Concrete driveway in Northeast

Part of a home project involves redoing my driveway...contractor wants to do a concrete driveway but I rarely see anything but blacktop in my town (Upstate New York). I am concerned about effects of salt and freezing/thawing and general appropriateness of a concrete driveway in my neck of the woods. Ideas?

 

[JAE]

For salt/freezing/thawing/spalling be sure to use air entrainment in the mix (probably 6% - 7%). In the upper midwest (where winter is also severe) there are numerous concrete driveways everywhere.

 

[CarlB]

Also lots of concrete driveways in Anchorage, Alaska but most are asphalt, probably more due to costs and ability to withstand ground movement due to freeze/thaw of subgrade soils. Like JAE said, air entrainment important otherwise mix is pretty typical. May be difficult to construct on steeper slopes (over 4% to 6% I'd guess). Also starting to see more concrete driveways with embedded pipes for snowmelting. This can be done with asphalt driveways also.

 

[dik]

A good high strength mix 30-35 MPa min., 3" slump (very stiff and hard to work but do-able) and for a local contractor, you might push it to 4". Air 5-7% for 3/4" aggregate, 2" cover to any rebar and preferably epoxy coated bars, sawcut at the right time (about 8 hours after finishing, as soon as the concrete is hard enough to sawcut), and a couple of coats of silane/siloxane sealer should give you an A1 pad...

 

[dik]

Forgot to add the panel size. Sawcut into approximately 15'x15' squares for a 6" slab. and make sure that the granular base is well and properly compacted.