A more durable driveway

[tyb525]

We have a 1/4 mile gravel lane. Every 2 or 3 years we have to bring in more gravel, because eventually it turns to dust and gets really sloppy when it rains. This has been going on since the farm was here (100+years) I'd guess. We put a new culvert in last spring, and when I dug down with the backhoe there was probably 16" to 2 feet of crushed rock, sand basically.

We get #6 crusher run with fines, and we have tried without fines also and seem to get similar results.

I figured many of you would have experience with this, so what I'm asking is what is a good thing to put down that will last longer?

I was thinking maybe put down some large stones and fill in with #6? Or I've also seen recycled asphalt used, does that last a long time and is it expensive?

[Norm]

Is this limestone you're using now Ty?

[talldog]

Reclaimed asphalt is super.Its also quite expensive.I had it put on my drive a couple years ago.No mud,instant packing,no dust,and it melts snow and ice away quite quickly when the sun shines

[Bandmill Bandit]

The reclaimed asphalt is about as close as you can get to asphalt. It packs well and the sun and heat will actually help it to re-bond and seal your lane. The sealing is the real key. You can add sealer to it to get a better finished seal after couple of months of hot weather as well.

Normal traffic will deposit mud and other earth common materials on top of your gravel which over time builds up and mixes in with your gravel. This is the main reason you need to add clean gravel on top. If you could do a vertical clean cut you would  probably be able to count the layers and see how much the lane has built up over the years. Almost like the growth rings of a tree.  

The asphalt product will seal the surface so that normal rain fall will help to wash the contaminate material to the sides. Just make sure you build a slight crown into your lane BEFORE you lay down the recycled asphalt. You will be much happier with the result.

I know it is more expensive but you get what you pay for. 3 inch minimum is what I would recommend.

FYI   I am assuming a very well built minimum 18 to 24 inch base laid down in in 4 to 6 inch lifts and compacted to 90% before surface material is applied.

TYB in your case I am pretty sure that you will have at least that already in place as a result of the years your lane has been in use. The county grader will be able to crown the drive way for you if the county allows for that. Geo tech material is a good idea but I only use it conditions of unstable or boggy/surface spring locations to keep the silt contaminates from rising into the the road bed substrate with the rise and fall of the surface water table.

[tyb525]

Limestone is what we currently use. And it has worked a crown in the middle of the years anyways, but we always get puddles in the tracks.

Sounds like the recycled asphalt is the way to go, I wasn't sure how well it would pack.

[Ironwood]

Actually, I have a 3/4 mile long regrind asphalt drive, it is over mostly solid bedrock.

IF, I were starting with anything less than a bedrock base I would use Geomatting (your common cheap skate could use synthetic carpet from your local dumpster outside the carpet shop) lay it down under the gravel, then put the regrind on top. The regrind is AWSOME, it just needs a VERY good base. You dont want the spring frost creating a soft base that then cracks your new "asphalt".  I used really old "green" home heating oil (green algae) to reemulsify the tar in the regrind. rolled it with HEAVY forklift and a roller HEAVY w/ vibratory action (one case of beer, priceless) Been down for.......5 years or so. Great stuff. I 'll bet I have spread 20 triaxles worth, and another 10-14 tandems in a pile we draw from when needed.

           Ironwood

[Radar67]

I have been studying on driveways recently. I have 900 feet of clay that I have to build my road over. Everything I read leads to geo textile as underlay and 3 to 4 inches of gravel on top. There has to be a good crown on the road and bar ditches where needed to keep the surface dry and drained. The more open and the less trees shading the road, the better. The wind and sun work wonders on drying things out after a rain, if it can get to it.

[beenthere]

Re-claimed asphalt costs about the same as limestone here.

[Norm]

I've used limestone for years and have the same problem Ty. Reclaimed asphalt is not available so we've gone to using gypsum. Last a lot longer for us.

