Ideas for speed bumps on gravel road

[CJN8]

I am looking for ways to control the speed of traffic on the easement across my land. I was thinking about building speed bumps from angle iron & flat strap and then securing them to my road with spikes. The road is crushed asphalt. Any ideas? I purchased a set of plastic speed bumps that are rated up to 10 tons. I am just not sure ithey will last long. We have trash trucks that come up and down the road and I know they are very heavy.

Thanks
Nate

 

[Bulldog]

We had some at the quarry made out of rubber. Seems like they were 4 or 5 feet long and then spikes held them in place. During the summer it was common to go over 300 loades a day and then you also have to add the number of truck that had to weigh in each day. They were in place for several years and didn't hardly show any wear. Wouldn't surprise me if the same one are still in place. My point, the rubber kind work and if you do try to speed over them you better be ready to knock the dent back down out of the roof. It will be the one shaped like a head.

 

[CJN8]

Great to know.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Piece of advice, If you install any speed bumps on an easement you must also post signs, otherwise you can get sued for any damages or injuries that results from someone being stupid and driving too fast over them!

Railroad tie's make good speed bumps too!

 

[mdhughes]

Most places around here the people just drive faster between the speed bumps then they drove on the road before the speed bumps. We have a real hard time with the guy that has the mail delivery contract, we have 15 MPH signs and he drives at least 45 MPH or more, this is on gravel private road a mile long. There has been a least three of us that live on the private road stop the guy and tell him that he needs to slow down and he is going to have to live with himself if he hits one of the little kids and kills one of them. Didn't make any difference. Oh the fun of it all.

Let us know what you do and if it helps any.

 

[skeets]

Yup RR ties do very well pin them in place and cover with gravel or in your case highway milling making a bit of a hump, with the milling pile it up and take some,, ahhh I know I ll catch hell for this,, diesel fuel and spray the hump down and run the roller over it compacting it. We did this on the sportsman's club road, and do post at least ONE sign at the end of the road. And space the ties at different intervels so he cant figure out where to drive like a mad man,,, the other thing you can do if it is a contract mailman/delivers guy like UPS or what ever is call the post master or his office supervisor and complain,,, OR just drag his ass out of the truck,,, well you get the idea

 

[olthumpa]

Jersey barriers staggered on opposite sides of the road.
The old stand buy, pot holes their are free!

 

[dtbprc]

Put a sharp 90 degree turn in road at point where you want them to slow to a crawl. yes a lot of work but will always be there. would need large rocks or ditch on sides to make them not go straight. or a fence

 

[CJN8]

Agree wolfman, talked it over with my brother in law who is an attorney and he said I am well within my rights to add the speed bumps but to be sure to put a couple of signs up.

It's very frustrating, my 7 year old daughter and nephews walk down the road regularly to our neighbors to see their horses and the last thing I want is to see them hurt. The dust is also a pain but I believe a few well placed bumps will help a lot. The two neighbors up the road will not be too happy but I have asked them to slow it down a bit with not so great results.

 

[Lil Foot]

I've seen 10"-12" steel pipe or culvert buried halfway in a gravel road for speed bumps- effective & fast to install, if you have a source for cheap pipe.

 

[D2Cat]

You mentioned the road is crushed asphalt. I would suggest to go out there and cut a few ruts/holes in it with what ever implement you have. Doesn't have to be pretty or straight or uniform or in any certain place. Simply make obstacles to impede speed.

A one bottom plow just accidentally dropped down as you were going down the road at a sharp angle would be a good start.

 

[WingNut]

Well you did mention that you had already purchased a set of plastic speed bumps rated for 10 tons, what do you have to loose if you put them down ?
I'd think that even if they got squashed a bit they would still provide a bit of a bump to slow people down.
But agree with others on here that you must post signs and may even have to paint out the plastic speed bumps so they are very noticable. If someone ever lost control and went in the ditch or rolled you'd be responsible otherwise.

 

[cerlawson]

Any chance you can create some cross ditches? The grading of the gravel will be much easier then, rather than with bumps. Perhaps also cutting to one lane there with warning "saw horses". Will take some continued maintenance however. Call 'em speed dips.

 

[olthumpa]

CJNS:

I am very sorry to hear that you dropped a couple of trees "accidentally" in the road and only got half of each cut up before you blew the motor in your chainsaw. Could take months or even years to get the parts.

 

[cerlawson]

Any other users that have road maintenance capability? If not, you can't seem to get the hang of road maintenance and may need patience of those using it. I once was in your position and just refused to do any fixing. The wash boarding from speeders got to be a real mess. Erosion did further damage, slowing things up.

 

[CJN8]

Great idea lil foot.

 

[Diydave]

Weld 3 pieces of angle iron together, at 90 degrees, makes a self supporting tank trap type obstacle. And you can move them when you want to move the potholes they cause, or to do road maintenance. Paint them dayglo orange, or yellow...

 

[olthumpa]

Any other users that have road maintenance capability? If not, you can't seem to get the hang of road maintenance and may need patience of those using it. I once was in your position and just refused to do any fixing. The wash boarding from speeders got to be a real mess. Erosion did further damage, slowing things up.

Been there done that. I just stopped fixing it. I had talked to the people using the road till I was blue in the face and they still traveled it like a bat out of hell. They finely slowed down when they started breaking suspension parts and doing body damage. There were some holes that a king cab 8' dully could not span them - length or width. They asked me when I was going to fix it. My response was never, the speed people are going right now is about right and I don't live on it. If I fix it, it will be a race track again. They were not happy but I was under no obligation to do anything. I used to maintain it because two good friends used to live on it. They paid for materials and appreciated what I did for them and they reciprocated and helped me with different things.

 

[sheepfarmer]

I was wondering about speed dips for our road. Would still like the county to plow snow even if they don't get to it until 2 days later, and seems like bumps would make it too challenging. Unfortunately the worst offenders are a couple of the school bus drivers who take their half out of the middle of a 1.5 lane dirt road with a blind curve in it
Part of my grey hair is a result of the times I've had to drive into the bushes on that blind curve.

 

[Daren Todd]

County maintains our road in the summer with one grading a year and maybe a little gravel every other year. In the winter, I maintain it from my driveway to the main road. The only one that speeds is the dingbat at the end of the road. She tears it up, and her husband fixes it with a wheel barrel and shovel. When I fixed the end of my driveway, I purposely loosened up a big spot just past my drive way, pulled the gravel out and filled it in with clay Turned to mud everytime it rains, she now has to slow down by my driveway to keep from tearing up her car Now you still take your life into your hands if you go to.the mail box around 5:30 to 6am from the two paper delivery drivers. They do sixty down our little gravel path