Maintaining a STEEP driveway

[PJN]

I have an extremely steep (@30% grade), long (1/4 mile) gravel driveway. After a summer's worth of thunderstorms, huge erosion ditches appear and tons of rock end up at the bottom of the hill. Maintenance includes digging diversion ditches for runoff by hand before and after heavy rains and hiring a dozer operator to grade it once a year. This year I'm finally ready to buy my first compact tractor (probably a NH TC45D w. hst & loader) and I though I might use it to try and maintain the driveway among other things. My question(s) is what implement or combination of implements should I use to do the Job? Also, should I be concerned about balancing the tractor with weights? Any advice would be greatly appreciated as this is all new to me. Thanks in advance for your help...

Jan

 

[roysallis]

PJN,
My driveway (road) is similiar to yours. I use a 6 foot Tufline grader blade with my JD5210. You can angle it, offset it, and tilt it. Mine has to be manually adjusted but you can get them with hydraulic adjustment. Go to this site (http://www.monroetufline.com/) for a picture and info.
My road washes out pretty bad on one side in a couple of spots and I have not figured out how to prevent that. There is a 4 foot bank on the side that washes out so I can't cut a drain to carry the water away from the road.
Good luck!

 

[Thomas]

PJN.
You might want to look into a rear blade attachment of some sort that off sets.
By the sounds you have the tractor to do the job.
If you are little worried you can put some weight in your front end loader.

If you get a chance check out Bush Hog also york website.

Be careful and good luck.


Thomas..NH

 

[Cowboy]

PJN
If you would like to private me your e-mail address. I will forward you some tips that I have used that worked well in about the same conditions.

 

[Kelvin]

Don't forget about the option to rent a tractor that is close to what you are looking at purchasing. Some or all of the equipment you need may be available for rent as well.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Cowboy, If you could post them that would help everyone. I have a friend who has recently purchased property with a driveway like that, currently 4WD to hop your way up it. Any tips would probably bump us up the "learning curve" a long way.

Thanks

[email]oldcarparts@mygarage.com [/email]
Del

 

[TomG]

My drive isn't as long or as steep, but it does erode. I'm going to grade it when I bring back the tractor from our camp. Here's the plan. Grade the drive to put on a center crown. I might get a load of gravel to do that as the current gravel is pretty well settled. Dig the drainage ditches on either side of the drive deeper and fill with good-sized crushed rock. Run flexible drain at the bottom of the ditches into the highway ditch.

I believe it's almost impossible to avoid washouts on a steep drive unless the drive is crowned so the water drains to the sides. The crushed rock and flex drain should prevent erosion in the ditches. At present, the drive is not well crowned, and there are several erosion courses from the drive to the highway ditch. I installed 4" flex drain in each to prevent further erosion.

I plan to use a box scraper for the grading and for deepening the existing drainage ditches. I'll also use the scraper and loader for the crushed rock fill. Box scrapers and good back-blades (with tilts and swings) each have their advantage, but a box scraper is what I have.

 

[W5FL]

For a 30% grade, you will probably be in for a lot of work for a long time. Concrete is the only answer as asphalt won't hold up on that grade. All the obvious things are to divert the water from the driveway by crowning it against the high side and draining water under the drive where necessary. There is a heavy duty dual grader blade that seems to work much better than a single blade. Search for roadmaster and you will find several writeups on it. I lost $200 worth of gravel during the last rain so have a lot of ditch cutting to do here too. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[JerryG]

PJN, You need to get Murf's ideas on this. He can tell you what you need to do. JerryG

 

[Cowboy]

PJN
These Gent's have covered most of my tips. as Wen said, Concrete is the only answer. Concrete may be expensive but, if you figure the overall maintance cost over a 8-10 year period, your concrete investment will pay for itself (not to even mention vehicle ware and tare).

If concrete is not a do-able deal, then try the tips listed. We have property along the Brazos river that has such a grade. I have found that, road width and crown are essiential to prevent erosion. I used the dozer to cut flat grades along the road, building a terrace at the end of the flat grade to divert the water to the ditches. In our area I prefer to use a 2" or largier crushed limestone for the flats and a #2 limestone base for the road surface. Without seeing your terrain, the best I can suggest to you is, study the hillside and figure the best way to build your surface so as, It will be higher than all water runs. you might even consult a civil engineer to assist you. above all Be Safe.

Cowboy
BigBoyz Toyz

 

[Anonymous Poster]

I would also humbly suggest contacting a contractor that builds roads. Maintaining a correctly constructed road is one thing, building one or "correctly reconstructing" one is another. Sometimes you can have someone come in and "fix" something but if they don't really understand the correct way to do it the guy you eventually hire to do it right may have a much more expensive job at hand because dirt has been pushed in the wrong place (over the side). I love to blaze trails but those steeper driveways I'd leave to a professional. And that idea for the concrete sure makes sense. You don't have to do the whole thing, just those areas (steep switchbacks for instance) where there's obviously going to be a problem.

I've seen a number of washout problems the last few years with the constant repetition of "100 year rainstorms". Sometimes a driveway is built on an old quick and easy logging road, that had no thoughts or care as to long term use. Would cutting a new more gradual one make sense? Is there a neighbor with a similar problem that could share the cost?

Of course the comment about neighbors brings a whole new can of worms with easements, (which are between property not owners) neighbors who don't help maintain the easement etc.

The road to my other "wild" property has a road that every onechips in on to maintain, voluntarily. Sure improves your outlook when neighbors are nice.

 

[_RaT_]

The driveway up to my sisters place is all asphalt and approches 30% grade along its 3/4 mile stretch. It has held up beautifully except where the semi-trucks (they deliver top soil,bark,DG,gravel etc.)stop and wait for the gate to open. At this point, they have sunk and pulled some of the asphalt loose. We plan on putting concrete there. They receive about 45" of rain from November to May. A gravel road would have been impossible to maintain. If your going to continue with gravel, reconstruct a road with considerably less pitch. Rat...

 

[TomG]

I think Murf posts on CTB rather than here. There was a long discussion among Murf and others about building a path on a steep slope. I not sure if the path was intended for vehicles, but might be worthwhile to look up the thread in the archives.