[mad murdock]

We have a steel mill in the vicinity, and the slag that they produce makes pretty good material, especially after it has set for a couple months, it gets almost like concrete.  The mill sells it for $10 a dump truck load (loading fee), or if a guy has a loader and his own truck, it is free.  The stuff is sized large (2-3" minus), and small (3/4" minus).  Many of the commercial timberland owners in this country use "pit run" (4-6") rock, and if it is a more used road throw a little 2" minus on top.  The pit run stuff does make for a real solid base.

[Al_Smith]

Depends on where you live I suppose .I'm right in limestome country so it's at least 8 inches of number 1s and 2s and 6 inchs of 304 over that .If it needs top dressed after a few years it's 411 .The stone numbering system  seems to vary depending on the geographical location .

In a former life with former wife I put in 600 feet of lane using reclaimed rail road ballast .Balite limestone, hard as granite . At a buck and a quarter a ton loaded how could I go wrong ? That was 1980 though .

[SwampDonkey]

Packed crushed shale works good, about 4 inches. The only thing about this natural stuff, and we don't have heavy clay up where I live, is weeds will grow in it over time. Especially something like chickweed and pineapple weed and some grasses I suppose. Usually growing up in the less packed crown.

[Bro. Noble]

We've used a limestone product that is pretty course but with a lot of fine material in it-----I don't remember what it's called.  It has worked pretty well for us except in steap areas.  Once it starts washing a ditch,  it grows with each heavy rain.  We have considered paving with asphalt or concrete,  but worry that the rapid runoff would create bigger problems.  Any ideas?

[Ironwood]

We have a VERY steep approach to the house directly, and another "truck route" out and around. The best method is to work with nature, I let nature cut the inside edge for years before the regrind went down, this created a natural waterpath, AND the less "improvements the better, things like culverts, they require maintance. I found that out early on. I maintain about 1.5 miles of road with numerous creeks and pipes. My truck route is gravel and the direct route is regrind. The regrind has held up VERY well. I do NOT miss the maintainence issue on the steep. My biggest issue is the mud season on the truck route, when the frost comes out of the ground, once that is gone I am golden! I already went thru 20 ton of lmestone on the drive and shop area this year. It is an annual issue, especially near the shop and mill, lots of debris build up, bark, saw dust, dirt from pressure washing. I usually scrape it out (haul it w/ crawler/dump) to the long truck drive and put fresh in the shop area. Natural revolution. I wish we could get mill slag here >:( where I grew up in Ohio it was everywhere and NEVER rounds over like limestone, my Grandmothers drive never eroded (like limestone) for 20 years

Ironwood

[SwampDonkey]

When we built coastal roads we just used crust shale and steep climbs had water bars. The flat out roads were never graded where I works and never turned to mud. Back here in NB, they don't know how to build forest roads worth snot. They still think clay and coarse sand makes good roads. Only when it's dry. When it wet, it either washes (sand shoulders) or turns to a sesspool (clay) that a truck usually ends up sinking to the bed of a log trailer. They will spend $Millions a year grading roads at least twice a week all during the mild seasons, non stop. These are the forest companies. If they would just used crushed stone they would be eons and $$ ahead.

[Al_Smith]

It depends on where the limestone comes from as to the hardness .This stuff around here is pretty hard and doesn't powder up .It just disappears and goes to China after a while .I think it was maybe two years ago I had something like 90 -100 tons of 411  hauled to top  about 600 feet of 12 foot wide drive .Once every 15 years ,I'm not going to beller too loud .

I got rid of my F-600 Ford some time ago .I figured with what they can haul on a 5 axle and counting my time ,fuel, insurance and tags I was working for 4 dollars an hour .The very last year I had 500 in tags and insurance and hauled 50 tons --no brainer .

[Al_Smith]

Let me add something .The idiot that lived here before me had no equipment .Every couple of years he had 703's hauled in which is grit  .He could work it out with a garden rake but it makes a poor top surface .In addition it tracks on peoples shoes and gets into the house making ones better half extremely proud of you . The guy also mowed about 3/4 of an acre of grass with a push mower . He must have been a glutten for punishment is all I could figure .

[SwampDonkey]

The guy also mowed about 3/4 of an acre of grass with a push mower . He must have been a glutten for punishment is all I could figure .

