Any advice for a building/maintaining a road in the muddy tropics?

Hi permies,

We have a starting homestead in Suriname, a tropical country in the north of South America and a former colony of the Netherlands. The roads here are hardly maintained by the government, so we have to make sure that our plot remains accessible.

The road suffers from a bad muddy surface and heavy rainfall. There are always holes in the road where the rainwater remains. The weight of the vehicles pushes the material of the road to the center and to the sides, so that the part you drive on hollows out. Unfortunately, we do not have the budget to tackle it properly, so I am experimenting a bit with the material I have, which is: sand, "kraskow" and gravel.

About kraskow (see photo): it is a kind of black rough sand that tends to clump together. When delivered, it often comes in large chunks (which we often break up with a sledgehammer). I do not know exactly what kind of material kraskow is, I think it is a natural material. It is used a lot here because it is firmer than regular sand, washes away less and eventually hardens and allows less plant growth.

On the path I sometimes experiment with a combination of kraskow and gravel. Then I first pour kraskow and then gravel and then press the gravel in a bit. This works a bit on footpaths, but cars are so heavy that it is pressed out anyway.
Parallel to the road I often dig a small groove where the rainwater can flow in so that it does not remain on the road. Usually the water finds its way to the lowest point but the solution is always only temporary.

Today I was working on a stretch of road and suddenly had an idea. The grooves that are dug parallel to the road could perhaps be filled with the pieces of kraskow so that the outward force of the vehicles is stopped and the sand on the road stays more in place. Is that a logical idea? (see photo with the channel and the chunks on the left)

I have also thought about digging a kind of bulkhead in the ground, like they do when reinforcing the quays at canals. This is to keep everything in place.

I was wondering if you have any good suggestions for this problem and how you can maintain a road in an area with heavy rainfall on a low budget. I am very curious about your suggestions and look forward to the responses.

Kind regards,
Anouk from Suriname

I am not a road builder, but I wonder if we can help figure some things out.

Do you have access to any heavy equipment (dozer, excavator, etc)?

What materials can you access for cheap? Logs, rocks, gravel, etc?

As Matt, suggested, I am not a road builder either though i have delt with water on roads.

The ditch in one of the pictures is a great start.  

Where I live it is normal to have what is called bar ditches on both sides of the road.  This give a place for the water to go and places the road higher than surrounding land.

Also a berm can be placed along side the road where water enters the road to keep water off the road.

Muddy spots can be filled in with rock as shown in one of the above photos, making something like a cobblestone road.

Please let me know what you feel can be done as I have suggested.

Have you researched doing a corduroy road?

wiki corduroy road

Lots of youtube videos showing it.

Another one would be various geo-grid answers.  There are a huge number of commercial answer.  Many using recycled material.  Most are smaller cells that roll out and fill with some sort of moisture permiable durable material such as gravel.

If cheap is the answer what about tire geo grid?

Start at 2 minutes 10 seconds  

Another video

Hey, thanks so much for your suggestions and answers. Thanks to your answers, I've learned some new road construction terms that I can now look up. I've been thinking about placing tree trunks before. Apparently, it's called a corduroy road, but I didn't know it was called that.

We don't have an excavator ourselves, but we can outsource it. It's usually quite expensive and you pay by the day. For now, we're still using a good old shovel. I'm not afraid to smell my own sweat.

The car tires, wow. However, if we decide to use used car tires, we'll be glad to have a machine. You have to dig much deeper for the tires. It's a great concept, but I think it's more suitable for very poor roads or heavy trucks.

For now, I'll continue digging ditches along the road and creating berms with the excavated sand. The holes will be filled with a mix of Kraskow and gravel. I will let you know about my findings.

Kind regards,
Anouk from Suriname