Rethinking Asphalt Millings - Addressing Washout

[jyoutz]

We fought wash outs for years on our steep hill. Our drive is what we call "53's". It's chip, dust and stone. In southern IN, it's all limestone. It does pack like concrete, but heavy rains can over whelm it and cause ruts.

Parks departments use a swale/speed bump system to divert the water off the road. The height of the "speed bump" is not so high and works just fine to direct the water to a ditch I scraped going perpendicular to the drive. The down hill side of the speed bump should gently extend 6 feet + down hill. By this, you only feel one side of the speed bump as you go up.

You do have to adjust your drive habit, but it works long term

That is the best long term solution and we construct those on forest roads frequently. But it does take a dozer and operator who knows what he’s doing to properly construct “rolling dips” in a road.

 

[5030]

Very nice looking base. I would asphalt pave it.

What I'm thinking as well. We had millings installed here at the farm last spring but we have no heavy run off issues and the p[aver that did it crowned them in the middle plus ours is 6" thick. My only complaint is, the invasive weeds still come through it so I have to apply Roundup Max 4 (spot spray) infrequently.

When they did ours, the cut the old gravel base out, hauled it away and then applied the millings and vibratory rolled them in.

So far, so good. Will see how it fares over the winter. I can see that plowing off snow will be difficult.. I'd like to use some other words but alas, those are banned.

 

[scootr]

Our drive was originally asphalt paved in 1979. It's about 600 ft long and has a steep section of about 300 ft. We paved over the deteriorating surface in 2010, 30 yrs later, with 3 inches of asphalt and have since been filling cracks and sealing the surface regularly. It's a great drive well worth the $. We have a crushed material road and gravel all around the house and barn. But Asphalt was the best solution for the hill. Other neighbors opted for concrete drives.

 

[5030]

No concrete here except in front of the shop and in front of the 2 car attached to the shop garage and I used old discarded cattle panels in place of rebar because I had them available. I don't like concrete because it eventually cracks and asphalt requires constant sealing as well. Very few asphalt drives here as well as very few asphalt millings drives. Mostly just stone. Limestone is very available here (many large quarries). My issue with stone is of course the weed growth unless you lay down weed blocker plastic film prior to. Most people don't here. Consequently, their stone drives degrade into 2 paths with grass and weeds growing in between.

My rentals all have stone drives but I had them lay a thick layer of berm mix instead of larger aggregate. So far, so good on them.

 

[jyoutz]

No concrete here except in front of the shop and in front of the 2 car attached to the shop garage and I used old discarded cattle panels in place of rebar because I had them available. I don't like concrete because it eventually cracks and asphalt requires constant sealing as well. Very few asphalt drives here as well as very few asphalt millings drives. Mostly just stone. Limestone is very available here (many large quarries). My issue with stone is of course the weed growth unless you lay down weed blocker plastic film prior to. Most people don't here. Consequently, their stone drives degrade into 2 paths with grass and weeds growing in between.

My rentals all have stone drives but I had them lay a thick layer of berm mix instead of larger aggregate. So far, so good on them.

Where I live most gravel drives are made from something they call road base. It’s a mix of stone aggregate, smaller gravel, sand, and crusher rock fines. This forms a hard base that holds up well, especially if the crusher fines are limestone. After packing and rain, it sets up almost like concrete. They also use this to form a base for asphalt roads.

 

[duffer]

I have a 400' long drive (with a steep switchback) that connects to a ¼ mile shared gravel drive for 4 lots. After having to "fix" both roads after downpours (nobody else will fix the shared road), I can say for certain your first priority is to control the drainage. Then...worry about what material to use on the top of your drive. Without the proper water diversion, you're just burning $100 bills in your driveway.

 

[LittleBill21]

I maintain 1.5 miles of private road and over the years, have tried about everything you can think of. Washouts are a constant problem on the sloped sections. Rolled millings worked well for 2 years or so but it would eventually "chunk out" leaving potholes to fill.

The road was originally built with a thick layer of red shale which wasn't bad at first but it eventually began to wash out in places. Surface wear also caused a dust problem and it would get into everything. I applied calcium which fixed the dust issue but I would have to apply it every couple of years and the cost became prohibitive.

I've been here 40 years now and the best solution was to apply a 4" over layer of local blue stone modified on top of the red shale base. I get it delivered for $13/ton. It packs down hard, wears like concrete, looks decent, has minimal dust and is easily worked to repair washouts. I keep a maintenance pile on hand and touch up any bad spots with a stone rake.

On an annual basis, the cost to maintain the road with modified is less than half what it was using any other material, with about the same amount of labor involved.

Obviously what works in some areas won't for every location so YMMV.

we live close to each other, what place are you buying from, I got destroyed from the storm.

 

[bdhsfz6]

we live close to each other, what place are you buying from, I got destroyed from the storm.

Atkinson Materials near Hawley, PA.:

http://wikimapia.org/17530440/Atkinson-Materials-Hawley-Quarry

They are a subsidiary of the H&K Group:

https://www.hkgroup.com/companies/hawley-quarry

 

[nyone]

Very nice looking base. I would asphalt pave it.

Lol 1/2mi.

You have next to no drainage ditch. A road is only as good as the ditch next to it. A crowd road with a ditch and culverts wont have water issues.

 

[MGH PA]

Thanks, everyone. looks like I will focus on grading/crown and ditches first and foremost.