I mow an acre by the old fashioned way and that's after a week of cutting brush on 5 acres of woods. The mowing don't pay much though. :D :D ;D

[stumper]

Reclaimed asphault is awesome.  However, I would suggest 6 inches of it.  You could do that with 3 inches this spring an 3 more next if money is tight.  We have found that less then 6 inches will not hold up much better then gravel.  On the other hand I have seen 6 inches hold up on a section of road with 3000 vehicles a day and loads of up to about 140,000 pounds for 4 to 5 months.  

It is what I plan to use on my drive as money allows.  I am choosing that over asphault because the clay heaves my drive and asphault would crack.  This will also crack but will also reseal with summer heat.

[MudBud]

I also use pavement reclaim. It lasts about 10 years and then we recoat, roughly around $30/ton or if they are doing a parking lot repaving then its just the hauling fee.  Also reground concrete works good.  Some small driveways use mussel/clam shells from restaurants after they send them to the lanfill, they charge $10 truckload.

Be careful with Gypsum and some Limestone.  Both do carry trace amounts of salt and when wet it will get on the undercarriage of your vehicles and stick like cement! 

[tyb525]

Our soil is pretty much prime farming soil (I don't know the technical names) with clay about 3 feet down, not really any rock to speak of.

We also have a steeper hill (10-15%) right off the road, then there are two rolling hills but I wouldn't call them hills really. The steep hill not only goes downhill, but it is cut into the side of a steep drop from a field about 10 feet higher, which continues another 10 feet into wooded bottomland.

We always have trouble with the gravel washing down the steep hill onto the road every spring and during heavy rains. We keep a ditch alongside the lane on the uphill side, it works until we get too much rain and/or it gets clogged with leaves, then it spills out onto the lane and proceeds to wash out a rut in the same spot every time.

It's always been my job to reclaim as much of the gravel as I can off the road : :D

My biggest concern about the asphalt is whether it would wash away - the steep section is totally covered by trees, so it rarely dries completely.

[Al_Smith]

I mow an acre by the old fashioned way and that's after a week of cutting brush on 5 acres of woods. The mowing don't pay much though. :D :D ;D

Well that does surprise me . All this time I figured you'd weed wack the yard .

I do about 2.5 acres but I'm rather fond of riding .

[SwampDonkey]

Ty, look at the use of water bars and outsloping on that road down off the terrace from the field. The road will still need maintenance but will reduce costs and time spent every year. Maybe the AG department have someone or literature on this for erosion control.

Well that does surprise me . All this time I figured you'd weed wack the yard .

I do about 2.5 acres but I'm rather fond of riding .

Don't think for one moment a weed whacker and a brush saw aren't employed at different times of the year on the other 3 acres. :D  I usually take the cobwebs out of the old FS550 in April mowing down osier, apple, mountain ash, balm and red elder clumps. :D The weed whacker goes along the ditches,culverts, mailbox and buildings and raised bed garden on a not so regular basis, whenever I feel like it. ;D That's what keeps the spring in your step, keep's ya from going all soft and spleeny. :D

[Al_Smith]

I have no idea what spleeny is .I will say however it certainly  would  put spring in your step if you wacked yourself in the foot .I imagine the neighbors might think you were starting  a new dance craze or perhaps got a bee in the britches .Not good .

[SwampDonkey]

Naw, just operator error. :D

spleeny: spiteful and hard to get along with. :D :D :D ;)

[Ironwood]

10' drop, I wish I had that, we drop 100' in,....well 300', so steep there was no going back to once you started grading w/ the ole 8N. The top 50' is so steep it is hard to walk it. Flooding would never be a problem, washing down the hill perhaps. One of the regrind trucks tipped over sideways and pinned on a tree trunk. Front loader came to rescue him, ripped off the bulkhead. Rough terrain. Got rid of the 8N there by avoiding natural selection. ;D

Ironwood

[Al_Smith]

In Pittsburgh that comes as no surprise .There are no flat spots unless you make them .Up hill or down hill, no middle ground . ;D

[SwampDonkey]

Reminds me of the hills in Knowlesville and Divide, pretty to look at, not so great to work on. Up hills both ways. :D Well named. Here on the farm we never had any hard hills, mostly flat and mostly under 10 %. My woodlot wouldn't change 20 feet from the lowest point to the highest. The house lot is actually on a bigger hill, but it's long and gradual and not steep. Probably a 60 foot change from the lowest to highest on the 4 acres. It's a long lot, but not rectangular.

