Putting in the Driveway, Ditch and Culverts

The house will have a cement driveway, but they are putting in a construction driveway that will cross the gully to where Cliff will put the barn. The gravel driveway is pretty wide. It’s got a ditch on the right side. It is raised and slopes to allow the water to drain. It looks wide enough for two cars pass each other going the opposite direction. I’m not sure it needs to be, since it is only going to a future-barn…

The construction driveway is to let equipment and machinery get at the house as it is being built. It has to be strong enough for the big trucks delivering materials. And materials can be really heavy.

First they marked out the driveway and scraped the grass and topsoil away. The area for the driveway has to be completely free of any organic material like sticks, roots and leaves or grass. Otherwise the driveway will be spongey and as the plants or roots decay it will leave pits in the driveway.

We had some miserable weather that turned the driveway into glue.

They removed some trees where the driveway will cross the gully. They just pulled them out of the ground with the bulldozer.

They dug a ditch next to where the driveway will be.

They scraped a space in the small gully the driveway will cross and laid in two culverts. They made sure the culverts were slightly angled, so water will flow through them. The culverts are bigger than they look in this picture.

They added more soil, what they had dug out of the footers, to raise the driveway so water won’t pool on it. They evened out the dirt and leveled it. They angled everything so that the gravel won’t wash off the driveway or sit and make a mud hole.

The soil was like glue. Before they left that night, they scraped the treads of the bobcat free.

They pushed soil over the culverts in the gully and compressed it with the bulldozer.

They scraped around the entrances of the culverts.

The first layer of crushed gravel needs to be large-sized gravel.

The first layer is six-inch-diameter crushed rock. Really large gravel was delivered. The bobcat drove over it to push it down. The large gravel sunk into the mud.

They spread load after load of six-inch stones over the driveway, then pressed it down into the mud with the bulldozer to create a single, interlocking layer. They drove over and over, back and forth pressing down on the gravel to compact the stones. This takes time, but will create a strong foundation for our gravel driveway.

The new driveway will be able to stand up to large heavy trucks.

Next: Excavation Report – Engineered Footings >