Shared Road Issues

[EddieWalker]

I live on a similar road... my suggestion, and the advice I give myself is:

Behave as if you live on your own road, with nobody else on it. You've stated that you have a well paying job, and like where you live. Fix the road to you driveway, show the other neighbors how good neighbors treat each other, and see if they respond the next time you seek funds.

You are obviously the one most sensitive to the condition of the road, if you make it right, you'll feel better, and your neighbors may respond to your generosity... if not, at least you'll enjoy driving down "your" road.

Tom

Very wise advice and an excellent first post. Weclome to TBN!!!

Eddie

 

[randydupree]

what makes me the maddest is when i grade the road (1.5miles) the next day all the horse owners and all the dirt bike/4 wheeler owners decide that a nice smooth road is just perfect for them to ride on.of course these people say that the horse hoofs and the divots they make and the ruts the bikes make don't hurt the road! but,as my neihbor says "it don't hurt the road,it hurts our cars!"
When they found out i was moving they all asked "now whos going to fix the road?" i told them that now they are going to have to pay the big bucks,to call a contractor!
My only problem is i have 30 acres in 3 different plots back here,and its all beautiful land,worth in excess of 20,000 per acre at todays prices,plus the house and shop on 5 acres. i have to maintain the road until i get it all sold..
Randy

 

[schmism]

Im another one in the maintain it as your own, if you dont like the way it is now... fix it.

 

[dooleysm]

We heard back from the neighbor at the top of the hill last night, meaning we have positive responses from 4 of 5 neighbors. I talked with the guy who's going to do the excavation work. He's got a small high lift and a road grader. He's working on replacing a throttle control on his high lift, so we probably won't get anything done until after the first of the year.

I think I'm going to try to go around to the neighbors and collect $100 and ask if they'll be willing to give more if necessary. Then I'll pay for the excavation work first and use the remainder for rock. I'll go back and try to get more money for additional rock if it's necessary.

 

[EddieWalker]

Congratulations, it sounds like you've made some progress!! You won't get very much rock for a few hundred bucks, and when you spread it out, it's not gonna cover anything. If you can get four inches of road base down, than you have a chance of it holding for awhile, otherwise, it's just gonna disapear on you really quick and not do very much.

The real problem will be when you try to do it again. Will they want to keep putting money in when the first attempt failed?

Have you been to the rock supplier? Talk to them and ask how much and what type of rock you need to make the road last and not wash away. Too many people expect the rock to just stay there, but don't realize how much damage rain will cause.

Good luck,
Eddie

 

[dooleysm]

Rock is $200-$225 for a 20 ton triaxle. There is a road base there. I think a road has been there for years when the land was farmed. Before the original owner sold the land he did some work on the road and put down a nice layer of #2 (raquetball or slightly smaller sized) rock.

We know what kind of rock to get (well, not off the top of my head, but I can find out easy enough) and I have no delusions of an award winning road when we're through. I'm off Friday and I'm going to do my best to get out there Friday morning and get some pictures.

 

[dirtworksequip]

Shawn, I would not ask for the $100. That may give them the impression that is what its going to take to fix the problem. It would help tremedously if everyone would kick in $500. 4x 500= $2000. That should give you enough money to get some good results and is probably a more realistic figure. If there is any of that money left either put it in a fund for more stone in the future or give everyone an equal refund.

 

[EddieWalker]

Rock is $200-$225 for a 20 ton triaxle. There is a road base there. I think a road has been there for years when the land was farmed. Before the original owner sold the land he did some work on the road and put down a nice layer of #2 (raquetball or slightly smaller sized) rock.

We know what kind of rock to get (well, not off the top of my head, but I can find out easy enough) and I have no delusions of an award winning road when we're through. I'm off Friday and I'm going to do my best to get out there Friday morning and get some pictures.

Shawn,

I didn't see if you said how long the road is??

At the price you posted, you are getting rock cheaper than I've ever heard of. It's a fantastic price!!!! I paid $14 a ton and had to really work at getting that price. Most guys were at $16 to $18 a ton.

I spread 26 to 28 ton loads almost 100 feet by ten feet wide at my place. My driveway is 800 feet long and it cost me $3,500 for rock after tax. At your prices, that would have been $2,500, so you really are getting a great deal on the rock.

If you make it 8 feet wide, and that's very, very narrow, 20 tons will only make it 80 or 90 feet. I'm hoping your going to use base rock, crusher, road base or whatever they call road rock that goes from around 3 inch pieces down to fines the size of sand. This will lock together and create a solid surface that will shed water and support road traffic. You need a minimum of 4 inches for this to work, or the rock will move and work itself apart. If the rock moves, than it will never last. Even at 4 inches, you will find spots that need maintenance every year, but overall, your road should last quite a awhile.

I just don't see how you will accomplish anything with only $500. Maybe I'm wrong or your road isn't as bad as I'm thinking it is. I hope that's the case.

Good luck,
Eddie

 

[dooleysm]

I'm not really good at estimating distances or areas and I've yet to measure it, so I can't give a good estimation of length on the road. I've measure the distance from the highway to the turnoff to our road using the car's odometer and have that at about 1/3 of a mile. Our road is definitely less than that. Significantly less. 300 yards would be my best guess.