[pigman]

I have a short drive, only a mile, but my way of road building is different than most.  Half of the road was shared with a neighbor and I had to do it his way. We bought gravel every year and the road was always rough with deep ruts because of the tracks. After a little discussion and me agreeing to pay for everything, I got control of road maintaince. The neighbor wanted a low narrow road  so he wouldn't slide off the road. Water ran down the tracks, washed ruts and stood in the flat areas of the road. I rented a dozer and raised and widened  the road. Now, with minimum gravel the road stays dry and if water gets in the road after a hard rain it will quickly move off the sides of the road. I spend far less on the shared portion of the road now even though I pay for all gravel instead of half. Another thing in road upkeep is to have the road wide enough to not make single tracks. If the shoulders of the road are not driven on, they will get higher than the middle and water will run down the tracks. It sounds expensive to raise a road and loose all of the gravel, but in the long run it has saved me money and the road is a lot smoother.

[Ironwood]

I suppose a bit off topic, but I am an eastern ohioian by birth and I always loved the topography and woods in Pa, I always knew I would live in Pa. I even have a dramatic 200' drop to the East on our property line , you don't realize it until you really look, then its like WOW, that a freakin big drop. Neighbor cut "tables" and roads for deer fencing, we watched the new JD extra long track (xlt) 650 cut them, and all I gotta say is that guy was good, really good.  One hill so steep a 4x4 quad has NO chance of climbing it. He pushed over trees going down to hold the dozer back. .  Ironwood

[SwampDonkey]

Yes, a well ditched dry road makes a world of difference. Most people around here run a dozer up through their woods and no ditches. Great big mounds of mud holding all the water in the road. That seems to be the old way of doing it by most logging operations on private land. Quick and messy and cheap, but a wet soup in rain. The timber licenses and freehold mill owners build roads with ditches but sand and clay don't hold up in the wet season. And some don't build proper roads on slopes. The farm here we could drive the roads a few days after the snow melts, 4 or 5, you can't on those forest roads where we cut brush. The road crew here however ruined the road last summer where it turns to dirt off the pavement. They shoved off all the packed gravel they trucked in there 3 years ago and brought the ditch material into the road bed and pushed it around with a grader. I never saw a pith poor job as that in my life. When it rains that mess turns to snot. Ruined the road bed, I could swear.  The farmers coming through and the onlookers out for a sunday drive have rutted that road for over a mile to the next community road.

[Al_Smith]

Going east on US 30 towards Pa the lay of the land changes dramatically once you cross the river in Mansfield Ohio .It  gets more hilly the further you go eastwardly .

By the time you cross the Pa line they stack those acres on end .My dad grew up in Universal Pa which is kind of like a suburb of Pittsburgh .The first time I ever saw those hills through the eyes of a young boy of 8 years of age they looked like the rocky mountains . :D

[stumper]

Yes a good ditch is important.  The three most important things in roadway maintenance is drainage,drainage, and drainage.

[barbender]

Yes a good ditch is important.  The three most important things in roadway maintenance is drainage,drainage, and drainage.

I agree.  ;)

[Ironwood]

I do enjoy the topography here, it is what I call "accessable", not like say the rockies where mountains will "deny" you safe access by there shear scale. I REALLY love West Virginia. We get WV Public radio, and it is funny to hear, "the highs today will be 30's, 40's and 50's"  :D which is due to the varied terrain and elevation.

"Stacked on end" I like that.

Ironwood

[Al_Smith]

Here's another option .Bank run gravel will pack about as hard as concrete if you live in areas of gravel deposits left over from the ice age . You have to pay attention to crowning it because it doesn't drain real well with a bunch of fines in it .It's usually cheaper than limestone .The price of any stone ,fill ,whatever is not where the cost is involved .The trucking is what costs you .

