Rainwater washing out my NEW road

[Professor Marvel]

Boeing
You put me in mind of Eddy Albert in the old show Green Acres. You have a lot to learn about country living, BUT YOU WILL LEARN. That is not a bad thing but it will be a transition. You have received a lot of very good advice here, including the part about not wasting your money on a lawyer. Honestly, you got your 10k worth of road, it will just cost a lot more. I am not a road guy but I have had some hard knocks in road building and maintenance.
I moved to Culpeper Va about 25 years ago and have had to build and/or maintain a few miles of road. Some has regular cars driving daily on it and some is used seasonally and recreationally, but it all needs to be maintained.
You have a good start, Like a couple people told you, a road grader can accomplish a lot for you. As your road project (an ongoing project by the way) progresses I think you will find you need a much larger tractor than it sounds like you have (4ft bucket) to just keep it up. Unless you want to spend all your free time on it. You will become better at taming your road as you gain experience.
You will probably have a couple years where you question your choice to move where you are, but then you will look back on it a lot wiser and smile to yourself. Please keep us posted on your progress and keep on plodding through your adventure. You will make it and be happy about it.

 

[tawilson]

Getting out in the rain to survey the situation is good advice and is what I do. I know I can make water run downhill, I just have to figure out which way downhill is.
I'm making a roller out of an old water tank this summer. The trouble I have with traffic packing down the material after grooming is they all drive in the same tracks.

 

[teg]

"Rainwater washing out my NEW road"... So get out there and fix it. From the photos I saw, you got a nice *start* to a road... and not that bad of a price.

I would work on the ditches and stabilizing the banks down below to save the work that's been done... photos in post 14 are minor corrections. Next you need to rework the steep section at the top until you are very happy with it.

Make a wider curve and tame the steep section. Take a different route if you have to... so it's not too steep.

Once you "settle" on the route and start fixing it up (correcting the water problems). It's hard to go back and reshape the road to get it exactly how you want it (less steep or wider curves). You end up always "living with" those sections.

Once you got it right... and you seen where the water problems are and have been corrected, then get gravel laid down.

I've been there and I'm STILL thinking about correcting a section of my road that I built 5 years ago (sharp turn followed by the steepest section).

 

[mjncad]

Instead of relying on vehicle traffic to do the initial compaction, rent a roller like this one. They're relatively easy to operate and will compact the rough graded road you have now better than cars and pickups ever will.

Some rental yards offer them with feet on the front roller. Don't rent a dual steel roller for the first compaction as they are meant for asphalt roads. A dual drum roller might work well once you get the proper gravel and fines topcoat installed.

 

[SPYDERLK]

Wow, what an example of how not to build a road. Looks like a cut and fill operation with a dozer. (Cut and push the high spots into the low spots,sprinkle a little gravel on it and call it an all weather road):ashamed: Also looks like little or no base under that crushed rock. Whenever fill is placed, it should be placed and compacted in lifts ( layers) of about 4 inches at a time, then 4 inch or larger base rock should be "walked" in with a track machine or roller. This, of course, has to be done while the soil is somewhat drier than it is now. Even though you're across the country from me, the soil and topography looks very similar. My opinion at this point would be to basically start over with the grading when the ground dries out. As mentioned before, ditches are mandatory wherever water is present beside the road. I can't stress enough that the driving surface of even a private driveway should be at least 18-20 feet wide. This allows you to drive all across the surface to eliminate wheel ruts and the problems they cause. When it dries out, I would use your box blade to scrape and stockpile as much gravel as you can and reshape and compact the roadbed, complete with ditches, then put around 6-10" of base rock down and compact that. Then respread your gravel over that and drive carefully on it for a year or so. Yeah, it's gonna be costly, but it should be fairly easy to maintain. Hope you get some resolution from your developer soon.....Dan.

One issue that the OP will have to deal with, and which was a problem on my place, is that repeated traffic, especially when the soil is wet, will create depressions/channels in the road that can gather runoff and lead to washouts. Expect this to happen and be ready to correct it (eg recrown the lane).BOB

The stategy for this was brought up early in the thread and referred to later. I hate it when good info does not carry forward. [The unfortunate formula for Progress integrated over Time being Zero.]
larry

Getting out in the rain to survey the situation is good advice and is what I do. I know I can make water run downhill, I just have to figure out which way downhill is.
I'm making a roller out of an old water tank this summer. The trouble I have with traffic packing down the material after grooming is they all drive in the same tracks.

Note the tree farmer post.
larry

 

[James150]

As my dad used to say, "Lawyers are nothing but a dead short in the circuit"

EXCELLENT! :thumbsup:

 

[tawilson]

Note the tree farmer post.
larry

My road to my campground is 18-20 feet wide or more but they stilll drive in the same tracks after I groom it, which is why I recommended a roller for compacting the road instead of counting on vehicle traffic to do it.

 

[SPYDERLK]

My road to my campground is 18-20 feet wide or more but they stilll drive in the same tracks after I groom it, which is why I recommended a roller for compacting the road instead of counting on vehicle traffic to do it.

Well, its your campground. Give them driving instructions.

 

[Boeing]

Put those little red marking flags in the tracks and post a sign NOT to hit the flags.....
Course, some will run over them delibertly......OR.....put the flags where you DON'T want them to drive with the same sign:thumbsup:

 

[SPYDERLK]

Put those little red marking flags in the tracks and post a sign NOT to hit the flags.....
Course, some will run over them delibertly......OR.....put the flags where you DON'T want them to drive with the same sign:thumbsup:

Attn: GO SLO IN THE RAIN. DONT RUN THRU PUDDLES. ALWAYS TRY TO RUN YOUR TIRES ON THE RIDGES AND HI AREAS.
Thanks,
the Mgt [You are being watched]