Fired Road contractor. Build it myself?

WoodChuckDad · Mar 14, 2017

Eddiewaker, this is #3 gravel. Average size is 2-4 inches. This is for the base. I'm going to drive it into the road bed for a little while with truck and tractor traffic and then I am going to bring a mix of aggregate and fines to creat a weatherproof surface. We have a mix of souls naturally. Red sandy clay and large sandstone rockbeds with a large amount of quartz. The hardpan clay gets terrible to deal with when it is wet if you don't have some kind of grave bed. I think I will hire someone to roll out the crusher run when I have it laid out.

WoodChuckDad · Mar 14, 2017

We have had a long dry spell recently. Last night we got a snow rain mix that lasted all night. I won't be up there for a couple weeks but hopefully it isn't so dry that we can't get it packed in. For the areas that have had stone down for a month, the rod is very nice and drivable. It will need a bit of massaging as the stone gets worked in but I think it will be fine.

ovrszd · Mar 14, 2017

Where it drains it will be great. Where it doesn't not so much.

You're getting there!!!!

WoodChuckDad · May 8, 2017

We have had some huge rain the last two weeks. Last week I got to see the good and bad aspects of my road. The ditching worked until it got to the bottom of the hill. Then it flowed across the road and washed some of the rock away....but more than that, the silt it washed out covered the rock and made it a hellish mess. So, today I put in ***. 24 foot culvert. I am going to get a union joint and another piece about 8-12 feel long and attach it. I don't want to try to get away with it the way it is, but for right now I think I'm good. IT was a ton of work and it wore me out.

Buppies · May 8, 2017

Nice job make sure you compact it well sides and top. Suggest rip rap at ends to prevent washing in these monsoons we are having

WoodChuckDad · May 8, 2017

Thanks Buppies. I used an 8 inch tamper and a shovel to compact and knife it in. Drove over it several times with the excavator and truck and jeep and there was no deformation . I think I 'm good there. I will probably use cement bags to shore up the entry way, and possibly some for the exit, after I get the union and extension. put on it.

And yes, the rains have been intense. As I think back, we have had this kind of rain in Virginia as far back as when I was in college, 30+ years ago.....not every year, but at least half of them.

Thanks to those who told me to build some kind of ditch early on in this thread. if I hadn't, I'd be going back to do it now...or I'd be doing road much more road maintenance than I had planned.

EddieWalker · May 8, 2017

Good job on the culvert. Water will always win, but with deep enough ditches and big enough culverts, we can hold her off for a little while!!!

sixdogs · May 8, 2017

Very nice looking job you should be proud of.

ovrszd · May 8, 2017

EddieWalker said:
Good job on the culvert. Water will always win, but with deep enough ditches and big enough culverts, we can hold her off for a little while!!!

Very true. Often overlooked.

WoodChuckDad · May 17, 2017

I put in the 24 foot culvert and it wasn't quite long enough to satisfy me. because it had to go in at angle and decline it restricted the road to about 12 usable feet for driving. Sure, we could have made do with that. But I have two 18 year olds, a 14 year old, a wild willed wife, a 20 year old and a 27 year old....one grand child and only God knows how many more grandkids in the pipeline. So I had a union and 10 foot extension delivered. I probably could have added a 15 footer instead and it would have been fine. This time around, I had my boys there with me, so I got to hand them some shovels and tampers and shout out orders from the Excavator.