Building a driveway

I"m putting up a pole building to store my tractors.
It will be located about 1/4 mile off a paved road. All that is there now is a crossing with culvert, and a field of wheat. The soil is heavy clay-loam.
I need to build a nearly 1/4 mile driveway through this field to get to my building site. Should I scrape off the top 8" of black dirt and fill with gravel back to level then laser grade ditches, just cover the black dirt with gravel, or do I have to scrape away the black dirt, fill with clay, then cover with gravel? Any cost estimates?
Thanks. Bob seND

I'm sure you'll get several responses to your question. It would be easier if you contacted a contractor in your area that is familiar with your soil types.

I did the following 10 years ago.

I had to put in a gravel drive 900 feet long.

I hired a guy to come out with a steel tracked excavator and scrape off the top 4-6 inches of topsoil, then I bought 70-80 yards of fill sand. Excavator guy dozed all that in place and then I bought 80+ yards of 1x3" limestone gravel then after dump trucks drove on it for a while then I bought about 100 yards total of limestone and aggregate gravel over the last 9 years to cap off the drive and make it better to drive on.
Call around for best pricing for the gravel, independent truckers that work directly out of a gravel pit should give you the best pricing.
(dont buy from a landscape supply place as they have more overhead and will charge 30-50% more for material then a regular guy with a 7 yard dump truck)


Total cost--gravel--$8000 or so.
Excavating costs will be about $2000 or so.
That is what I paid.


(depending on if you know the guy and if you pay with cash or not) Of course if you have a tractors then the cost of spreading the gravel drops to just the fuel cost.

Gravel will be about $1000 or so for a 44 yard train load.
Limestone costs more then regular gravel.
Limestone packs down hard (almost like concrete) and will hold up best over time.

(Dont use crushed concrete due to pieces of steel rebar in it)

Good luck on your road.

I kept pouring C6 to mine which resulted in a good summer base, but in the early spring it rutted pretty bad. Finally got serious and had crushed milled concrete/asphalt from a road project delivered and spread. Probably 6-12 inches deep. Don't need to worry about full season access now, but wouldn't suggest this method to build a good lane. I would remove the top soil layer, and put down large rock over a fabric mesh until the lane is slightly higher than the surrounding area. Cover the large rock with crushed white rock and you will have a fine, attractive access lane.

just an idea but could you were to dig out the loam. Perhaps sell that to help pay for the fill you need.
In my area we have a guy that runs demolition concrete and bricks through a crusher plant. That makes a great base for driveways.

I'd grade the ditches first, and place that excavated material on the roadway. Compact everything in layers as best as you can, then use an open graded 1 1/2" - 2" rock (no fines) for a base. That will mix well with your subgrade. Drive on that for a season, (and grumble about the roughness) then top it off with road rock (with fines). If you use rock with fines over an area that might not be entirely compacted, it will be like driving on a mattress. The open graded rock used first will "choke" any soft spots.

Paul

Last driveway I bid was 6.00 a foot for gravel on dirt to 20.00 a foot for ditched on both sides, top soil removed, geotextile fabric put down, filled, crowned, and packed.

If you are just going to store tractors in it just plant grass where the driveway will be and keep it mowed and stay off it when it is sloppy wet. But if you have deep pockets then I would gravel or pave it. JMO Bob

I don't suppose you have considered building nearer to the paved road, or to an existing driveway? Or maybe there is another good reason to build something that far out in a wheat field.

Having had a long driveway for awhile, when we built our new place fairly close to the gravel County road. It is a whole lot easier to get in and out in the Winter only having to move a hundred feet of snow.

And I have spent a lot of money buying gravel for the driveway I have. In my area, unless you have a deep gravel base where you drive, you WILL get stuck in the mud during the 3 or 4 weeks of mud after the frost goes out of the ground. Unfortunately, I have some experience at getting my tractors unstuck when I tried to drive them to areas off the gravel too soon in the Spring.

It also costs quite a bit to run power to a distant building. I suppose it wouldn't make much difference if you were just storing vehicles in a building, but I have found that it is sure nice to be able to plug in a battery charger when I am trying to start something that has not been started in a while.

Good luck with your project, but I would put the building somewhere where I didn't need to build so long of a road to it.

Well, if you're in the south eastern part of North Dakota, it must be flat...I worked at one time for the highway department in the flat lands there. New roads built through fresh prime farm land were like this.

The black topsoil was stripped away, ditches were dug, and the clay base was graded up 2-4ft to make the roadway. This was packed with sheep's foot and a roller. Then 8-10" of reclaimed pavement or packable gravel was added to the top. Then a class 5 gravel was added for the last 3-4 inches. This was also leveled,packed and graded with a crown in the middle. Pretty simple, it's important to get the roadway up above the surrounding land,for proper drainage, otherwise it's going to be a soupy mess in the spring. The clay road base helps keep the water away, and helps prevent frost heaves.

All of the couty road projects I observed were built this way. Try contacting your local county highway department, they could easily help you draw up plans or give you the standards that the contractor must meet for the county highway projects. They could also provide a list of "trusted and proven" road building contractors.