Road.....

[JimMorrissey]

12 inches with Geotextile sounds good to me. Their fudge factor seems to put a fairly serious financial factor on my shoulders. They get annoyed when you question them too....

If I find there are places that seem overly moist, I will dig to 18". If the subsoil looks nice and stable and compacts well with limited clay/water I'll go 12".

I will be certain to document which sections of the road have which profile.

I don't want to build a weak or cheap roadbed, I just don't need to build an Freeway.

 

[beenthere]

Adding tile to drain the area well under the roadbed and along the road would go a long way to keeping the road in good condition and avoid frost heaving.

 

[SPIKER]

what about spetic systems and or wells ?

something that you must think about FIRST if you can't get permits for that then you are thinking abit ahead of you're self... I'm sure you probably already have gone to the zoneing board and checked to make sure there is no farm act keeping the land form being developed?

anyhow the 12" and textile sounds normal to me. depending on top coat... asphault or concrete, tar & chip or simply stone?

anyhow keep all things in perspective, when we are gone what will we leave behind us?

MarkM /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[JimMorrissey]

I wouldn't be getting this far into road construction if we hadn't dealt with septic and well locations. Those are the most basic of hurtles to jump. Engineering is nearly complete and we have no problems on that end. The only hurtle now is getting a "road cut" permit from the town at the location we want.

We will be connecting to the town's sewer system about 450' down the road. That doesn't include the 1,500 feet of sewer line on my property and the thousands of feet of conduit for the utilities. Of course, each (phone, power, cable) has to have it's own 4" conduit at different levels of the trench /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif. Not gunna be cheap, but I'll be getting plenty o' seat time, that's for sure /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Soundguy]

I'm a ce.. I see this all the time. It really depends on how that area is platted and deeded. If it has been recorded as a prescriptive road.. it could indeed be held to DOT specs if road repair is made. The dirt road that passes by our office is a prescriptive road.. though is considered private.... same rules.

You will also find just about anything that joins a DOT governed road either needs an approved apron.. or in the case where no entry was recorded.. they may make you do 'real' roadwork.

You can always try to get a variance... I'd suggest finding out what kind of meal or alcohol your towns public works director likes.. then send him a gift basket to his home with a nice 'hello' card. Then show up to his office in a few days and real nicely ask if he could help out a citizen in need with a real minor issue. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Soundguy

 

[JimMorrissey]

To clarify:

The town/engineers request is to use crushed stone, not graded "bank gravel".

I would like your thoughts on the use of clean graded gravel fill as my road base instead of 3" or 4" crushed stone. Crushed stone is very expensive and I'll be needing over 1300 yards of material over geotexile fabric. I've used gravel before with excellent results, but my town and engineers seem to feel construction costs are irrelevant. What do you think on the gravel base?

It's about $4 a ton vs. $9 a ton for crushed stone.

 

[vtdiesel]

I have been in the testing business for 25 years in massachussetts
and 18" of good Clean(<10% passing #200 sieve) gravel will work fine.
The key is to allow water to drain away so it not there to freeze and create heaving. Crowning the clay before placing the gravel will also help and keep the edges of the road sloping away. The geogrid is a good idea if the clay is at all soft.
good luck

 

[CajunRider]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I'd suggest finding out what kind of meal or alcohol your towns public works director likes.. then send him a gift basket to his home with a nice 'hello' card. )</font>

Are you sure you don't live in Louisiana?

My subdivision has about a mile of private road. When it was built the developer put only 12" of gravel down without the cloth. With the soft subsoil down here we will soon have to add another 12" to keep our road serviceable.