Roads, Clay, and Traction

[Radar67]

Only laborers I have are Me, Myself, and I.

[WDH]

You may have to keep an eye on I to be sure he is pulling his weight  .

[Mooseherder]

Myself needs constant supervision also.

[Brucer]

The long term solution to the clay on my driveway was "mine rock". Blasted rock from an underground mine (lots of those around here). What makes it work so well is that it's not uniform in size and is broken, not smooth. It seals the surface and sheds water.

The year I installed it, my D7 Cat was bottoming out on the driveway -- dragging it's belly pan in spite of 16" ground clearance. The contractor could only back his dump truck a few feet off the edge of the street before he started to sink. I had him dump the rock there and head off for another load while I back-bladed it with the CAT. By the time he returned, I had 50' of road surfaced and the Cat stayed up on top. As the truck backed in with the next load, I watched the road sink down slightly under his wheels -- but the ground to the sides of the wheels sunk as well. It looked like the truck was backing onto a VERY tight trampoline.

We worked our way about half way along my 400 metre driveway, load by load. Never had a problem after that.

I tried the wood chip idea at work to keep dust down. As time went on, whenever it rained the chips would slowly work into the mud. By the end of the season we had a half a foot of muddy chips that just crumbled away under the forklift. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but ...

[Tom]

The problem with using organics for a filler on a drive is that the stuff rots.  When it does, it turns to muck and muck holds water just as clay can't be packed.   So, in the end you are worse off than when you started.  When I see people raking pine straw into the holes in their driveway, I try to tell them this, but I guess you have to experience it.

[Ironwood]

Geo mattting could be substituted by/for sythetic carpet (free by the dumpster load) which is great creative reuse.

 Ironwood

[Stephen Alford]

Hey radar, tires with a good lug help with our clay soils but we use these home made shapers, start with a piece of Ibeam and just keep adding. Hope you get some sun soon .