pothole repair

[Pilot]

Our driveway is 1,200 ft. long, base of pit run, surface of crushed 3/4" minus. The pit run is blocky, not rounded.
We have about 8-10 pot holes of which 3 or 4 are deep and large enough to be annoying. Not bad for being 23 years old, but still not right.

I've filled them in with 3/4" minus but they come right back. More pit run on the bottom of the holes just moves around as it doesn't lock with the stuff underneath. So how can I fix them permanently?

 

[DennisArrow]

Tear out the whole section of road. You didn't say their size but 2' to 3' all the way around it. Then regrade and resurface the area. Sometimes I have to do the whole width of the road for 5' to 6'...........When you just fill up the hole, it doesn't "bond" with the old materials. By tearing it out and remixing it you guarantee "bonding"............God bless....Dennis

 

[Billrog]

If you have access to crusher chips they'll stay in place and pack much better than anything else in a pot hole other than that its grading the road as mentioned.

 

[s219]

I think Dennis has it right. Though I'd hate to rip up an entire section to fix a pothole, that may be your only option. Also make sure the road has a crown (however slight) and can drain. If it doesn't, and water was collecting in that spot, it will just grow another pothole. On a dirt or gravel drive, they start as puddles eventually become potholes.

 

[oosik]

I have a mile long gravel driveway. Just filling the potholes with anything is a big zero. As DennisArrow says - you have to rip down to the base material, add gravel, mix, respread, level and compact. It took me a couple years to figure this out also. As a matter of fact - if you don't follow this procedure, in some fashion, the pot hole seems to come back even bigger.

 

[EddieWalker]

For the gravel to compact and remain in place, it needs to be four inches thick, and of a uniform mixture of larger stones down to fines. To fix a pot hole, you need to loosen up the surrounding rock down to the base and then mix the new stone in with the old rock, then compact it. I like to add a lot of water to it because that seems to speed up the compaction. Always make it just a little taller then whats around it, and you shouldn't have any more problems with that spot.

How thick is the rock on your road? If you are regrading it all the time, or it's just been there for a very long time, it's very likely that your rock is not as thick as it should be and the pot holes are the early signs that you need to build up the entire road.

 

[luvmexfood]

This is similiar to what everyone else has said. I took a subsoiler and ripped down about a 10 inches and as close together as I could for about 3 ft. on each side of potholes. Then bladed back down level and pulled extra gravel into those spots. So far they have gone away.

 

[bcp]

Potholes in the driveway are like boulders in the driveway.

You have to remove the pothole, then fill the hole left by the removal.



Bruce

 

[Soundguy]

what is the sub base? limerock? red clay? natural earth? satbilized soil ( crushed concrete/asphalt millings/limerock/red clay + soil )?

 

[Ed of all trades]

fill with a mixture of soil and gravel, fill it over full so the cars can pack it down and make sure the water flows away from them. It works. Ed

 

[boggen]

ditto all other comments...

if ya don't have good drainage. (water running off the road way) and then. making sure water does not stand in ditches along the road way.

water standing on road and along side it = trouble no matter what is said / done. until ya get the water away from the road. it will be a constant battle.

slow it down, a driveway is not built for 100MPH going across it with your vehicles. a vehicle suspension can take a lot, but it can also dish out a huge punishment on the driveway, causing pot holes to wash board effects, to simply creating ruts.

 

[Pilot]

soundguy, the soil is clay loam; on top of that is pit run which is rock straight out of the pit after blasting and / or ripping; the largest chunks are probably about 16" across by 3 " thick while most are probably 1/10th that size. After spreading, the road builder ran over it several times with his Cat to pack & level it with the treads. On top of that is 3/4" minus crushed. The rock is generally basalt; no limestone here.

The road is 23 years old. The pot holes are 12-18" across and the deepest are probably 3" deep.