grading driveway

[BeardyWan]

I have been lurking on this forum for a while and a happy BX1880 owner. I am now considering a larger piece of property and coincidentally many of the posts I have read reference grading a gravel/dirt road. I would be grateful if anyone could advise how much gravel needs to be added to virgin clay to make a dirt road.
cheers
Beardy

 

[sandman2234]

Welcome!
My first thought would be "a lot"!!
David from jax
I would think you would spread some over it, roll it in and hope for the best. If not, add more!
David

 

[Thomas]

Talk with near by neighbors on how much and what type of gravel they use.

 

[DJ54]

6" of 304 Limestone, #4 limestone down to dust would make good starting base. The term gravel here means river gravel and is round. You don't want that it just rolls around and does not compact. Crushed gravel is OK, it will lock together/compact.

Before doing any of that, you'll want to make sure the topsoil is removed, or, put Geotec cloth down first, or your stone will seem to disappear after a while, sinking into the topsoil, even though it may be mostly clay.

 

[LouNY]

Depending upon your location and the type of clay it will vary considerably. In my area with freeze thaw cycles it would never be done. The gravel will migrate downward and the clay will work it's way up through the clay to the surface of the roadway.
What can be a well drained roadway 90% of the year will turn into a soft bottomless swamp in the spring thaw.
A good heavy duty highway fabric and 4" of compacted gravel with hold up for a long time with minor periodic redressings.

 

[dodge man]

6” is a good start. Removing any grass and vegetation before hand is important. Also some grading so water doesn’t run across it or down it is important.

 

[JJT]

I removed ~6" of heavy clay topsoil/sod, put down ~6" of fist sized cobbles, (bank run) and top dressed with another 3-4" of crusher run 30 years ago. It's held up well. If I were to do it again today I'd add geotech fabric as the first layer.

 

[old and tired]

I removed ~6" of heavy clay topsoil/sod, put down ~6" of fist sized cobbles, (bank run) and top dressed with another 3-4" of crusher run 30 years ago. It's held up well. If I were to do it again today I'd add geotech fabric as the first layer.

^^^ This, Geotech would be great. First layer would be 4" to 6" crushed rocks. Then minimum, 4" to 6" thick of crusher run (5/8 minus?) on top so that you can grade and smooth once in a while.

 

[BeardyWan]

Much appreciated!

 

[Egon]

On a well shaped compacted & drained clay roadway tow or three inches of crusher run 3/4 inch gravel should work. Might have to add a little bit every few years. It will also depend on the tire loading it will see.

Or, you can spend lots of dollars for materials and build a road But chances are you will not have the proper equipment to do it properly.

 

[Rockbadchild]

4'' minimum of crush gravel 3/4'' minus... to cut cost you could do a layer of sand underneath the gravel.

 

[Cycledude]

Pretty difficult question to answer without more information.
I would recommend contacting a couple different contractors in the area that do that type of work and see what they recommend. In the long run a good driveway is usually very well worth the investment.

 

[repete]

#1) Think drainage. Keep the water away. I live in Washington state, on the "wet" side, so we all know to give the inevitable water somewhere to go.

My roadbed is probably 12-18" above shoulder drains. Both sides are mowable so easily maintained. Ditches did not work as they filled with weeds.

 

[BeardyWan]

drains? as in a french drain type arrangement with a trench filled with gravel?

 

[Rockbadchild]

I don't know if that what he means but that's not necessary just make sure your road is above the ground adjacent to it but making ditch on the side help a lot it makes a reservoir so the water don't flood the road if the ditch's as somewhere to go it's even better and slop the road from the centerline down to the ditch.

 

[BeardyWan]

 

[nyone]

I built a driveway through a swamp that was basicly a clay bowl. Road fabric and drainage ditches on each side is your friend. Dont bother scraping off the topsoil, road fabric dosnt care what its on.

How long a driveway holds up depends alot on what and how often its driven on.

My driveway through the swamp is a corduroy road with enough clay from the ditches to cover the logs, then road fabric and 4-6in of crusher run. I have had a 20,000lb gravel truck on it with no issues. I did this all with a 3,500lb micro EX and its front blade.

 

[Rockbadchild]

I built a driveway through a swamp that was basicly a clay bowl. Road fabric and drainage ditches on each side is your friend. Dont bother scraping off the topsoil, road fabric dosnt care what its on.

How long a driveway holds up depends alot on what and how often its driven on.

My driveway through the swamp is a corduroy road with enough clay from the ditches to cover the logs, then road fabric and 4-6in of crusher run. I have had a 20,000lb gravel truck on it with no issues. I did this all with a 3,500lb micro EX and its front blade.

well not true, to one extreme to the next but organic matter under a road always moves one day or the other fabric or not … now in your case you do what you have to do to make a pad to retain material and elevate the road but you will always have to touch up that section. Don’t give me wrong i would’ve done the same thing to go through a swamp.

how well a driveway holds depend on the material it is built with.

 

[Joel/ak]

We had to build up a road this spring. About 3/4 mile long. Had roughly 55-60 ton of crushed asphalt brought in. The dump driver recommended a load of 3/4 dropped in one extremely wet area where even a 4x4 truck was sketchy to get through it.

Good ditches now so water has a place to go and after all summer and into this wet fall, my brother still drives his EV car in.

If I didn't get the ditches open, I wouldn't have used the crushed asphalt but just built the road up now that the water can flow. We drag it occasionally with a box blade towed behind the sxs

 

[nyone]

well not true, to one extreme to the next but organic matter under a road always moves one day or the other fabric or not … now in your case you do what you have to do to make a pad to retain material and elevate the road but you will always have to touch up that section. Don’t give me wrong i would’ve done the same thing to go through a swamp.

how well a driveway holds depend on the material it is built with.

Depends what's driven on it. A road is going to hold up alot better to daily traffic of a honda civic vs daily traffic of a cement truck.

Also if you want a driveway that you never have to touch up..gravel isnt the driveway for you.