Had some gravel drop spread

[RoseHillMS]

I had 8 loads of gravel drop spread on my 2400' driveway to my future homesite. Some areas are thicker than others and are "soft" when driving on. We have been driving on it and even taking the D6 dozer up and down the road to help pack it down. Do I need to be patient and wait for it to pack down or is there something I can do to pack it down faster. The road was graded and then drop gate spread 2 weeks ago.

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[Tooljunkie]

I wouldnt use a d6 for packing,depending on fines,clay and moisture it may take some time to tighten up.

 

[altoonapillarrock]

I had 8 loads of gravel drop spread on my 2400' driveway to my future homesite. Some areas are thicker than others and are "soft" when driving on. We have been driving on it and even taking the D6 dozer up and down the road to help pack it down. Do I need to be patient and wait for it to pack down or is there something I can do to pack it down faster. The road was graded and then drop gate spread 2 weeks ago.

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I have a 2200' driveway, parts are 20% grade. My neighbor and I rented a huge vibrating roller for $800. For our steep driveways this is a necessity. Only needs to be done once every 10 years. Don't know if this applies to your situation. We rented the roller for two days but they let him keep it for weeks. Needless to say everything in the area is compacted.


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[eipo]

Get some moisture in it, then take your heaviest wheeled piece of equipment and add whatever you can to it to make it even heavier and wheel roll the stone.

The D6 isn't going to gain you any compaction. All its going to do is pulverize the stone.

 

[eipo]

Another thing.... How many yards/tons in a "load?"

8 loads over 2400' seems a little light to me. If you don't have at least 6" of stone, it wont compact. Especially if its on sand which it looks like....

 

[Grouse Feathers]

We have used two local contractors to deliver gravel and grade the driveway. One spreads the gravel starting at the entrance on the way in and thus packs the gravel on the way out with his dump truck (generally backs up a couple of times to do a thorough job. The other contractor has a large vibrating roller. A couple of passes with the roller and it usually is two or three years before a downpour is able to start eroding the hills.

 

[skeets]

I dont know what your bed is like but I think you may find out when it gets wet the gravel will sink in the soft spots. Something you might think about would be to find the heavy landscaping cloth used on road ways, I had to do that here because of the clay. Water goes through the material yet will hold everything in place. Im sure theres a few guys here that can tell you what its called, I know its not cheap but it saved me a ton of money on gravel

 

[RoseHillMS]

Thanks guys. I should've put the highway cloth down beforehand but was talked out of it by the gravel guy. Some parts of the road are 6" deep and some aren't. The parts that are 6" deep seem soft and squishy. The dump truck dropped the gravel on the way in and rode on it on the way out to help compact it. Each trucks load was 5 yards I was told by the company and was $400 a load. Never having done this to this extent before I'm just trying to make this come out the way I envisioned it. In hindsight I should've gone with the highway fabric but I'm not moving all this gravel now to do it.


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[eipo]

You need more material. A 6" layer 10' wide by 2400' long is 444 cubic yards. Even if you went to 3" you're still looking at 222 yards. You're trying to make 40 yards do what 222 would barely accomplish. Especially if the thickness is inconsistent.

I would spend some time knocking off the high points and try to get it as level as possible and go from there.

$400 for 5 yds sounds high. Were the trucks pulling trailers or was it a straight truck ( no trailer) how many axles if it was a straight truck.

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[William1]

I redid our road (added a top layer of gravel). About 3,500' long and 10' wide. I put down 3/4" on an established bed. Five loads, 20 yards each carried by a double tandem. That resulted in about a 1" to 1.5" layer. I paid approximately $220 per 20 yard load delivered, eight miles from the quarry.
Followed by six hours on my little BX dressing it.
New road bed, the cloth is great but before the cloth is put down, soft spots need rock, rip rap 4"~5" and that needs top be compacted in until it no longer packs. Then the cloth, then crush and run (4", rolled and the bed crowned) topped with a single layer of 3/4".

 

[Grouse Feathers]

I had 8 loads of gravel drop spread on my 2400' driveway to my future homesite.

I just reread your post and future homesite hit me. I don't think your present road will stand up to construction traffic, especially if you have any rain during construction. If you are close to construction I would talk to someone local, with driveway building experience, about what you need for a driveway. If you are a few years away from construction you can probably continue to add an inch or two of gravel per year to the whole driveway or just areas that need it.

 

[RoseHillMS]

I mistakenly said 5 yds, it's a 20 yd dump truck. Sorry guys. I'm 25 miles to the nearest gravel yard so I knew upfront the cost was a bit higher but it's only $25 higher than everyone else price for short distance hauling.
When I say homesite it's more of a hunting cabin/camp. Stick built 1600sq ft.
No heavy equipment coming in. We are hauling all materials on a 20' trailer back there. Nothing heavier than a dump truck will go back there for a good while.
My plan from the beginning was to grade the road and add gravel and see how it packs down and then add more as needed.
Another question: was wondering if you can add limestone on top of the gravel once it's pretty level? I was thinking I would top dress it after I'm done with the camp house with limestone but a guy told me not to do it because it wouldn't be stable.


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[William1]

Limestone is just not very durable and will be ground up by the blue stone gravel under it, making for dust clouds.

 

[eipo]

160 yds is still a little lite, but as long as you know you're going to be adding more.....

I would stay away from limestone given the quantity you need and the nature of the drive. Crushed asphalt or crushed concrete.... most anything you topdress with will pulverize overtime and need to be sweetened up. Limestone, while nice, is kind of a boutique topdress. Its nice, white... but its relatively soft and will need to be addressed more often than something that's been recycled....

Ive laid miles of road and thousands of sq ft of parking area.... The absolute best "rustic" suggestion would be 6" of 2"-4" crushed concrete then topdress with 4"-6" of 3/4 minus crushed concrete. Crushed concrete will lock up faster and better than limestone because not only is it harder, but the edges are far more jagged than limestone so it stays locked together.

 

[Redlands]

Did you get crusher run type of gravel mix ? Not sure what it's called in your area. All different sizes need to be in the mix so it can lock together. If you gravel only has 1 1/2 inch let say then its going to have a hard time locking up. Hard to tell from your pictures what mix type you have

 

[RoseHillMS]

No I didn't. We used gravel clay mix. More gravel than clay. It's starting to pack down some. Guess patience is a virtue.


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