another "Intresting" gravel driveway

[Old Guy in Tenn]

We have almost a mile and a half of gravel drive to maintain on our east Tennessee hills. The first 3/4 mile drops about 500'. The soil contains a lot of gravel and has held up pretty well after the initial rough grading. I expect that stretch to be straightforward to maintain with our new tractor and the tips I have learned here, given a bunch of practice.

The remaining 1/2 mile+ has almost no gravel in the soil. It climbs over 400' in that half mile as it winds up around the side of a step hill. Much of it is manageable, with a good rock base added and ditched on both sides. There are a couple hundred yards that have me stumped. This stretch of road is notched out of a thick rock ledge. It was originally blasted out of the ledge to notch out the roadway, and part of it was more recently widened a couple of feet by hammering the soft stone ledge down into rubble. The big problem is that ledge. The uphill side of the road weeps water constantly through the rock along this entire stretch. There is no ditch on the high side, and the base is mostly that rock ledge so not easily ditched. We added stone to this entire stretch, with fist-size stone on the bottom, 3/4 in the middle and crusher run on top. The side closest to the hill stays damp, so has subsided significantly with use even with the stone. There are several knobs of ledge that now protrude above the road, making for a very rough drive.

We tried raising the inside of the road so that it would spill water over the low side. The weeping keeps it so wet that the raised portion quickly became the low portion. I think we need a ditch along the high side, to capture the weep and send it safely downhill, but don't know how to create it. It must be carved out of the ledge, or formed with a curb, as I expect I cannot scrape through the ledge.

As a last resort I could hire someone with an excavator and a hydraulic hammer to pound out a ditch, but it will be expensive. I am hoping to find a DIY method to apply.

Any suggestions?

 

[repete]

Pictures would be very helpful here.

 

[oosik]

Yes - pictures please. I have a very similar situation. A big, open range field( 90 acres +/-) drains down onto about 150 feet of my driveway. I have hand cut a ditch - down to bedrock. The ditch is about a foot deep. As long as the ditch remains open - all is well. However - spring rains & snow melt bring dirt, silt & volcanic ash and will plug this ditch. I've cleaned, cursed & piddled with this situation for the 38+ years I've been here.

I keep saying I will have my neighbor come over with his big air-driven jack hammer and make a deeper ditch. I keep saying that - so far I've not asked him.

When we get winter snow and it melts - this 150 foot section can become an ice rink. Of course, it's on a considerable slope also. Where the driveway come out of a valley. I put wood chips on this section when it gets icy.

My driveway is a mile long - gravel based - a lot of it is right on top of basaltic lava bedrock.

 

[jmc]

If you have recently done some excavation on the high side, consider this-

When they put in my driveway that is similar to what you describe, they got enough water oozing out of the hill that they called the water company, assuming a nearby waterline was leaking. Turned out, they had exposed a buildup of water in the hill above and it quit draining in a week or so.

 

[ovrszd]

I maintain two roads that have a similar situation. It's a constant battle. I created a drainage ditch to keep the water off my roadbed. But it was tedious to do with a road grader. And it requires maintenance often. Traffic erodes the roadbed as well as natural rainfall so the ditch has to be rebuilt often.

If you choose to knock out the rock to a level low enough to allow fill material you will still have to address the water and not let it seep between the remaining rock ledge and your fill material.

 

[LouNY]

From the sounds of it, it's a shale type ledge.
If so either an excavator with a hammer or single shank ripper, possibly a crawler with a ripper.
If you can get a ditch opened up deeper then the low side of the driveway,
lay a perforated drain tile in it possibly with a couple of runs across the driveway and away.
Surround the drain like with pea stone, then a strip of fabric on top then gravel or road mix.
That should intercept the water seepage and keep the driveway firm.

 

[Old Guy in Tenn]

Thank you for the feedback. I apologize for the lack of pictures. The driveway is in Tennessee, and I am in Michigan for the next couple of months, so new pictures will not be possible until then. I will look in the archives for any old pics that might show the issue.

No excavations in the last several years. The hillside has always seeped, but it is only recently apparent that I must get a better handle on the water.

 

[ovrszd]

Any time, regardless of situation, that water stays on a roadbed, it's not good....

 

[Old Guy in Tenn]

Found some older pictures. Not as good as i would like, but all I have at this time.


This is the bottom of the bad stretch, all covered in the dirt from road reclamation after logging. The ledge starts in earnest just above the puddle, and continues uphill for a couple of hundred yards. The water in the puddle seeped out of the hill up and to the right.


The same area after our cleanup. The road looks pretty good as there has not been time for it to get wet from the weep.

Looking at these pictures it seems that I need to cut about 5 more feet into the hillside, removing dirt and trees. Then the ledge must be cleaned in preparation for pounding the ledge. Much of this stretch has the ledge already climbing 4 or 5 feet above the road, so there will be a lot to pound. The ledge must then be pounded down, including pounding a ditch against the hillside. The crushed stone will be spread on the road..

 

[JD 4520]

Old Guy, you've got yourself a project. Hopefully you aren't an Old Guy rather just go by that name. Hope there is a diamond at the top of that hill! Private drives like this can become expensive when Acts of God occur so make sure its in your budget, don't skimp on spending and budgeting a reasonable amount over time or you will be sorry later on.

My daughter lives in Nashville and we are planning to go see her soon. It seems like a nice place to live.