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What is your favorite material for vehicle roads/driveways?

Timothy Norton

Steward of piddlers

Posts: 6774

Location: Upstate New York, Zone 5b, 43 inch Avg. Rainfall

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posted 4 months ago

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There seems to be a ton of options out there for road construction.

Some folks just drive over the ground, some folks scrape and compact a dirt path, some folks pour gravel, some folks look towards asphalt, some folks pour concrete... Like I said, a ton of options!

What are your favorite materials/techniques to create roads that can handle your vehicles and equipment?

Thank you in advance for sharing your thoughts.

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Anne Miller

steward

Posts: 18083

Location: USDA Zone 8a

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posted 4 months ago

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My favorite is quarter size washed rock as it does not sink like crushed rock.

Most roads here are made from caliche which turns to a cement like road base. That is what is on my long driveway as I could not afford to make it out of washed rock .... way too long.

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R Scott

pollinator

Posts: 4176

Location: Tennessee 7b

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posted 4 months ago

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Like all things permaculture, IT DEPENDS.

What is your base soil, the slope you are traversing, the vehicles you need to access it, rainfall, etc.

If you can build it right on a ridge line like Geoff Lawton suggests and you are driving a light 4wd, you don’t need much of anything. If you can wait for dry or frozen weather to haul the heavy stuff, then you don’t need much either. If you have to run your driveway through a marsh or bottom land because of how your parcel is laid out, and you want 24/7/365 access with a car or heavy truck, then you need a lot.

Here we have what they call chert, a clay/shale mix that is used for road base and top coat. The clay washes out of the top layer and leaves a thin layer of gravel that is locked in with cob mortar.

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Nancy Reading

steward and tree herder

Posts: 11656

Location: Isle of Skye, Scotland. Nearly 70 inches rain a year

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posted 4 months ago

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R Scott wrote:Like all things permaculture, IT DEPENDS.

Oh yes! Here we are 'lucky' to have rock only a few inches or feet down, so getting rock locally is not normally a problem. It is mostly what we call 'rotten rock' basalt that breaks up really easily and makes a superb surface - break it up, level it off and tramp over it a few times. As the vehicles drive over it the top surface gets compacted and forms quite a crust which is firm and grippy - much better than the loose gravel that people will insist on importing for their driveways.

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