Gravel Yard Way Mud

   / Gravel Yard Way Mud #1  

summit151

Bronze Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2014
Messages
63
Location
Drayton Valley Alberta
Tractor
Massey 1135
Hey guys. I have another question regarding gravel issues. Since you guys were so helpful on my previous post. So I am fairly young I am 23 so I don't have much knowledge about this stuff or experience. I built a acreage about 3 years ago and built a large gravel yard. I live in Alberta Canada so we get a lot of snow and rain. I built the driveway and yard way out of clay and packed that down and then installed a couple inches of 1 1/4" crushed gravel which contained sand to help lock it in place. So each year I add more and more gravel to both the drive way and yard way. It does keep getting better and better each year but it is muddy in the spring. I'm just wondering if I should keep adding more and more gravel to create a base or what else to do? It is sloped well for the water to run off
 

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   / Gravel Yard Way Mud #2  
Good grief - you're just a pup. I know that in the spring my mile long driveway still has a couple soft spots and it was built by a road contractor. I have some thoughts on the manner in which you built the driveway but I will let those with a whole lot more experience provide guidance.
 
   / Gravel Yard Way Mud
  • Thread Starter
#3  
Good grief - you're just a pup. I know that in the spring my mile long driveway still has a couple soft spots and it was built by a road contractor. I have some thoughts on the manner in which you built the driveway but I will let those with a whole lot more experience provide guidance.

Ok what are your thoughts on how i built it? The actual driveway has a crown on it and seems to hold up well. I drive a 14000 lb service truck daily so it gets packed well
 
   / Gravel Yard Way Mud #4  
In my opinion, you needed larger base material on the drive. 2-4" rock as first layer... did you remove the organic layer? ...was the stone just put down on the ground?
 
   / Gravel Yard Way Mud #5  
You need to remove the imported material and add road fabric below. Then add 5-6" of imported material on top. Otherwise you are just going to continue to push your money into the ground.
If budget is an issue start with 50-100' sections that are bad and continue to add to it every summer.
No sense trying to do much now- too muddy.
 
   / Gravel Yard Way Mud
  • Thread Starter
#6  
Yes I do agree with a larger base rock. It was a after thought and yes I removed all the top soil. I actually dug a dug out in my back field and used that as a fill to get everything above the surroundings
 
   / Gravel Yard Way Mud #7  
My thoughts - since this is a gravel yard - you are probably driving pretty heavy equipment in and out. The base layer, being clay, just can't hold up to the wet conditions and heavy equipment. I think what RNeumann suggests is the way to correct this condition.

You know - this time of year the county road dept has weight restriction on all county roads. They realize that heavy trucks and wet ground just don't mix well.

AND don't get all excited about my calling you a pup - what the written word can never show is the envy in my voice. I was just a young pup once too - it was back before God created dirt.
 
   / Gravel Yard Way Mud #8  
Clay is nasty stuff when wet; stuff just get pushed down more. It is not a cheap process to build roads on it. We Seabees contended with it building roads in Vietnam. Roads had to be built up on top of the clay base. I was not directly involved ; but it seems they built up a layer of 4-2" minus rock/gravel well graded and with the crusher fines. It was laid in layers and mixed with the clay by windowing with a grader back and forth. Then the mix had cement mixed in that and vibratory roller compacted. This layer was over 12" deep and well sloped to the sides. Water content was constantly tested. No idea of the cement ratio but is was considerable. Then a standard road bed was laid on top of that topped with either a wearing surface of crushed gravel or asphalt. Word is that those roads are still being used today. However money was not an issue. those roads became up to 24" above the area top elevation.

Some lesser variation of that idea will probably work well for a farm road. The smaller the rock the faster it will disappear into the clay when wet. You will swear there is no bottom to it. State Highway Departments have standard designs for all types of situations. Those drawing and specification are public domain so available to the public.

Ron
 
   / Gravel Yard Way Mud #9  
....I actually dug a dug out in my back field and used that as a fill to get everything above the surroundings...
I understand why you did this... how well did you compact this? I ask because of the roads I've built, anytime I fill a low spot with dirt, I can never compact it enough and it becomes a soft spot later on.

A friend had a soft spot and just dumped 3-4" rock in that spot... a bit rough for a while (he drove on it like that for a while) then he topped it once it was stable...

So the big question is how to BEST "fix" what you have? I have not had this problem in large area. In my soft spots, adding larger rocks worked fine. Your large area, I might:

Identify the problem areas... most likely the water has no where to drain. I would see if digging down; add and compact larger rock in (we have 2.5" crusher run) then spread the dug up gravel over it (lifting that area higher). Others might have better ideas...

Of course, my way might just move the problem some where else... Good luck.
 
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   / Gravel Yard Way Mud #10  
I agree with the above posts. Having been in the Drayton area I have seen what you are up against. I would write off the finer gravel you have put down, and I would pound the pitrun to it. 5-6" pitrun with fines and let that settle for a year, or just drive on it,then go to finer stuff IF and only if you don't turn muddy again. If the yard is still muddy, then put more pitrun in but go a little finer like 4-5"-.
22 years ago when I bought this place I had about 50' of driveway that I had to use 4wd to get through in spring. I pounded the bigger pitrun to that hole and the rest of the driveway for two springs, now I have a usable driveway and this year I am going to put down 3/4" granular 'A'.
After and only after you get a reasonably dry yard (no mud) I would go with asphalt grindings, but only if you can get them cheaply. Sometimes when road contractors do a shave and pave on the roads they have more grindings than they can use in the new mix design. When that happens they will sometimes sell them to locals, cheap.
 
 
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