Putting in a gravel driveway

[paulsharvey]

Based on your profile, if accurate, and 7 acres, I'm guess driveway is almost 500 ft?

To go 6" thick with roadbase/limerock/crusher run/1.5" minus, whatever it's called in your area; you'll need approx 111 cubic yards; or around maybe 180 tons. That's about 10 loads of material.

I would have everything "boxed out", and start dumping first truck at road, balance that, have 2nd truck back up as far as possible, spread/balance that, and once everything is more or less spread, i would work to finish the final shape of the driving surface.

"gravel" drives do require additional rock every 4 or 5 years, but it very well might just be a load or two. Don't focus on a one and done attitude, and over spend.

 

[paulsharvey]

On the ditch/swale topic, ideally you would want a minor swale on each side, with a invert a couple inches below the bottom of your rock/base/gravel. You wouldn't need one if the elevations naturally slope away from the road, say, dropping 8" within 8 ft of the road, unless the topography creates ponding in specific areas. You certainly don't want your drive to be the low point, and channel water down it.

If money is tight, you can absolutely get by with a 10 ft driving surface (or even 9 ft), but I would still keep the 16 ft clear area, and have any swales, drop offs, ect keep back off the edge. It will save maybe 20-30% on material, but it's much nicer to have one 12 ft wide, for any deliveries.

Once you have the roadbase/gravel/rock inplace, graded, and compacted, make sure to seed/hay the shoulders to prevent erosion.

 

[future_vision]

I just saw your post now, I’ll throw some ideas out.

In your item number 3 you sound like you’re going to put “forms” in to hold the dirt in the low area. I’d skip that. Just start wider than the driveway and gradually narrow up as you get higher, that way you will have nice slopes on the side. Having the area contained won’t really help with compaction and will just want to blow out as you get higher.

If you have places water will run across the driveway that will probably be ok as long as there isn’t a lot of water and it just sheet flows across. If that’ll be to much water or cause erosion you will need to put a culvert across the driveway and put some shallow ditches in to drain the water to the culvert on the high side.

Geocell or a fabric to stabilize things? I’m a retired land surveyor and worked for a civil engineering firm for years. We often specified things to stabilize soils. For a driveway I’m not sure it’s worth it unless you have bad spots. They would be areas that would want to rut and sink even after you build your driveway.

For small areas we would have them dig out the bad area and have them but oversized rock in. This is about the size of a golf ball or a little bigger. You could just build your driveway starting with larger rock than top it with regular gravel. We always did a proof roll with a loaded dump truck to look for soft areas. If your tractor is heavy enough you might discover bad areas just driving around on it.

Yes if you can crown the driveway that’s good.

For #3 that is essentially what I was thinking. The forms would be set up and I would back fill on the outside. Once I get driveway materials in and compacted I might attempt to remove the forms or maybe just leave them.

As for the geocell it was an idea. Part of it is stability and durability. The other part is that you can use a variety of fill. We'd probably go with some type of relatively cheap standard gravel. I forget off the top of my head what that is called.

 

[Rockbadchild]

I am planning a gravel driveway for a new build and have a few questions since I've never had a gravel driveway before. I have started on some preliminary work which I think is necessary. so far I've scraped all the organic materials from the entire driveway. In some places I am as much as 12 inches below grade on one side. The driveway itself is roughly at the top of a slope. Here are my questions going forward. Note that I am in New England. Soil tends to be sandy or sandy loam as you get below the pure organics.

1. I am assuming that the finished driveway needs to be above grade and crowned so water rolls off either side. Is that correct?
2. Because there is a small slope is there something I need to do on the high side for water management?
3. There is an area of the driveway that 5-7 ft lower than the rest of the driveway. I want to bring this up to level. I was going to add some boards attached to some rebar on both sides and fill in lifts compacting in between. What is the best material to fill with?
4. I've seen gravel driveways done a number of ways. I am debating about either going with various sizes of rock and then gravel to build the foundation for the driveway or using 6" geocell. Geocell is not particularly cheap but seems like it would give the driveway a more stable foundation. Which way is the best to go?

Using a Kioti DK6010 SE to get this done.

good preliminary work

1) yes
2) yes ditching or culvert for the water to leave the area and avoid washouts
3) I don't know why you would want to have it level you will spend lost of money to achieve this, why not leaving a dip? yes you still built up the road 1m (3ft) or so but unless you have to for what ever reason then ok but I wouldn't is there a way for water lo leave that low point? ... For fill, used what is the cheapest, ether rocks or what we call pit run (unprocessed sand) that what we used in my region it is cheep and offer lots of drainage and compactions then 4'' minimum of 3/4 inch minus on top for road base... I wouldn't do a retaining wall either they are troubble .
4) for geocell that would be used only on each side of the road and filled with gravel and compacted the center not the entire width of the road and between each geocell it would be filled with sand, this a a effective method to raise a road vertically and minimize its footprint.


