Gravel driveway repair tips sought

[Egon]

Rip, scarify the whole road well. Use a blade to pull up the sides and shape ditches. Then shape, crown and level the roadway while using vibratory drum compactor. Finish by spreading the new gravel, shaping and compacting again.

Don’t worry about Pulling the dirt from the Ditches to the road surface. When you finish the top it will work in well.

 

[BrokenTrack]

Rip, scarify the whole road well. Use a blade to pull up the sides and shape ditches. Then shape, crown and level the roadway while using vibratory drum compactor. Finish by spreading the new gravel, shaping and compacting again.

Don稚 worry about Pulling the dirt from the Ditches to the road surface. When you finish the top it will work in well.

Egon has it right I think, but I would not wait five years. I maintain the crown in my road and remove traffic ruts by grading my roads every year. It is just as spring task that must be done.

I use a tow behind grader with the blade set at an angle to roll the gravel that has been cast to the ditch from snowplowing, back into the roadbed, and thus fill the ruts.

I do not think you did anything wrong, it is just one of those things: big load once, or light loads more often. I think instead of rebuilding the road after many years of use, I would just lightly grade it every year. You could use your box-blade for that, but a tow behind grader gives a better surface.

 

[Bullwinkle123]

Egon has it right I think, but I would not wait five years. I maintain the crown in my road and remove traffic ruts by grading my roads every year. It is just as spring task that must be done.

I use a tow behind grader with the blade set at an angle to roll the gravel that has been cast to the ditch from snowplowing, back into the roadbed, and thus fill the ruts.

I do not think you did anything wrong, it is just one of those things: big load once, or light loads more often. I think instead of rebuilding the road after many years of use, I would just lightly grade it every year. You could use your box-blade for that, but a tow behind grader gives a better surface.

View attachment 658251

Lol, I didn't have a tractor until two months ago! The driveway costs are part of what drove me to getting a tractor, as paying others to maintain the driveway cost a small fortune. Now it's under my control, for better or worse. For now all I've got (for the driveway) is bucket, blade, and if I'm desperate, my grapple for a bit of root-rake-as-scarifier action. The blade is a heavy duty adjustable model, so I should be able to retrieve some stuff from the sides with it.

 

[Egon]

Lol, I didn't have a tractor until two months ago! The driveway costs are part of what drove me to getting a tractor, as paying others to maintain the driveway cost a small fortune. Now it's under my control, for better or worse. For now all I've got (for the driveway) is bucket, blade, and if I'm desperate, my grapple for a bit of root-rake-as-scarifier action. The blade is a heavy duty adjustable model, so I should be able to retrieve some stuff from the sides with it.

You will do fine with your equipment. Make a few passes rolling as much material to one side as you can. Then roll it back to the other side and make a passes on that side. To lay it roll small windrows back and forth making light lifts till all the material is relayed out.

Rolling the windrows mixes the material and helps getting the road surface smooth. The blade carries material forward and will leave material in low spots.

 

[EddieWalker]

From your picture, there isn't any ruts or week areas. It's just well worn. Your drainage is could always be improved, but it's not your main issue. For your application, I would just apply more rock.

How hard is your road base rock? I have two quaries in my area. One has really good, hard limestone that costs more then the other place, that sells a softer limestone. How long the rock lasts is directly related to how hard the stone is. Lately a much better option has become available. Crushed concrete. It's a lot harder then any limestone in my area, it compacts faster and easier then limestone, and it does't appear to wear out or need to be as thick as road base limestone.

I would not tear up that road. Getting it compacted again could take years.

Pulling the old rock back onto the road will include organic materials. This will stop you from having a solid road.

Pay attention to how the pros do it in your area. How does the County, or State highway, or City maintain and improve their gravel roads?

 

[Bullwinkle123]

From your picture, there isn't any ruts or week areas. It's just well worn. Your drainage is could always be improved, but it's not your main issue. For your application, I would just apply more rock.

How hard is your road base rock? I have two quaries in my area. One has really good, hard limestone that costs more then the other place, that sells a softer limestone. How long the rock lasts is directly related to how hard the stone is. Lately a much better option has become available. Crushed concrete. It's a lot harder then any limestone in my area, it compacts faster and easier then limestone, and it does't appear to wear out or need to be as thick as road base limestone.

I would not tear up that road. Getting it compacted again could take years.

Pulling the old rock back onto the road will include organic materials. This will stop you from having a solid road.

Pay attention to how the pros do it in your area. How does the County, or State highway, or City maintain and improve their gravel roads?

Re: ruts and stuff, the depth varies, but yes, the driveway has been fundamentally well done, and the gravel used in the past is what I'm ordering now, this "extra dense" stuff with more fines and whatever. The difference in height between peaks and valleys though is a few inches in places, so I was thinking to minimize new gravel ordered by fixing it (by leveling/retrieving existing peak and surrounding material) before covering it with new gravel. Most people have been suggesting that reuse of old peak material in the valleys would be fine, your contrary view reinforces my original concern about organic matter reducing the hardness quotient.

As for my town road, oy, I'll have to post a picture sometime, you'll laugh. Even in its current state my driveway looks like new pavement compared to the class 4 town road that it hooks up to. (Class 4 is the worst road type in Vermont). I get one "grading" by the town annually, which basically makes it somewhat flat for a few days, if you ignore all the 8 inch rocks it stirs up but mostly leaves to the side of where the tires go. It's not the highway dept's fault (they're good), it's a matter of cost priority in the state. For the taxes I pay I'm being robbed. On the bright side, it helps keep unwanted visitors away.

Btw, the photo is just of a small section of the driveway that was in the best condition. It's 2.5-3/10 miles long, other parts are not so nice, but they don't have the benefit of prior work to worry about, for those parts it'll be the first time it's had gravel treatment.

 

[BrokenTrack]

Lol, I didn't have a tractor until two months ago! The driveway costs are part of what drove me to getting a tractor, as paying others to maintain the driveway cost a small fortune. Now it's under my control, for better or worse. For now all I've got (for the driveway) is bucket, blade, and if I'm desperate, my grapple for a bit of root-rake-as-scarifier action. The blade is a heavy duty adjustable model, so I should be able to retrieve some stuff from the sides with it.

Whoops...sorry....(LOL)

Sometimes I forget that people might not have had a tractor for very long. I am 46 years old and never NOT had a tractor, and typically many of them at one time.

Just to give you an idea of how much I operate tractors, my youngest daughter's first word was "actor". My wife thought she was saying "Cracker", but she was watching me on the tractor as she said it. She was saying "tractor" in baby-talk.

 

[Bullwinkle123]

Whoops...sorry....(LOL)

Sometimes I forget that people might not have had a tractor for very long. I am 46 years old and never NOT had a tractor, and typically many of them at one time.

Just to give you an idea of how much I operate tractors, my youngest daughter's first word was "actor". My wife thought she was saying "Cracker", but she was watching me on the tractor as she said it. She was saying "tractor" in baby-talk.

Well for me, better late than never!

 

[herm0016]

my new favorite tool for my drive is a landpride scarifier that will take my jd80 blade on the back. loosens up the gravel and kind of packs and fills with the blade floating behind it. i use a harrow after that for a final dress. i can set the blade at an angle behind the scarifier to crown.

 

[zzvyb6]

I used to use my rototiller on the gravel after a heavy rain. Loostened it all up. Then use a landscape rake angled at 45 degrees to comb it back into place. You need rear gauge wheels and no top link (I used a chain). Finally said THWI.

Now I have 800' of this.