DRIVEWAY CONSTRUCTION

[JimMorrissey]

50' radius should work fine for fire trucks. That's what is spec in my town anyway. 50' is a pretty wide sweep. I wasnt' too happy about it, but you gotta do what you gotta do. 30' radius will work well for the entry to the main road.

 

[Toiyabe]

I'd avoid using a crushed stone (i.e. one-sized material) surface if you have any slope at all. It will shift around a good bit and beat up passenger vehicles. It works fine for heavy trucks, though. A dense-graded road base type gravel will work better for cars and light trucks.

For my driveway I started out with 4" of 1 1/2" stone, and then worked some decomposed granite into it to lock it up. This is sort of like the old "macadam" construction process. I'm not yet sure if this was a good idea, though. As skipmarcy said, it's a process ...

Plastic pipe and corrugated steel pipe are both good. Plastic lasts longer. Steel pipe is stronger. Concrete pipe has both quailites but is heavy and difficult to work with. You can also get aluminum or aluminum-coated steel pipe if you look hard enough. You can get plastic pipe with a smooth interior wall (for better flow), but you'll probably find its cheaper to get the next size larger regular plastic pipe.

With all pipes, but especially plastic, proper installation is important. Think of the pipe as only holding the shape, and the compacted fill around it as carrying the load. Take special care to compact the soil underneath the pipe and make sure it conforms to the shape of the pipe. Or you can use "flowable fill" (I've used very wet fence-post mix concrete) to create a bed for the pipe. The general rule of thumb for cover is 1/2" per 1" of pipe diameter or 12", whichever is greater. You should be able to get away with less on a driveway, though.

If you live in a frost-prone area, re-fill the trench with the same material you took out of it. Otherwise, you can get differential frost heave.

Choosing a culvert diameter is not simple. If there is another culvert on the same stream, you can use that as a guide. Ask around if anybody remembers that culvert flooding, if not use the same size if it's downstream and the next size larger if it's upstream and not too far away.

 

[VIEWQUEST]

Thanks everyone for all the input! It's a great site with great members. I appreciate all the suggestions. One thing I've come to appreciate from reading about excavating a driveway is to do it in the sunshine. I live in Dutchess County NY and it hasn't rained all summer until this past Saturday in which it rained ~8 inches, and more is on the way /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif. We really needed the rain so I can't get too upset. I plan on excavating with my TC 55 since this was the main reason I used to convince my wife that I "needed" a tractor. She really wasn't convinced but I needn't go there.
Anyhow, I plan to line up the materials before hand and to do this project alittle at a time to avoid creating a mud hole. Where can one purchase culvert pipe? I have a quarry nearby for the aggregate.
Just as an aside I read an interesting article on how not to build a driveway /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif check it out- Alberg Yarns: How NOT to build a driveway
My project is an extension driveway off of a preexisting main one that was done professionally prior to my purchase of the property. I'll try to get some pictures out on this site (Is there an easy way to do this?) Thanks again.

 

[KAB]

This can depend on where you live. I contacted a number of stone supply places around here before I decided what to use. They recommended #2 stone - fist sized chunks as a base. For sandstone put a top (ie 1.5" crusher run Limestone - 1.5" to fines) on it ASAP. For solid materials - Limestone, Crushed Concrete, etc.. it can be left for some time. Prices varied widely for each material. I ended up using 6" of sandstone for a base with about 2" of 1.5 crusher rune limestone on top of that. The 1.5 crusher run has worked in between the sandstone to the point where you can easily see chunks of sandstone on top. This will be finished with about another 2" of 1.5" chusher run and 2" of 3/4" crusher run.

I am using this since the complete lenght of driveway will be in at least 1yr prior to the start of construction, and will not get the finish coat untill construction is completed.

The county where my property is located in Ohio requires a permit for a driveway to be connected to the roadway and they specify the size of the culvert /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif. I had to install an 18" x 30' culvert. Plastic (smooth lined) or steel was acceptable. they recommend about a foot of gravel on top of the culvert. Thankfully the township "installed" the pipe. They increased the depth of the ditch by about a foot for about 300' (past my property line) to make sure the entrance to the road met county requirements and have enough cover over the culvert to make sure it does not collapse and would support the weight of a firetruck.

While in the process of installing the 1st 100' of drive one of the contractors that I have been talking to stopped by and looked at what I was doing and indicated that for my soil type (similar to yours) I was probably going a little over board. Better to much stone as compared to not enough.

Good luck and have fun.

Kurt

 

[KAB]

Here is a website that gives stone sizes and how to calculate how much you will need. Please note though it is for limestone.

Kurt

 

[rswyan]

I'm doing something similar to what Kurt is doing - I'm using No. 2 stone, although some of what is in there is alot larger than fist-sized (fortunately these are fairly flat.) This was put down on woven geotextile that I had laid down after I had removed the topsoil to a depth of 6" - 14". What was under the topsoil varies by where you are on my property - in some places it was a fairly heavy clay, in other areas it was more sandy with some clay content.

The base layer of gravel was anywhere from 4" to 7" or 8" thick (pretty hard to spread No. 2's very evenly - it's a very bumpy ride /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif) I topped that with 3/4 crusher run to fill in the voids and stabilize the base .... it was tailgate spread "thin" (about 4") and I spread it further by backdragging with my loader bucket. We had a little rain since which has helped wash the fines in the crusher run down into the base and the result is that it feels very, very solid when I'm walking on it or driving on it with the tractor .... although with all the fines on top I can dig in into with the tractor if I encounter any resistance (like trying to push gravel around with the bucket.) There's probably still at least an 1" or so of crusher run on top of the base ... very few larger stones are showing through.

I'll probably do something similar as far as topcoating it ... although I may not get to it until sometime next year. I like the idea of using limestone for the topcoat because I've heard that once it gets wet after being compacted it wil get pretty hard.

One of the driver's who delivered some of the stone initially freaked out when he saw how much base I was using ..... the original load was tailgate spread in the center of the drive so they had to drop the subsequent loads in the center as well .... it was probably 12' to 14" thick initially .... and I had to spread it out from there ...

This is a replacement of our old driveway with an extension leading to an area where we will be putting up a polebarn .... in about a week when they arrive to drop the building we'll have to bring a semi down it.

I don't have any culvert where my driveway connects to the road ..... it's actually on fairly high ground and shouldn't need it .... not to mention that there aren't any ditches for the culvert to drain into.

The driveway is at the end of a local road, which my parents actually built when they built the house. The road was actually just a proposed road and my parents deeded over an extension to it, crossing their property (bad, bad idea) to the county or the township, supposedly in exchange for them cutting in the road and dedicating it ... which they never did .... so my parents had to cut it in and pave it. I decided to relocate my driveway (and part of their road /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif) so I ripped up the asphalt starting from where the end of the original proposed road was and made it extend in a straight line across the property they now own (it's a village now) and then ran the new driveway off that.

I will be installing an 18" x 20' culvert down near the house under the driveway to drain the front yard .... it will probably be 18" to 24" below the driveway surface.

You can check out some images of the project here:

New Driveway and Polebarn