Putting in a gravel driveway

[Rockbadchild]

Yep. Gave them what I was looking for. This is the full quote:

What I can tell you is if your driveway is 600'Lx12'W and your garage area is 38'Lx55'W and you want 1' Depth of road base (4"minus bank run gravel) you would need 412CY of material.
412cy (4" minus bank run gravel) x $15.00 = $6,180.00
Delivery = 23 loads x $115.00 = $2,645.00
TOTAL = $8,825.00

Is this sand?, If yes for sand you need a solid foot as its not as strong as gravel so you need more but by the sound of it you will need the thickness to get above grade.

 

[future_vision]

In my area, depending on distance to the rock mine; that could be as cheap as $6000 to as much as $10,000. That's material, trucking, and dumping, assuming good access, fairly close rock mine, available trucks.

So this sounds like a reasonable quote. There is a quary, further away, has cheaper material but their per truck cost is something like $220.

 

[future_vision]

Is this sand?, If yes for sand you need a solid foot as its not as strong as gravel so you need more but by the sound of it you will need the thickness to get above grade.

-4 bank run gravel is a mix of sand and gravel up to 4"

 

[Rockbadchild]

-4 bank run gravel is a mix of sand and gravel up to 4"

sound like some good stuff

 

[paulsharvey]

We don't have it down here, but my understanding of bank run material, it's glacier deposits of rocks, sand, ect, and is straight dug, no crusher, no blasting.

 

[LouNY]

Seeing as how the OP lists New England for their location, I'd say he has to figure on freezing, snow, ice and occasionally heavy rains.

If it was my driveway it would get the heavy textile fabric, highway fabric not landscape fabric.
Six inches of gravel on top of fabric will make a good and secure driveway.The driveway will need ditching on areas that have a slope coming down to it.

Very much of a crown and with snow and ice you will have trouble staying in the driveway.

For filling in the low section I can definitely see were some type of retaining wall will help immensely.
One method I have seen used with very good long term results are large truck tires laid flat with one side wall removed (the upper one) then filled with dirt or gravel.
A dip of 7 feet in elevation change will need a good sized culvert to not trap water and turn any base into mush.

Also especially when plowing snow adequate width is often not allowed for especially if drifting is a possibility.

Also any curves and corners need to be large enough for trailers to get in, as far as the turn in area from the road 30 feet minimum works a lot better for any large vehicles or trailers.

 

[Rockbadchild]

We don't have it down here, but my understanding of bank run material, it's glacier deposits of rocks, sand, ect, and is straight dug, no crusher, no blasting.

your right but more sand banks or dunes from water streams not glacier… it’s sand and river rocks, glacier deposit will be heavy in silt and clay this was naturally wash so no to very little clay and silt. In my region the rock caps are rare we have a thick over burden so roads are built with that stuff. The bigger rocks add compactions.

 

[LouNY]

In a heavy layer the bank run will work, for top dressing and finishing I use screened 1 1/2"-, anything larger makes it difficult to finish.
Eight inches of that on top of hiway fabric will make a nice driveway.

I'm not a fan of rebar holding timbers or planks as eventually the rebar will end up in a tire.

That "dip" looks like it is a very wet spot, looks like mud n slit in the bottom. Without some ditching and contouring for drainage and a culvert it will keep your driveway mushy in that spot as the water will wick up through the soil and fill.

If you want a 12 ft driving surface I wouldn't be surprised to see the base being well over 24 ft wide.

 

[future_vision]

In a heavy layer the bank run will work, for top dressing and finishing I use screened 1 1/2"-, anything larger makes it difficult to finish.
Eight inches of that on top of hiway fabric will make a nice driveway.

I'm not a fan of rebar holding timbers or planks as eventually the rebar will end up in a tire.

That "dip" looks like it is a very wet spot, looks like mud n slit in the bottom. Without some ditching and contouring for drainage and a culvert it will keep your driveway mushy in that spot as the water will wick up through the soil and fill.

If you want a 12 ft driving surface I wouldn't be surprised to see the base being well over 24 ft wide.

I would agree the dip looks wet . It's a thin layer from runoff. Just under that bit of mud is non-organic material. I stripped it down that far which is why there is even that large of a dip. Here are some other images I just took today. Now that I looked at it again I am thinking it might need a culvert at a pitch from left to right since the land to the right continues downward towards the back of the property where we are diverting water anyways. Either that or I need to build up both left and right sides to make the water drain away from the driveway.

 

[LouNY]

A culvert and ditching would assure good drainage. A wide ditch or swale would be easy to maintain.
I would put in at least a 16" culvert, not because of flow but because it will silt up and fill up some over the years and the larger culvert will go longer between cleanings and is actually usually a bit easier to clean out.
Also the double wall culverts with the smooth insides are much better then the single wall corrugated things.