"Trail" driveway: How do I improve it?

[zonta223]

The cheapeast and by far best way to fix areas with rotten clay is lime. And if you have a tiller for your tractor it will do the trick. Just scratch up the clay with scarifiers and spread out bag lime to the soil. Clay weighs about 100 lbs/cf, so do the math to add 4-6% lime by weight. Then mix in the lime with the scarifiers or tiller. Let it cook for 48hrs and mix again with water. Then roll it with your loaded tractor and problem solved. If you have sand then use portland cement, not sackcrete,

Was waiting for someone to suggest this. I used it on my clay driveway with great effect changed my driveway from a skating ring in winter to a hard safe driveway.
Just ripped the clay (use a box blade if you have one). Put down the cement.ripped again to mix it in. Graded it flat with scraper blade. Wet it down lightly with water. Run your tractor or loaded truck over the drive way to compact it.
If you have a cement works in your local area try ringing them and asking if they have any BCB cement...(Bulk Cementatious Binder)..Its what they use to back fill mines etc. You will probably be able to buy it cheaper than lime.

regards

 

[Chilly807]

The material he uses isn't quarry process but rather something he calls bank run. The stone is smooth. It's a little cheaper than the quarry stuff but most of the cost of stone up this way is in the trucking anyway.

It sounds like what we call river rock up here.

Sean

 

[SPYDERLK]

Was waiting for someone to suggest this. I used it on my clay driveway with great effect changed my driveway from a skating ring in winter to a hard safe driveway.
Just ripped the clay (use a box blade if you have one). Put down the cement.ripped again to mix it in. Graded it flat with scraper blade. Wet it down lightly with water. Run your tractor or loaded truck over the drive way to compact it.
If you have a cement works in your local area try ringing them and asking if they have any BCB cement...(Bulk Cementatious Binder)..Its what they use to back fill mines etc. You will probably be able to buy it cheaper than lime.

regards

Interesting. -- Doesnt the hard top layer heave and crack in the winter? I would imagine that would get mucky for a while when it thaws and you would easily cause ruts.
larry

 

[keegs]

It sounds like what we call river rock up here.

Sean

Yeah...sounds like the same stuff. The stone looks like it's spent some time in a riverbed or at the beach.

Hey ...just curious about those culvert headwalls in the pics...were they pre-cast ...or poured onsite?

 

[beppington]

I have to say that road is absolutely beautiful. I wouldn't want to do anything to it if it's been working for years. It's hard to get something that pretty by working at it.

Thank you! I agree! & would love to do nothing to it. But I already know the muddy spots are bad news & must be improved.

 

[EddieWalker]

Round River Rock is the very worse type of rock that you can use for a road. The goal of the rock is for it to lock together so that it doesn't move, and as it gets compacted, it locks together. Round and smooth rock will never do this. The only explination for anybody using round rock on a road is that they used it for fill material because they could get it cheaper then dirt.

Eddie

 

[AGGIE00]

Was waiting for someone to suggest this. I used it on my clay driveway with great effect changed my driveway from a skating ring in winter to a hard safe driveway.
Just ripped the clay (use a box blade if you have one). Put down the cement.ripped again to mix it in. Graded it flat with scraper blade. Wet it down lightly with water. Run your tractor or loaded truck over the drive way to compact it.
If you have a cement works in your local area try ringing them and asking if they have any BCB cement...(Bulk Cementatious Binder)..Its what they use to back fill mines etc. You will probably be able to buy it cheaper than lime.

regards

The problem with cement in clay is that the clay will not break down enough to get a good mix and because you don't want to rework cement it doesn't do the job that lime will. The first mix with lime will still have large clay balls, but after 48 hrs and a remix the clay will have broken down and stabilized. A 6" lime or cement subgrade section will not rut in the heaviest of rains to a cement truck or 20. The only problem with lime stabilized clay is that it must have a gravel surface to get any kind of traction when wet.

 

[AGGIE00]

Round River Rock is the very worse type of rock that you can use for a road. The goal of the rock is for it to lock together so that it doesn't move, and as it gets compacted, it locks together. Round and smooth rock will never do this. The only explination for anybody using round rock on a road is that they used it for fill material because they could get it cheaper then dirt.

Eddie

Bank run gravel like you are talking about that comes out of Maysfield has the right amount of large medium and fine aggregates and chinks together extremely well for roads. I love it, but the freight makes it unaffordable for me. We opted for a mixture of reclaimed base, bottom ash, and rap. The rap makes it a little hard to work, but with a little moisture and compaction it binds together well and when dry does not create dust. I am buying it at $10.00/cy delivered.

 

[keegs]

Yeah...this stuff is packed down pretty well....I don't think I'm going to have any issues with it...of course he moved it around and compacted it with a small dozer..:thumbsup:

Wish I could do the whole driveway in one shot but ...I'll get there.

 

[beppington]

The picture in my original Post #1 is a part of the trail that will not actually end up being part of the driveway, since that area is further back into the property, past where the house will be. But the rest of the trail looked very similar: A somewhat sunken 2-rut trail, sunken from years of the previous owner (farmer) driving on it, splashing the dirt/ mud off the drive up onto the banks ... as many neglected roads have happen (they seem to sink).

So, here are pics of what I did Sunday to the part of the trail that will be the driveway:

First stretch of the driveway, just in off the paved road (facing south in this pic):

First corner, ~400' in from the paved road (facing ~SW in this pic):

Another of that first corner, plus the 2nd straight of the driveway (facing west in this pic):

I spent about 4 hours dragging my new Land Pride GS1572 (6' wide) grading scraper up & down the ~600' long trail. At first I put the shanks all the way down & ripped up the whole thing real good, at a minimum width of 12' to about 14' in others (the 12' wide sections are where I'm limited due to large trees). I was able to remove many, many roots of all sizes from the trail this way. I also discovered that most of the trail is sand, which I think is good. And I was able to drag the clay areas into the sandy areas, to sort of mix them together so the clay is not all at just two concentrated problem areas. Thankfully there's much more sand than there is clay.

I was able to bring the higher road sides back onto the road itself so the trail & surrounding terrain is close to the same level now.

We finally got a little rain Monday, & I drove on this newly ripped up trail, & it seemed better, although the rain was somewhat light & it's been dry here for a long while now.

My plan now is to return this Saturday to establish a circle drive in front of the house location, rip that all up so it looks like these new pics, smooth the whole driveway out one last time, & then have a $437, 21-ton load of the scrap rock delivered, which I'll then spread with the GS.

Any thoughts?