What materials to use for shared access road
Discussion
We have parking at the rear of our house accessed by a shared access road for about 10 houses. It’s currently not too bad but want to repair recurring pot holes and add more stones so not as muddy!
Not many homes want to spend a fortune on it even though we could make it lovely so top surface likely to be road planings or maybe flint/granite chips.
The ground generally seems fairly compacted but the question is what is going to best get the pot holes sorted before adding a layer of stones?
If stones put in, they just tend to come out with all the cars driving over.
Does anyone work in this area or have experience of what they have done that has lasted and stones don’t move around too much?
We can get free rubble to fill holes but I don’t want to chuck loads of this down if better using something else?
E.g. Do we need Type 1 aggregate to compact into holes?
Some photos to give an idea of current situation.
Some areas need levelling as my TVR scrapes!
Not many homes want to spend a fortune on it even though we could make it lovely so top surface likely to be road planings or maybe flint/granite chips.
The ground generally seems fairly compacted but the question is what is going to best get the pot holes sorted before adding a layer of stones?
If stones put in, they just tend to come out with all the cars driving over.
Does anyone work in this area or have experience of what they have done that has lasted and stones don’t move around too much?
We can get free rubble to fill holes but I don’t want to chuck loads of this down if better using something else?
E.g. Do we need Type 1 aggregate to compact into holes?
Some photos to give an idea of current situation.
Some areas need levelling as my TVR scrapes!
RSTurboPaul said:
IIRC some Highway Authorities specify 'no unbound surfaces within X distance of the public highway' so you might need a small section of solid surfacing at the entrance if that is the case.
Good point, will have to have a read and try and not allow loose stones to get onto highway. Timja said:
Any pointers on what to do about drainage?
Depends whether you've got any surface water drains you can send the water into.Potholes and puddles seem to be a little bit chicken/egg. The surface is weak where the water lies.
If you can move the surface water to the middle of the track where the wheels don't run, they won't rip the stones up so much.
But creating a ditch that flows onto the highway is probably 'naughty'.
If you can't control the surface water, then I'm inclined to think the only road surfaces which will survive are serious concrete or tarmac.
Even then, the run-off will be going somewhere and it will be doing so with more haste and power than it is now, so any change you make may upset someone. I wouldn't want all the rain that lands on that roadway to instantly appear in my garden. Blah, climate change blah, the kind of rainstorms we get these days, such things matter.
Maybe you can just dig out a gutter and all will be OK, fill the potholes with 'chippings to dust' and you'll have 90% less potholes.
Maybe you need a proper soakaway?
I would at least ask myself 'if the water wasn't sat in those puddles, where would it have gone'?
It might be one of those games where you want to make what improvements you can without doing anything that constitutes 'changes' you have to get permission for....
FTAOD, I'm just an amateur, but we learn a bit about potholes and tracks in Devon
No drains unfortunately so water soaks into ground, runs down to road or runs down a couple of people’s drives into their garden.
Would be a worth us trying to direct rain away from where can wheels roll to reduce wear though if possible.
If we can solve majority of issues then that would be a big improvement even if not perfect.
We also have to potentially deal with a couple of people who like to park their cars on the land even though they do not have the right to do so and some home owners who will refuse to contribute even though costs should be split evenly.
Would be a worth us trying to direct rain away from where can wheels roll to reduce wear though if possible.
If we can solve majority of issues then that would be a big improvement even if not perfect.
We also have to potentially deal with a couple of people who like to park their cars on the land even though they do not have the right to do so and some home owners who will refuse to contribute even though costs should be split evenly.
I struggled for many years with a half mile driveway to the house in a similar condition to yours - plus added low-slung sports cars. A nightmare.
The answer, I am told, is (if you won't pay the tens of thousands for concrete or tarmac) is to have the surface crowned. i.e. higher in the middle. Road planings as a surface is fine.
But at some point you'll need a machine in to dig it up and start from scratch. Just filling the pot holes never lasts.
The answer, I am told, is (if you won't pay the tens of thousands for concrete or tarmac) is to have the surface crowned. i.e. higher in the middle. Road planings as a surface is fine.
But at some point you'll need a machine in to dig it up and start from scratch. Just filling the pot holes never lasts.
Timja said:
No drains unfortunately so water soaks into ground, runs down to road or runs down a couple of people’s drives into their garden.
It’s not going to drain well through MOT1 as all the fines fill any gaps . If it’s not that long a stretch, maybe have a look at SUDS designs using MOT3 (has no fines) for some ideas? NDA said:
The answer, I am told, is (if you won't pay the tens of thousands for concrete or tarmac) is to have the surface crowned. i.e. higher in the middle. Road planings as a surface is fine.
But at some point you'll need a machine in to dig it up and start from scratch. Just filling the pot holes never lasts.
This is correct. But at some point you'll need a machine in to dig it up and start from scratch. Just filling the pot holes never lasts.
Ideally the surface wants breaking up and relaying/re-compacting with a shape which allows the water to run off. If you fill in the potholes they'll come back. If you break up the whole thing and reshape it the weak areas won't be there in the same way they are now.
On a budget you may as well fill them in every 2 or 3 years, especially if the track isn't used much.
Our lane was the same, we paid to have the potholes filled with tarmac, then the whole lot covered in a layer of road clippings, then rolled with a 3 ton roller.
This was last June, with all this rain we have been having these last few months the potholes are already coming back.
I managed to get 5 out of the 6 properties down the lane to contribute. £400 each.
This was last June, with all this rain we have been having these last few months the potholes are already coming back.
I managed to get 5 out of the 6 properties down the lane to contribute. £400 each.
We have a similar, but much worse, problem on our shared drive. I have previously paid for it to be corrected using a digger and concrete/MOT which solves the problem for a while but a winter like we've had has made it much, much worse.
One problem is that our track is owned by the people that live right down the bottom and there is no way they can afford or are inclined to sort it out, even though I think they have a legal obligation to make it 'passable', simply because it's about 50 yards to our house and then a further 500 yards to theirs. In addition to that the main culprit is the house just before ours, she has multiple 4x4s turning into her drive daily and they just churn the drive up beyond belief (half of them have no idea how to drive and just sit there turning the wheels whilst stationary, thus causing or worsening pot holes). She will also not make any financial contribution to the repairs, never has, never will. In the the past it's just fallen on me to pay for it and I've had enough of doing so, so at the moment it's like driving over the surface of the moon.
I'd love to get it done properly but it would be thousands and I'm not paying that as the people who who get the most benefit won't contribute at all.
One problem is that our track is owned by the people that live right down the bottom and there is no way they can afford or are inclined to sort it out, even though I think they have a legal obligation to make it 'passable', simply because it's about 50 yards to our house and then a further 500 yards to theirs. In addition to that the main culprit is the house just before ours, she has multiple 4x4s turning into her drive daily and they just churn the drive up beyond belief (half of them have no idea how to drive and just sit there turning the wheels whilst stationary, thus causing or worsening pot holes). She will also not make any financial contribution to the repairs, never has, never will. In the the past it's just fallen on me to pay for it and I've had enough of doing so, so at the moment it's like driving over the surface of the moon.
I'd love to get it done properly but it would be thousands and I'm not paying that as the people who who get the most benefit won't contribute at all.
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