FYI folks see below for what is geocell, they are made to stop erosion and built up roads while minimizing foot prints, effective as retaining walls.

 

[future_vision]

Based on your profile, if accurate, and 7 acres, I'm guess driveway is almost 500 ft?

To go 6" thick with roadbase/limerock/crusher run/1.5" minus, whatever it's called in your area; you'll need approx 111 cubic yards; or around maybe 180 tons. That's about 10 loads of material.

I would have everything "boxed out", and start dumping first truck at road, balance that, have 2nd truck back up as far as possible, spread/balance that, and once everything is more or less spread, i would work to finish the final shape of the driving surface.

"gravel" drives do require additional rock every 4 or 5 years, but it very well might just be a load or two. Don't focus on a one and done attitude, and over spend.

Not a bad guess. My math has it at closer to 600' of driveway at 12' wide. Entrance into the property is closer to 20' wide. Then we have a 55x38 "pad" in front of the garage that would also be the same material as the driveway although I have considered going with concrete. Not sure if that will cost more but probably since I can't do it myself.

 

[future_vision]

good preliminary work

1) yes
2) yes ditching or culvert for the water to leave the area and avoid washouts
3) I don't know why you would want to have it level you will spend lost of money to achieve this, why not leaving a dip? yes you still built up the road 1m (3ft) or so but unless you have to for what ever reason then ok but I wouldn't is there a way for water lo leave that low point? ... For fill, used what is the cheapest, ether rocks or what we call pit run (unprocessed sand) that what we used in my region it is cheep and offer lots of drainage and compactions then 4'' minimum of 3/4 inch minus on top for road base... I wouldn't do a retaining wall either they are troubble .
4) for geocell that would be used only on each side of the road and filled with gravel and compacted the center not the entire width of the road and between each geocell it would be filled with sand, this a a effective method to raise a road vertically and minimize its footprint.


FYI folks see below for what is geocell, they are made to stop erosion and built up roads while minimizing foot prints, effective as retaining walls.

View attachment 940295

Thanks for the feedback. The driveway doesn't have to be perfectly level but that dip is pretty significant so it would need to be filled some. IU was leaning towards level especially for large trucks that are bringing building supplies. At some point we might have a large horse trailer and I feel like a large dip, spanning maybe 15', would not be good for that.

For the retaining wall it is not really a retaining wall. I am putting fill to the outside of the forms I was going to put up for support. The land slopes toward the back of the property so runoff is good.

As for the geocell. I haven't seen used on just the outsides of the drive. That would certainly save some $$. For a 12' driveway wou are thinking 4' of geocell on each side and leave the middle 12' open?

As for the geocell fill why sand and not gravel?

 

[Blue Mule]

I had to install about 600 feet of gravel "driveway" to access my house and detached garage. The terrain is very rolling and variable. The two most important things I did that have helped maintain my driveway for 8 years now are: 1) I installed geotextile fabric, the really thick heavy duty kind, on the entire length before adding any crushed stone and 2) I dug storm water run-off ditches on the sides of the driveway where it ended up below grade to keep water from rushing across it.

 

[future_vision]

I had to install about 600 feet of gravel "driveway" to access my house and detached garage. The terrain is very rolling and variable. The two most important things I did that have helped maintain my driveway for 8 years now are: 1) I installed geotextile fabric, the really thick heavy duty kind, on the entire length before adding any crushed stone and 2) I dug storm water run-off ditches on the sides of the driveway where it ended up below grade to keep water from rushing across it.

I thought about runoff drains but I was thinking along the lines of perforated pipe along the edges that empty into the ditch in the front or send it to an underground shallow well for irrigation.

What materials did you use on top of the fabric for your driveway?

 

[Blue Mule]

I thought about runoff drains but I was thinking along the lines of perforated pipe along the edges that empty into the ditch in the front or send it to an underground shallow well for irrigation.

What materials did you use on top of the fabric for your driveway?

Here in KY we have "#2 stone" that's larger than golf balls and I started with a layer of that. Then drove on it for a few weeks to work it in. Then covered with "#57 stone" that's quarter to half dollar sized crushed stone and let that get worked in. Then topped it off with "dense grade" which is everything from powder to small gravel. It all fit together like a cake and formed a solid road to drive on.

Most of the time it holds up well. The only time I have trouble is when we get thunderstorms that drop 2 inches of rain in one afternoon.

 

[Quaffer]

Yes if you can crown the driveway that’s good.

Depending on how wide the driveway is a constant slope to one side might be easier to maintain than a crown in the middle.