I think my vision of a road may be something less than what you're thinking. I'm anxious to get started on it though, and see where it leads.

Oh, and by the way, I get a bit of a deal on things like rock, concrete, and construction supplies, as my inlaws own a fairly substantial construction supply company/hardware store.

 

[CurlyDave]

Shawn, I would not ask for the $100. That may give them the impression that is what its going to take to fix the problem. It would help tremedously if everyone would kick in $500. 4x 500= $2000. That should give you enough money to get some good results and is probably a more realistic figure. If there is any of that money left either put it in a fund for more stone in the future or give everyone an equal refund.

dirt is right.

$100 each is not going to go very far, but given the economic circumstances of your neighbors, that you describe, many of them may feel that this should be enough to do it all.

This is going to get tough, especially if you have already told them $100. Make up a short letter explaining how you are going to spend the money, with a comment at the bottom that this might not be anywhere near enough. And, point out that road maintenance is an ongoing expense, it might happen every year.

 

[plowking]

I have customers on two long lake shore roads and some are mobile homes and stick built houses. They both have associations and post [pass at own risk] so they aren't liable. Occasionally the home insurance companies or their agents will come inspect the road and if they don't approve, then the homeowners get their insurance cancelled. I had a customer who couldn't get house reinsured until improvements were done. In other towns, the town plows but sends the road owners or their association a maintence bill. Also in N.H. if a mobile home park is run down, the tenants can form an association and buy out the landlord. When it becomes a co-op, the state will loan them low interest loans for capital improvements [water, sewer, roads, etc.] In my town, the selectmen had to send letters to homeowners on unaccepted roads that the highway dept. would keep roads clear in winter for emergency services. This was a requirement of the insurance companies as well and some banks because they had loans on houses on these roads. plowking

 

[LoneCowboy]

well
Interesting this topic comes up
I live on a 1/2 mile long private dirt road. (although at some point the city came thru with a sewer, but they don't touch the road, ever)
As you may know, colorado got a crap load of snow last week (26" plus drifts). Of the 7 people on the road, 4 of us own tractors, 3 of us were out there working away, clearing with everything from a 55hp JD compact brand new to an old 8N with a back blade. However, the one neighbor who always wants something but never supplies comes out, sees us working and waves. I say "Hi George, go hop on your tractor"

He says "not my turn" and goes back inside.

WTF?, was I mad. Now, the people who don't have tractors, we cleared their driveways, because there was no way you could do it by hand, but the guy with a tractor just says "not my turn" and expects us to do all the work so he can go out?

We buried his driveway with the snow we moved.
Forget him, he was a lot longer digging out than it would have cost him to help us.
Community, it's not just a word.

But yeah, road maintenance here is an issue, we just suck it up and move it around. At some point I'll have to collect to get some more road base in. It just is. And people like the George are always going to freeload.

 

[Ifixcars]

We live on a private road too. 5 houses on a shared 1500 foot road. We have a homeowner's association drawn up by a lawer. Each house pays a yearly fee, and snow removal bills are divided equally. The yearly fee goes into a bank account, and is used when repairs are needed. That's the fair way to do it. I didn't want to move into a house with a shared road, but the price was right. The politics and bickering that goes on whenever a road repairs are needed are a pain. But at least we do all pay our fees equally. Maybe you could form an association, and do the yearly road fee thing too. Small yearly fees are not so hard to take, and add up after a few years. After you get your road in shape, maybe a small fee of 100 a year per house wouldn't be to hard to swallow, and would come in handy every other year for tune ups. I believe property values would be positively affected by a decent access road. That might help you sell the fee. A one time fee, while better than nothing, is not going to solve your problem. If you want, I can dig out our Association language and e mail it to you, I don't know if that would help you or not.

 

[rox]

Ifixcas,

i think it might ahve been on another thread about a shared road, that I saw a really good post on how to distribute the cost of the road. Actually the first house doens't use the road allt aht much and why shoudl that first house pay an equal sahre. Likewise the guy who has the last house uses more of the road than anybody esle and should logically pay more. That was a really good post how the guy did the math to prorate it according to where the properties were situated on the road. To me that is the msot fair system of all. If I'm hosue number 1 or number 2 on a long road, I wouldn't want to pay and equal share becasue I am not using the road equally. I ahd actually never heard of splitting the costs this way but I do think it is the most fair way to do it.

 

[Ifixcars]

Well, I should say that our road is set up so that there is a long access road leading to a culdesac that all 5 houses' driveways tee into. So we all share the same length of road, and share the culdesac evenly. Not hard to figure out that costs are divided evenly. But if instead of the culdesac, we had driveways branching off of the main shared road, I could see a different solution could be reached. If driveways were evenly divided, you could still say that payments could be the same, basically each house paying for the road upkeep in front of their house. If frontages were uneven maybe a fee based on road frontage would be fair. If one person has 1000 feet of frontage, and the rest have 50 feet, then maybe that one person should pay more. I'm sure with some thought, you and your neighbors could work something out.