Soft Roadbed Issue

[Hammy]

I'm with John Bud on this. Go this route and you will be fixed up good. My road is 1800' long and a constant work in progress. I wish I would have just put the road fabric down to start with. For one, you won't lose all of the expensive gravel. I'm in clay and 6-8" base of 3" rock has all but disappeared.

Craig

 

[2manyrocks]

There are a variety of ways to deal with this depending on your site and available funds. Here is a link to a site that has several good technical bulletins on installing drains and maintaining gravel roads. http://www.dirtandgravelroads.org/

A friend has a steep gravel driveway that kept washing. We recently added a series of water bars across his driveway at angles to force the water off his road into the ditch. It has really reduced his washing problems, but they do act like speed bumps when it's dry. It was cheap because we just regraded the gravel that had washed, and we avoided having to excavate a rocky subsurface.

 

[Soundguy]

I agree with the common theme of getting rid of any swimming pools ( drainage, and then if you have a fault inthe bed, dig it out and put in a stabilized patch...

soundguy

 

[MAYOR8020]

do what loggers do dump a bunch of sub base down and pack it in
sub base = #6 and smaller works well packs up tight real tight in grey clay
but by all means this is just MY OPPINION!!!!!

 

[Darren]

Woodland, to make any road hold up you need to get rid of the water. Find the source of the water and take whatever steps are needed to get the water out of the road bed,whether it is using a french drain, ditch or other means. I would say if you dig out the wet spot and fill it back in with anything it will eventually give you problems again. Any amount of water no how small will cause problems in a road. Keep it dry and your problem will disappear.

Sincerely, Dirt

Excellent advice! Until you stop the water, the money spent on rock is wasted. A local sawmill owner has spent a small fortune on triaxle truckloads of stone. For some reason it just disappears into the mud.

 

[dnetherland]

Try this link. Great info from the forestry service.
A Landowner's Guide to Building Forest Access Roads - Introduction

Use a geotextile mat. I used one called Mirafi. Divert the water off the road. The diverters used by the forestry service work great. I tried gravel, limestone rocks, crushed asphalt and all would wash in a hard storm. If you don't mind the dust, we got concrete washed out of the trucks at the plant for next to nothing. When it dries it is almost as hard as concrete and does not wash. Best material I have seen on steep grades.

DN

 

[cjcocn]

Try this link. Great info from the forestry service.
A Landowner's Guide to Building Forest Access Roads - Introduction

Use a geotextile mat. I used one called Mirafi. Divert the water off the road. The diverters used by the forestry service work great. I tried gravel, limestone rocks, crushed asphalt and all would wash in a hard storm. If you don't mind the dust, we got concrete washed out of the trucks at the plant for next to nothing. When it dries it is almost as hard as concrete and does not wash. Best material I have seen on steep grades.

DN

DN

Excellent site ... thanks for posting the link!