Gravel Road Construction 3

[dik]

I'm looking at providing an all weather road to support large trucks, equivalent to 53' trailers. The road will be about 600' long. We have local materials to use for the base course and can obtain 2" clean crushed material. The road will be used infrequently, but will be maintained. The existing soil it will be founded on is a dense gravel, clay mix.

Is it possible to build up about 4' of base using Granular "A" material (this is a reasonably well graded granular material that can be readily compacted) and put 6" to a 1' of clean crush and have this act as a road? I'm looking at a compaction effort of about 97% MPDD.

Does anyone have any references?

Dik

 

[bridgebuster]

I downloaded a gravel road manual a few years ago; published by the FHWA

http://www.epa.gov/owow/nps/gravelroads/

At the time I was working in the midwest inspecting about 3000 miles of gravel roads.

 

[dik]

Thank-you, sir...

Dik

 

[bridgebuster]

no problem.

 

[ACtrafficengr]

Good subbase for a paved road will not make a good gravel road, and vice-versa. Gravel roads need more fines to bind them together.

Here is the NYS spec for gravel road material, courtesy of the Cornell Local Roads Program:

http://www.clrp.cornell.edu/techassistance/Gravel pdfs/material specification.pdf

"...students of traffic are beginning to realize the false economy of mechanically controlled traffic, and hand work by trained officers will again prevail." - Wm. Phelps Eno, ca. 1928

"I'm searching for the questions, so my answers will make sense." - Stephen Brust

 

[dik]

Thanks... this is a similar spec to BB... but utilises coarser material...

Dik

 

[civilman72]

Your top surface should have exposed rock <1". Having 2" rock exposed at the surface will make it very difficult to properly maintain a level driving surface.

You will have to decide if it's worth the time/money to haul in 3/4" minus-well-graded material, vs. having to deal with a rough road throughout its use.

 

[dik]

Thanks Civilman72... the road will be used for heavy trucks in a mining type envionment and the larger aggregate won't be a problem. The driving course will be 1-1/2" aggregate.

Dik