I have around 350 tons of bank run inside my shop with 7.5 inches of reenforced 'crete  over the top . Makes darned good cheap fill  if nothing else .

[SwampDonkey]

No shortage of gravel in these parts. It's in river terrace, drumlins, kames and eskers.  ;D

[Al_Smith]

What in the world is all that ? Sounds Greek to me .

A drumlin sounds like one of those little wing things off a chicken they've figured out how to sell . I can't imagine buying something they give away free at bars during happy hour but to each their own .Speaking which though,whatever ever happened to the necks .

By the amount of wings they peddle the chickens must be growing 4 a piece these days and no necks ,odd .

[SwampDonkey]

  Ah, well just some of the landforms around here you don't have the gamble about their being gravel under.

[Ironwood]

Al,

Drumlins, eskers and are glacial remants, eastern Ohio has some, although they tend to be fairly subtle. Most people living there have no idea, likely most think they are left overs from mining operations. Lots of that stuff up in the Finger Lakes Region of NY. I enjoy seeing them. My MIL lives up there and we frequently travel in the region.

Ironwood

[Al_Smith]

Ah so ,I get it . This area of Ohio is glacial cain(sp) I think .Flater than a pancake but has gravel ,some is deep,some not so .Eastwardly where those acres are stacked on end those mounds of gravel are plain as day where the glacer melted according  to geologists .We about have to take their word for it because nobody is still alive who knows for sure .

That term drumlin just reminded me of a puny chicken leg for some reason .Having one of my moments ,for a moment .

[Ironwood]

Taken in context there is NO doubt this happened the surface we see today is only the top of the "icing of the cake" in Eastern Ohio (where I am more familiar) there are deep water aquafiers that travel the pre-glacial drainage patterns of valley and such. These valleys were filled with sediments and deposits of what was once the surface of what is now the great lakes. Envision a HUGE dozer blade a mile tall pushing debris, sometimes you get a "gooney" stone on the blade that rolls under and pops out behind with some fines (that is an Drumlin) debris point down range in the direction of travel. Medial, End (terminal) Moraines are where the dozer had stuff rolling off to the side of the blade, or when it began to melt away (retreat) and left piles. Eskers are "reverse" valleys of sediment that was under the glacier and as it melted these are left behind (think rivers inside the glacier). Now consider the multiples of occurences of Glaciation and it get topographically complex but certainly it happened. Lots of Canadian Shield granite in NW Pa. that should never be there. Heavily eroded (round), with no current erosion force that great. Had to happen somehow. Also, in satellite images the patterns all read very obviously, consider the "scratching" evidence and orientation common around many areas in Canada (Georgian Bay, Adirondacks, Coastal Maine, etc..)  Some of the drainage erosion patterns of SE Ohio and SW Pa. are outflow remanants of receeding Glaciers meltwater there is not enough current waterforce or volume to create this topography. 

I like Geology  ;D
Ironwood

[Al_Smith]

I find geology rather fascinating myself but I'm just a novice at it .

This portion of Ohio of course sits on an huge limestone foundation .It is said to be the bottom of a huge inland sea .Over that is dotted here and there with deposits of gravel shoved in by one of the ice ages .


I have two water wells .One is 190 feet and down in the

stone .Another is at 117 and in the nicest layer of pea gravel and most likely in an aquafer left over from the ice age .

The deeper well became laden with sulfer which is assumed to caused by the drilling of an oil well about a mile away by the way the crow flys .Within the last year or so  that well experinced some problems becoming what I thought was "sanding in" .In blowing it out with compressed air it turned out to be blue clay slurry .

It could tell that it like many wells had several water sources .I let the well set for 6 months and never pumped it .Believe it or not the aquafer that had the  hydrogen sulfide gas had sealed off and that water has no sulfur what so ever now .

Now the limestone .To the north are several areas of the type limestome used to make portland cement .In addition deposits of blue clay thus an industry was born becaue they are the two main ingrediants of portland cement .

