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["Lynda" <lurine AT com-pair.net>]

You need road rock, not gravel.  You dump your road rock, water it down a 
bit and then use a tamper.  It becomes very hard and makes a good solid 
surface.  Gravel moves and ends up spread all over the place, shale kinda 
gets sucked down into the ground.  Road rock is the answer.

Oh, and I'd contact the local school district and county and ask them about 
maintaining the turn-arounds.  We are on a private road and we got the 
school district and county to fix the muddy mess they made at the end of our 
road.  Can't hurt to try.

For the rut above space, why not a French drain on the uphill side and the 
water wouldn't wash across the road?

Lynda
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "EarthNSky" <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>


> I need gravel driveway advice.  For the most part, my driveway is on
> flat ground and I plan to just do a maintenance type grading with a box
> blade and add some new gravel.  I do have three problem areas, the worst
>  problem is last.
>
> 1. Our driveway has become a school bus turnaround and this has created
> a perennial depression in the driveway on what is technically the right
> of way next to the road.  What is the best way to slow down the packing
> down of the gravel and the 'digging' that happens when those big wheels
> turn?
>
> 2.  Our driveway crosses the dry creek/creek over a couple of 3 ft
> diameter culverts.  The 'roadbed' is gradually built up, but the soil
> and gravel always washes away and exposes the culvert in the roadbed.
> It is only a matter of time before something heavy crushes that culvert
> and someone gets hurt.  I've thought about adding steel plate to spread
> out the load, but that really won't stop the erosion at the culvert.
>
> 3.  As you approach the house, there is a 90 degree turn from the flat
> ground to go uphill to the house.  This uphill portion is only about 60
> or 70 feet- almost like a driveway within a driveway.  In this area we
> also have a tight turn circle that creates a small tree-filled island in
> the middle.  This whole hill is maybe at a 45-50 degree angle to the
> surrounding ground and main driveway.   It looks like a b with an
> underline.  No one but us uses the circle because it requires a
> y-maneuver. There is no room to expand the circle and even if you could,
> it would not eliminate the problem.  Many of my friends have big diesel
> trucks and the constant wear on the area where the 90 degree turn is has
> created a huge rut.  This same part of the driveway also takes abuse
> when we back out or drive out.  I suppose this is really the same issue
> as Problem #1, only this is magnified because it is on a hill, and
> washes when it rains.  The rut is about a foot deep.
>
> If adding soil, grading and adding new gravel is the best we can do,
> then okay, but I want to consider other options.  Are there any
> combinations of gravel that might hold and help these problems?  We
> usually put crush and run on it, because it is cheap....
>
> B
>
> --
> Many of our greatest American thinkers, men of the caliber of Thomas
> Jefferson, Henry Thoreau, Mark Twain, William James, and John Muir, have
> found the forest an effective stimulus to original thought.
> Bob Marshall
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