Putting in gravel driveway...need help

[dirtyb115]

Hi all. Here is my delima. I have about 9 acres that i was hoping to build on in the near future. I was supposed to have a drive put in this month, and to do this i had to have a guardrail broken. SO the county broke the guardrail and said to put the drive (or at least enough drive to park cars off the road), in asap. I was told by the county a culvert is not required. Bad news though, i wont be able to do the construction loan for a few more months. So basically i have a couple of weeks to put in enough drive to park a few cars of the road. I need a 26' apron, and the drive will be 12-14 feet wide.
I have some trees/ brush that i need to clear first, so i will get started on that this coming week. Once i have it clear, what should i do? What materials will i need? (This will be the access for the home builder so dont need a finished drive, just the larger stuff i think.)I will take some pics today to better illustrate what i am working with. Thanks in advance for any help!
(BTW, i am using a skidsteer, not a tractor, but can access one if need be.)

 

[AlanB]

Dig away the topsoil and vegetative stuff.

Stockpile it for later use.

My part of the world we go down to the clay base.

Have heavy rock delievered in first, the wetter / softer the ground, the larger rock you need.

For my drive I laid what is called here 2/3 stone. Which is stone that passes through a 3" screen but stays on top of a 2" screen. Also sometimes called RR rock.

For construction / getting going, just spread it out, hopefully you will get a relationship with a good dump truck driver that can spread and all you need do is neaten the edges etc.

Rock disapears fast when you start dumping it. No matter how big those Tri-axle trucks look on the road, when they dump out the rock on the ground,,, it looks Tiny next to the $330 check you just wrote

Later, when construction is nearing completion, or when weather forces you to improve, consider using geotextile fabric to help tie it all together and dress the top with crusher run gravel

Also check with road companies in your area if road millings are available.

Also check with your county road department if gravel / rock is available from them.

Good luck.

What you will need is a healthy checkbook by the way as it adds up a lot faster then you can imagine...

 

[EddieWalker]

How much fill do you need? It realy makes a huge difference in how you go about this.

Dirt is much cheaper then rock. If you need to build up the land by more then six inches, I'd use dirt first.

Is this along the highway? Usualy, the land along the road is already pretty good material and there isn't going to be much topsoil. The further way you get, the dirt becomes something different. Here, topsoil is an inch, if that. You just scrape off the grass and start laying material. In other place, it can be several feet deep and like Alan said, you need to remove it down to a solid base material.

If you have a good base, then I'd put down four inches of road base rock. It has a variety of names all over the country, but it's all the same. Rock is sold by the size of the rock. Road base is rock that's several inches mixed all the way down to fines. When compacted, it will all settle together to become solid. You can actaully break it up into large chunks when this happens.

It has to be at least four inches thick to become solid. Any thinner, and it will move on you. Thicker is better, but after six inches, you're just wasteing money and should have put more dirt down first.

Alan mentions larger rock first. I don't do that here, but every part of the country is different. We use large rock for wet areas or areas that you can't get good compaction on the soil right away. It's more for keeping the job moving along, then actually strength and integrity of the road. Fabric will also do this, but again, it's not used very often in my area.

Pics will help, but your best source is your highway contact. They are the ones you have to make happy, so do it exactly like "THEY" want it and you'll be fine. In every case, they will make you do it the right way, which is what you really want in the end anyway.

Eddie

 

[jbrumberg]

Dirtyb115:

Involve the Highway Department, get suggestions from them as to base ballast requirements and keep them happy! Every area is different so ask a lot of questions as to what rock materials you will need. If you have mud and/or a "Mud Season" definitely use geotextile material. It will make your life a lot easier in the long run. Jay

 

[PA hayseed]

Around here, central Pa, we use alot of shale for the base fill, then gravel on top. I think it goes shale, then big rock, then 2b or b2 (I can never keep it straight).

My advice is if you get gravel delivered, get it delivered when it has been dry as a bone out. You will get alot more gravel than when it is wet. If it has been very dry in your area, and they deliver the gravel and its soaked, they are ripping you off. Water adds alot of weight, and some companies say they hose it down to keep the dust down. In my experience, and I live near some quarries, they spray it down to add weight and that is the only reason.

Believe me when I say that you can get alot more yield (stone) when its dry out than when its wet. Same prinicpal applies for any fill, dirt or shale. Triaxles are loaded based on weight, not volume.

Just my 2 cents, having had many triaxles deliver gravel and shale to my house. Everyone elses advice about skimming the gound first to save your topsoil and removing vegetation is priceless. Just keep in mind to make it wide enough the first time. It is a pain to widen your driveway - lesson learned.

 

[toolsorbust]

Hi, A bobcat is the right tool for the job. Not knowing what your soil is like its hard to say how much to dig out but start out with big rock 2"to 3" here known as rail road balast. when you mentioned guard rail that tells me that you have a serious change in grade just beyond the rail. So it sounds as though your going to have some fun working out the grade. Keep in mind that gravel roads need to be higher in the middle than the sides you want any water to shed off as quickly as possable.good ditches on ethier side is a must. i hope this helps.

 

[dirtyb115]

Thanks for all the replies .
Going to cut down a few trees this weekend and get the stumps out and ill be on my way.
THere is a decent slope from the road, however i have never seen exessive mud ect.. in the area, so not really sure what im gonna do there yet. I took some pics ill try and post them tommorow some time. Ill keep you posted !

 

[Tororider]

I know someone mentioned using geotextile fabric later, but you may want to try and use it now. If you can get your hands on some, I think the stuff we used was 17 feet wide, you can put that down first and lessen the amount of rock you need to put down on top. The fabric does a great job of giving you a base without having to dig too deep. We used road grade gravel as it was cheaper than 21AA. If this is going to be temporary, I would do as little as you can get away with to start.