[SwampDonkey]

If it's flat, don't forget glacial fluvial, means a glacier fed river bed of washed gravel. Since has receded and disappeared. You can see it happening with your own very eyes in Stewart, BC coming off the Bear glacier. When the seasonal melt is over you have a tiny little brook flowing down the valley, surrounded by gravel bed for a long way across the valley. When she's wide open melt there is a river a mile wide there in places. In Terrace there is a huge flood plain built up with gravel from ice melt along the Skeena. There now stands a forest of Lodgepole on that flat wide plain along with a large town. It's definitely not science fiction or speculative. ;) Those coast mountains have glaciers today and some have gone "extinct" in our lifetimes. You can see in the mountain tops where they all carved out bowls with steep headwalls, cirques, some with just a little stream left running down through.



Here is an Esker, there is also a branch going off to the NW into Maine (narrow dark shadow) a little ways up from the south of what is outlined in yellow. This Esker is about 25 miles long coming up from Williamstown Lake. There is gravel all over this country. I have seen a couple drumlins totally mined out for gravel and now flat like the floor. ;D

[Al_Smith]

My uncle who owns the timber tract in Knox county Ohio also owns a couple hundred acres of river bottom on the Scioto river .That ground is underladen with gravel . That stuff would grow 200 bushel per acre corn when half that amount was considered a bumper crop .He's got like a 20 acre lake on that ground left from quarring gravel that is cold enough to sustain trout .Freeze  the business off a brass monkey I'll tell you that .

Interesting though in the hill country,which really it's pretty much all that are huge deposites of sandstone .All that stone but no limestone.They have to haul it in .It changes that much in about 100 miles from the flat lands in the northwest to the central and eastern hill country .

[petefrom bearswamp]

Back to reclaimed asphalt called pavement grindings here in my area.
I put 4" or so on part of my driveway, 200 feet flat, , 300 feet about 15% grade.
This was in 1995 with no compaction except vehicle traffic.
Had to re do in 2009 finally with 6" deep and 11 feet wide and compacted by a heavy vibratory roller.
I hired a contractor and it cost me $7 per foot but worth it.
If this lasts 14 more years I'll be  87 and probably milling in the great beyond.
Pete

[SwampDonkey]

The government reclaims it here for back dirt roads. Lots of cross roads here. In our county the rural community roads run N-S. And cross roads, a lot are dirt, but most are getting surfaced with reclaimed asphalt over the years. Only the ones they plow in winter. There are lots of dirt ones that will remain so because they are basically farm roads, even though the government grades them.

[Al_Smith]

The reclaimed asphalt while supposedly saving on new bitumine for new mix really turned out to be an econimical booster for road builders .

It's been proven the reclaimed and remixed stuff doesn't have the longgevity of newly made stuff and thusly the road builders now get to resurface roads more frequently . Kinda makes one wonder if it wasn't kind of planned that way . :

[SwampDonkey]

It doesn't matter, because our winter busts up the roads anyway on the country roads. You can't expect a paved road to hold up on a clay road that heaves and rolls every time the ground freezes and thaws. Culverts will sink a foot and a half some places in the summer. :D Then the opposite in the spring frost heaves. The road bed is just the mud out of the ditch line with a thin veneer of gravel or crushed stone, if we're lucky. They don't put black top roads out in the country only on the four-lanes and truck routes where they build a proper road. So all these back country roads are just chip sealed and a very thin veneer at that. Patch work never ends. :D

[Al_Smith]

It's just the difference in how they built the roads depending on the geographical area .I'll tell you this you can tell when you're into Indiana coming from Ohio just by the roads .Not real smooth .

[Larry]

When we first bought our farm in north Missouri the drive had little gravel on it, no ditches, and brush came up to the drive on both sides.  Getting from the road in was a challenge even with 4-wd during spring.  I bought several hundred tons of gravel each year until I got it fixed the way I wanted.

First step I hired a dozer to clear the brush.  The dozer operator was afraid to cut in ditches cause the phone and water line were in there.  I dug the ditches with the tractor FEL...took most of one year a few hours every night.  Than bought several hundred ton of railroad ballast.  I loaded with my tractor and the neighbor hauled in a 6 ton surplus county dump truck.  Think we paid $1/ton and the road bed was only a mile away.

