Got some old tires and need a road?

[kneedeep]

I used old tires laying on a cut bank to stabilize it. I used cheapest 3 inch hex screws I could find to screw the tires together. As the bank erodes, the tires catch the dirt long enough for vegetation to get a foothold. Makes steep cut banks stable and will eventually grow over.
Been there about 15 years now.

 

[dave1949]

People build 'earth ship' homes by packing old tires with dirt stacked up in walls.

 

[tcreeley]

I've used a few old truck tires to stabilize a bank or two! I filled them with horse manure, and when covered and grown over after a few years I added some gravel and more manure and let that grow over. -Behind the barn on a drainage side, gets no traffic from anything.

 

[chad22]

I've got plenty of old tires. But I don't need a road. Neat idea though.

Chad

 

[forgeblast]

Sounds like a future superfund site.

 

[sdef]

I am not a road engineer and think that having a base that flexible would be an accident waiting to happen in so many ways. I MIGHT consider something like that if I had a large piece of property that had a section crossing a swampy area that did not see daily road-type traffic and I needed to get my equipment across from time-to-time. Or I might use them to stabilize other soil matters as posted by others. Other than that?

 

[Pete Judd]

Not far south from where I live the state used chipped up tires for a road project, the road self ignited and burnt for a couple of weeks before they got it out and pulled it all up, and repaved.

 

[RDrancher]

I have a lot of doubt that the tires are actually accomplishing anything and think that they will cause more problems then if they just built up the base without them. There are so many of these government funded feel good, save the planet projects out there that cost more to do with poorer results. The worse one I know of right now is a power plant that is being built a couple hours from here that is powered off of wood. The cost to build it is more then a conventional power plant and it costs more to run it then it generates in electricity created. I personally know one of the engineers in charge of water quality and was told it's all a big joke that they expect to last for only so long until it's closed down because of how inefficient it is. Federal Government funding in the billions to create it and no reliable source of wood to keep it running.

Eddie

Agreed. It looks like another "feel good" project to me too.

If someone needs a 100% recycled product to feel good about doing their part in saving the earth, geogrids made from recycled polyethylene are a better alternative. LEED credit points, using StabiliGrid™ permeable grass paving and gravel paving for ecogrid roadways and driveways I could see using anchored geogrid in conjunction with a large aggregate/ heavy fines gravel for stabilizing a steep driveway.

 

[jix]

Ten Years or more ago, someone got a hot idea to build a marina in a man made inlet off the St John River near Fredericton NB..a big dig ensued..and then the excavation was lined with tires fiiled with crushed stone. Two probems ensued..the tire walls were not set back far enough and the good old frost shoved them in. Then the gummint decided the whole dig violated the watershed protection act and screwed up the fish. The gummint ordered the marina owner to remove the whole shebang and fill in the dig. The yuppies had no place to park their yachts over the summer..so they all went to a floating dock marina about 50 miles downstream..owned by a former federal government member of parliament, who had the influence to get a lease on the "waterlot" in the river where the floating marina is located. There is over 600 feet of floating wharfage there which must be pulled every winter. Yachties pay about 12 bucks a linear foot for wharfage space...per day.

Dear dee dear..I wonder how the ex-politico is getting by on the $72,000 per day he gets for rent? And I wonder if it made a darn bit of difference to the fish ecology in the heavily polluted St John River?

Burying rubber tires for a roadbed is really not effective because of frost heave of the water in the voids.

Crushed stone over permeable filter fabric geotextile does work, even for heavy vehicles on swampy ground.

I built one in 1990 that supports 25 heavy trucks driving in and out over it every day..winter or summer.

It is a quick and cost effective alternative to bedrock foundation roadbeds..but it requires a minimum of 12 " of crush over top to prevent destruction of the membrane. mixing in some sand with the crush gives a reasonable surface that will drain well, too. It is not, by comparision, a costly solution. My project covered half an acre, and cost 12,000 dollars in 1990, all costs in...That's about fifty cents a square foot ready to go.

And it was built over two foot thick black swamp ooze, that had been drained, but not excavated.

Still going strong after twenty four years...and it does not break axles on loaded garbage trucks, buses or heavy equipment, best of all, it does not trap surface water.

 

[jix]

People build 'earth ship' homes by packing old tires with dirt stacked up in walls.

Uh Huh, they do...and then freeze their asses off in cold weather.
Apparently, they build houses out of square hay bales plastered over inside and out after building, with sprayed concrete. Properly framed, it makes some sense, but the building codes..my goodness, the red tape!