Gravel Road Dust Control

[bdog]

You couldn't do it today due to environmental concerns nor could you afford to with the prices but I have driven on oiled roads before and they are really nice. Last time I saw one was probably 15 years ago. They literally spray crude oil on the gravel road and it was zero dust. It soaks in to the dirt as well and doesn't make a mess of your vehicles.

 

[MHarryE]

Our county sprays CaCl for 100 yards on each side of your driveway if you give them a doctor's prescription(no kidding). They would probably be better off spraying all of the roads because not only does the CaCl keep down the dust, it greatly reduces washboarding. We have about a mile of township roads. The county charges us too much to spray them so we have our own plastic barrel connected to a PVC pipe with holes spray system. Remember the dust that is flying used to be the material that you hauled in to build up your roads so every few years the county has to rebuild what the speedy drivers have blown away, except where the CaCl has been sprayed. Summer salt application does not appear to damage metal like winter salt. At least none of our equipment that we move down the roads shows road spray salt damage like our car hauler trailer which gets used on salted roads in the winter but it must have some effect.

 

[the old grind]

In my tricycle days in Lincoln Park they oiled the side street (Ferris) just around the corner from us. (once you're around the corner & out of sight a driveway approach counts as sidewalk. ) Really worked tho' & I get a familiar whiff of that odor again sometimes when passing a working well on the way North to hunting camp.

Last time I saw oil on a road(?) was thoughout a county park in Indiana, say 'summer of '71. btw: There's kind of an art to navigating slickery 'washboards' on a motorcycle and uh, not everyone has the 'er talent. ..... ..... :laughing:

 

[MHarryE]

You couldn't do it today due to environmental concerns nor could you afford to with the prices but I have driven on oiled roads before and they are really nice. Last time I saw one was probably 15 years ago. They literally spray crude oil on the gravel road and it was zero dust. It soaks in to the dirt as well and doesn't make a mess of your vehicles.

must be a special oil. When I started dating my wife back in the old days her parents road was oiled yearly. For a month after oiling I had to spend a half day with bug and tar remover after very time I went to see her. Didn't matter what speed - the car was a mess. We got married before they oiled the road the next summer so neither of us would have to drive on that gooey mess again.

 

[rd_macgregor]

Gravel/clay roads used to be a common disposal site for all kinds of waste products...think Times Beach, MO...and I bet there is still a fair amount of that going on even now, since proper disposal can be really expensive.

 

[GaryM]

Gravel/clay roads used to be a common disposal site for all kinds of waste products...think Times Beach, MO...and I bet there is still a fair amount of that going on even now, since proper disposal can be really expensive.

I was going to mention Times Beach. It's not too far South East of my location. Used to drive through there all the time. It's now a county park. Russell Bliss, the fellow who spread the oil, sure caught **** for that operation. I'm not sure f they ever proved that he knew the oil was contaminated with PCBs. He should have used fryer oil instead. Might have been a tourist draw.

 

[ZAR2USA]

We used two types of oil back in my days.

One was used veggie oil from the fryer or sunflower oil. It was bio-degradable and still used today by the US gov.

The second was used motor oil or the unrefined oil (prior to processing for diesel, petrol, plastics, etc). It was thick and glue like and with tiny chunks to it. If it got on your car, the easy way to get it off was to spread butter on it. Somehow the butter made it soft and it could be easily wiped off the next day without damaging the vehicle paint. I first laughed at it when I was told that, but it soon was the only way I would clean our cars and others who couldn't get it off.

 

[bigtiller]

We had a dirt road for years now it has been blacktopped but years ago the Township bought this liquid solution from Paper mills it smelt like Vinegar and that would stop the Dust.they would bring it by Semi-Tanker.they would do this twice a Year.

That's probably Lignin Sulfonate, nick named tree sap. I have used it several years and works as well as CaCl.

 

[JulieMartinez]

I drive will freeze up just as it always has without it. The way the salt works is by properties to attract and retain moisture where as a lot of the specialty dust control chemicals actually make the dust particles bind to one another through a polymer or something similiar. Salt uses moisture to make the dust particles to bind to one another.

CaCL is highly corrosive but I'm not sure how much of that transitions to corrosion on vehicles when used during the summer. When it is used as a winter de-icer it gets caught in the snow and the treads throw it directly against the vehicle's metal. With dust control it gets dissolved and binds into the soil. I suppose caked on mud could act as a corrosive but I've never heard of it being an issue with summer dust control.

Hopefully somebody can give more first hand experience.

Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

[the old grind]

Not directed to anyone in particular:

Salt will draw moisture from the air at >80% humidity. CaCl will do so at >20% humidity. Michigan uses both, and an awful lot of the latter. It will reduce dust, but what dust clings to your car/truck will attract moisture in typical weather conditions. (ie: humidity >40%)

If you don't understand this, just blame road salt for all the damage to your car. The uneducated masses will nod in agreement.

btw, It's been a few decades since I lived on a MI road treated with CaCl, but to drive on it the day of application there would be spatters of 'mud' on lower body paintwork. They literally had to be chiseled-off if allowed to dry, so how well it holds dirt together is obvious. Accepting any trade-off is a matter of taste. t o g