After pic and around the bend it was the same way.



With the improvements I still had to buy gravel, but it was more like 1 or 2 loads every three or four years.  The best part was the drive was solid enough year round to allow passage of anything from a 2-wd car to a larger truck.

[SwampDonkey]

Couldn't have had much snow to plow, or gravel was cheap. Several hundred ton? Good grief Charlie Brown. :D  I live in gravel country and it's more like $/yard³ not tons. ;D

[Al_Smith]

When they sold off a secton of abandoned rail all the scraper was concerned about is the rail and the ties .Most or a majority of the rail ,splice plates,wear plates went to South America,the ties to who ever .The ballast is just residue ,cash sale type stuff .A buck,buck and a quarter a ton was about the usual price .I got in on some of that at a buck and a quarter,loaded .I hauled it,7-8 tons a load ,1/2 mile .

They would try to get more which is human nature but only a few people ever paid the 3 bucks or so they started out with .Right place ,right time,cash talks ,BS walks . 8)

[SwampDonkey]

I'd be out watering it down before the sale. :D :D

[Al_Smith]

They actually just guessed at it .They only charged me 6 tons a load and I was probabley hauling 8 or 9 .4 yard bed wih a double set of 12" boards .Just a tad top heavy .1957 Ford F 600 with a whopping 145 HP  272 V8 .

It wasn't a big deal,the guy that bought it off the salvage company paid pennys for it .Like 12 miles with a double set of tracks .He probabley recooped his money the first mile . I'm sure it was a cash deal too .

Those jokers from the salvage company even had some new ties cut into inch and a half planks they sold for horse fences .Creosote treated oak, it would last forever .Another cash deal .

[pigman]

First step I hired a dozer to clear the brush.  The dozer operator was afraid to cut in ditches cause the phone and water line were in there. 

Dang Larry, I never let a little wire or water line stop my dozer. Those three inch water lines sure throw the water when hit with a dozer blade. :

[northwoods1]

Couldn't have had much snow to plow, or gravel was cheap. Several hundred ton? Good grief Charlie Brown. :D  I live in gravel country and it's more like $/yard³ not tons. ;D

A ton of gravel is less than a square yard. A tri-axle dump will hold about 18 yards or 50,000# of gravel. The asphalt grindings weigh a lot more close to 2 tons per cubic yard.

I have a friend that works for a paving company that does a lot of highway work and whenever he is working in my area he arranges to bring me loads of asphalt grindings for free. I finally had to tell him to quite because I ran out of places to put more of it. One thing I noticed with it is that you have to get it spread and leveled right away if it is hot out or it will begin to solidify in the pile and make it more difficult to work with. If you can compact it it makes a very nice solid drive.

Now I get to start on the road going in to my other property which is about 1600' long. Hope to get it at least ditched and graded with a nice crown this summer, that goes a long ways towards keeping it free of water and helping it dry out. The gravel will have to wait until I can afford it, or my friend happens to be working down in that area.

[Al_Smith]

I think they figure about a ton and half per yard on bank run gravel . I've bought a bunch of it over the years and never did got a weight slip, just the yardage .

[beenthere]

Ours is always by weight any more. When it was by the yard, it was just a guestimate. Now they still guess for the load, but weigh it for billing. The guy running the loader can't "add a little" extra for good measure.

[SwampDonkey]

Weight can be just as variable as yardage guestimate with water content in it. They know how much a bucket holds on a loader, so it's a little better than a guess. ;)

[barbender]

You would be hard pressed to get free asphalt millings up around here. I have in the past, but I work for a paving company. The company always tries to hold on to that material, it goes right back into new asphalt. Al Smith, where was it proven that asphalt with RAP in it has decreased longevity? I've never really seen anything suggesting that, I suppose if the RAP content was too high it could affect things. I've worked on jobs where our trucks dump a load of hot mix, go up the road and get loaded with millings, and bring it back to the plant where it is blended right into the new asphalt going back out on that job. It's effecient ;)

[Al_Smith]

I got that info from a couple of operating engineers who work on road crews .