in it! What we use for shale is all hard rock any where from about 3-4" in dia. up to a couple of feet in dia. I have built road even in the rain and never had that happen. Right before christmas I put a road in for some people that need to get there camper out of a open field the next day we had 6" of heavy wet snow the day after the sun was out and it all melted they pulled a 36' camper out the road and you could not see where they even drove on it and it was not packed down with a roller trucks or anything else just put in with good solid material.

 

[dirtworksequip]

Dirthog, I think the term ''shale'' is a loose discription that varies greatly from region to region.Chances are what I call shale and you call shale are not the same and not the same in Oklahoma either. Short of a water truck how would you compact material thats too dry?

Sincerely, Dirt

 

[SamWalton]

man, i hate that.......that's exactly what i don't want to happen........it looked so nice......

thanks for sharing info!

I shouldn't have drove on it during a 5" rain storm. My fault.