Gravel drive help.

[wedge40]

I have 500-600ft gravel drive that is curvy and uphill from the road. Mind you I haven't put gravel down in about 6 years, but I have areas that get real soft in the spring time. Three or four inch ruts. I'm looking to prevent this. The area that's the worst in on a pretty good slope so I'm not sure what to do. I'm looking for suggestions. I have a backhoe now and was thinking of getting some drain tile and put that down the middle of the drive in that area to help drain the water away.

Wedge

 

[RonMar]

It is on a slope and you have standing water? Not having seen any pics of the situation, I would say that all that should be required is to re-grade it so any water that might collect can drain away down hill, either over the bank, or into a ditch on the uphill side of the road. The ditch of course needs to be clear and sloped such that the water can flow away from the soft area. Once this is done, the area should dry out and firm up. The addition of fresh gravel will help with this after it is graded. I like 3/4" crusher run with fines, for driveways as it packs real well and grooms easilly with a chain harrow drug behind truck or tractor. You can do this work with a box blade, but I prefer a 2 blade grader attachment(like a box scraper, but with a cutting blade up near the front).

I don't know where you are at, but if you have a lot of foliage that builds up on the roadway, this can lead to issues with drainage. As these leaves breakdown they form a slimy layer that helps trap water and slows drying. They also clog gravel and impede the flow of water to the ditches. Dragging the driveway after the leaves have decomposed breakes up and re-distributes the gravel and helps prevent this. Some issues that occasionally happen with hillsides are water seeps where the roadway intersects a localized water table and water oozes out of the ground. Having driven a lot of mountain roads, even this situation is usually handeled with proper grade and ditch orientation.

 

[Ken45101]

What kind of gravel do you have (round, or crushed limestone?), what size? What's underneath the gravel (what sort of soil)?

I had our driveway widened and the contractor brought in #4 limestone (that's up to 1-1/2"). Well, it just sunk into the mud. I had him bring in #2 (up to 2-1/2") and that was big enough to be stable. The soil here is yellow clay.

Ken

 

[MarkV]

I don't think you want to put drain tile down the middle of the road, you would be encouraging the road base to stay saturated and soft. Ditches and a crown on the road are the way to go. If your base has gotten soft enough to rut that deep some heavier base stone to build it up may be in order. We use #3 and top it with crusher run here or on a steep grade just a heavy layer of crusher run.

MarkV

 

[Ken45101]

Beware of quoting gravel size (e.g. #2, #3, #4) on a national/international forum without describing it. The numbers vary from area to area. I live in Ohio right next to Kentucky and get crushed limestone from both. Totally different grading systems, if I use Ohio terms in Kentucky they have no idea what I'm talking about.

Ken

 

[wedge40]

Last time I got gravel I got what is called 52's around here. I do live in the lime belt, so gravel is easy to get. 52's are about 1/2" with lots of limestone dust included. When it's dry is like cement, but in the spring it softens up pretty good on my driveway. I was told the last time that I should get what they call #3's next time.. I think they are 2-3 inches. I might have some of that brought in for the problem areas and then just lay another bed of gravel across the whole driveway.

Wedge

 

[SuperDuty335]

Surge stone or railroad ballast will hold up to whatever you drive over it. Every state should have very close specs. for railroad ballast.

 

[rambler]

Hard to help without seeing it, but wouldn't want tile down the middle.

You want a crown on top to drain water right to the side right away.

You want a ditch on both sides to carry the water along either side of the road.

Any low spots where water ools, you need the road built up higher, & you need tile crossing the road (a culver really) to get the water to carry away to the low side of the road.

Tile down the middle would either crush or be too deep to really do what you need done.

You didn't put your location, but some areas, like where I am, wet springs & deep frost & lots of snow melt on clay soils makes for a difficult week or 2 where the road just shouldn't be used, unless you can spend some serious bucks on building a real fancy roadbed with clay layers, compacting, and high shoulders & lots of gravel on top. Even township gravel roads here suffer from frost boils & rutting in a bad srping, and they are built to those standards....

--->Paul

 

[wedge40]

Hard to help without seeing it, but wouldn't want tile down the middle.

You want a crown on top to drain water right to the side right away.

You want a ditch on both sides to carry the water along either side of the road.

Any low spots where water ools, you need the road built up higher, & you need tile crossing the road (a culver really) to get the water to carry away to the low side of the road.

Tile down the middle would either crush or be too deep to really do what you need done.

You didn't put your location, but some areas, like where I am, wet springs & deep frost & lots of snow melt on clay soils makes for a difficult week or 2 where the road just shouldn't be used, unless you can spend some serious bucks on building a real fancy roadbed with clay layers, compacting, and high shoulders & lots of gravel on top. Even township gravel roads here suffer from frost boils & rutting in a bad srping, and they are built to those standards....

--->Paul

I will try and post a few photos sometime this week. I think I see the problem, but I wont say anything and wait to see what you guys say.
I live on top of a clay hill with deep ravings all around. I'm about 40 miles south of Indianapolis Indiana.

Wedge

 

[Ken45101]

I live on top of a clay hill with deep ravings all around. I'm about 40 miles south of Indianapolis Indiana.

Wedge,

sounds like what we have here in southern Ohio. Our driveway goes from the top of the hill to the bottom. A big rock base (2-3" limestone) 4" thick with smaller stuff on top has held up well, with drainage along the side.

My problem now is that the top foot of the hillside (the top soil), wants to slide off of the clay base during wet weather. But looking at the hillside, I suspect that's been going on for thousands of years and will continue long after I'm gone.

The big rock base with smaller stuff on top also worked well when we lived in the flatlands 30 miles north of here. Again, with drainage to the sides.

Ken