Gravel Yard Way Mud

[hslogger]

In Western Oregon, the proper way to lay down a rock road or lot is as follows. Put down three or four inch open. Cap it with 3/4 or 1 inch minus. You can have freezes all you want and it will stay put. Recently a local person had some poor advice while putting in a road. His rock man said," just put down geo tech material and we will stack one inch minus on it" Well they did. This winter we had phenomenal freezing periods and the ground heaved like crazy. His road ended up being like a roller coaster and it is going to have to be reconstructed.

What works for one region might not work for another region. If you wanna do it all yourself, by golly you can. But, my suggestion is pay a couple local REPUTABLE outfits to give you a consultation. They are pros, and their advice can make you a fine road or lot in the decades to come.

 

[Egon]

Frost heaves will not be stopped by fabric.

 

[Snobdds]

Frost heaves will not be stopped by fabric.

Ah yes, the mythical frost heaves that happen in heavy Clay soil. Watch out for those...I hear they're a killer.

 

[NormaMangels]

Good suggestions.

 

[summit151]

Hey guys, So I have gotten around to finally fixing these issues. What I have done so far is stripped the soft section of the drive way down about 7 inches. And today I added about 14 tons of 3 inch washed rock to stabilize the clay and packed that in by driving over it with a heavy truck a million times and now it looks like it is finally packed in and stabilized. I also talked to a few guys at the gravel pit today about what type of gravel to use and they all suggested the washed rock to stabilize the soft spots and then crushed stone on top. But apparently none of the pits in this area have bigger rocks then 2 inch so if I use 2 inch crushed gravel all the rocks will be round and not jagged. I don't think the round rock will puncture the rock hard clay that is present in the summer and muddy in the spring. So does a guy use 3/4 crushed to it locks together? Or will it disappear quickly?

 

[Tractor Seabee]

Never use round rock for road bed, it keeps on rolling around. Crushed rock is a must, at least 3 faces sheared along with a mixed gradation and crusher fines. it will compact very nice with smaller stuff and fines filling the voids. Even compaction is also a must it you want to prevent future pot holes. Pot holes are caused by subgrade material that settles. Same thing on pot holes; if you do not excavate a large area and restore the compaction to the base even with the surrounding material; lo and behold the pot holes come back with vigor. Fabric is over sold as a remedy. Once the fabric is coated with fines it then makes a dam and retains all that water you want to seep through and disappear; especially bad where frost heaving is a factor. Another good reason to raise the road bed above the surrounding grade so you get that drainage before the water is trapped in the compacted material.

Ron

 

[Dadnatron]

summitt, I don't want to hijack your post.

I agree with Ron on the use of round rock. It isn't the 'cutting into' that is the issue, it is the fact that it cannot lock into a solid mass. The jagged edges lock together whereas the round rock simply slides against each other. If you can get 2" crushed, ie jagged, it will be better than any round rock you find.

Ron,

I'm building a road right now, and have excavated the topsoil down to clay. I have been building the road bed back up, without an issue. (I have a small 6yd scraper which works well.) However, now that I have been doing it, I have recognized I am not exactly sure when to stop 'raising' it back. I've compacted it well, in thin lifts. Initially, I used a large vibratory compactor, which was overkill, but made me feel better. The scraper went down because of a bearing, so I sent the compactor back. But I see that if I drop in thin lifts of only 2-3 inches then run over it with my tractor and a fully loaded scraper, it compacts very well.

So I am confident in my roadbed, but I don't know how high to continue, given that I still have to add gravel. The critical 'lowest' area of the road is level with the surrounding topsoil at this point. I thought that With 6-8" gravel over fabric, this 'height' should be optimal, but I'd like your opinion. I have a 'borrow location' which needs to be taken down to stop water running into my barn. And while I'd like to 'be done' hauling clay, I can continue until I have built the bed optimally.