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EXT

wrote:
Thanks for your reply - I will do my best to answer your questions
below.

On Fri, 20 Mar 2009 14:43:43 -0400, "EXT"
wrote:

wrote:
We have a long gravel on clay driveway that is about 2 years old.
It has done fairly well until recently when we had a lot of rain
& snow. The gravel just got pushed down in the the
gel/slime/whatever and the driveway got in bad shape in a hurry.
This residential driveway has more traffic than a normal
residential driveway but it is limited to about 10-15 cars a day
and normal a normal residential delivery truck (USPS, UPS, FEDEX)
2 or so times a week.

I would appreciate any help with how to improve the driveway so we
won't have to frequently re-gravel it and then have it go bad in
the next long spell of wet weather.

Thanks for any help. (Is there a better place I could ask this
question?)

There is a lot of information that you do not supply. Was the clay
base
compacted,
No - except by construction trucks & modular carriers during
construction.
how thick is the gravel topping,
Not more than 3" originally, now zero in some places.
what type and size(s) of gravel used, was the gravel crushed gravel
or round river gravel,
The gravel ranges 3/4" to 1 1/2 inch. It is rounded brown river
gravel.
was the first layer of gravel a large size and then covered with
finer gravel,
No
do you have deep frost in your area, do you have snow and/or lots
of rain.
We are southeastern coastal Virginia, once every few years we have a
heavy snow. About half the winters have no snow. All time low is
0F, ground almost never freezes as deep as 1 foot. We have extended
periods of drought and lengthy periods of a lot of rain. Our road
really deteriorated after a recent snow, we'vd had lots of rain too.

Thanks again

That is what I can think of for now.

Two questions I forgot to ask: Is the driveway wide enough so that the
vehicle tires are not always running in the same spot causing a rut? Also
was the organic topsoil removed from under the driveway? Topsoil is a
surefire guaranteed failure as it is never stable and will just absorb the
gravel forever as the soil migrates up as mud and the gravel gets buried.

3" of rounded river gravel is not enough, especially with an uncompacted
base. You need several inches of coarse crushed gravel as a base. Rounded
gravel does not lock together, it rolls, moves and slides about as traffic
goes over it, crushed gravel has sharp edges and will jam together and hold
up better. You need a foot or more of quality gravel. One technique I have
seen is to use a heavy duty landscape type fabric to separate the clay from
the aggregate. I have a driveway that is 16 feet wide, built on a clay base,
in a high water area. I have a foot of old highway gravel and ashpalt pieces
covered with 6" of 2" crusher run limestone (this has all the crushed
limestone fines inbetween the stone causing it to harden when compacted into
a soft concrete), another 6" of 3/4" crusher run limestone and topped with
limestone screenings (the dust that is separated from the crushed gravel). I
can handle fully loaded concrete redimix trucks without a depression, only a
scuff on the surface which heals over.