We recently bought a 20 acre farm. The roads are dusty and the trash company, feed cos etc will not come on the roads once it starts raining. I have used DG (decomposed granite) before at my old place but this is much much more land. I have seen other local farms with what looks like a sand/gravel mix that is hard packed and doesn’t get muddy.
What is your best solution for roads that are needed for constant driving of vehicles and even during the wet months?
Thanks so much!!!
Check locally for pricing on available materials. We have used a lot of “road mix” which is a kind of gravel, sand, clay, for filling over dirt to make good driving surfaces. If you have a LOT of water and it turns dirt to mud, seasonally, you will want to lay geotextile fabric down first, put your topping dirt on it so you don’t lose the new stuff into the mud.
We bought geotextile fabric in rolls, 14ft wide, which you need to overlap the edges on for a good width, a foot or more, should you want to cover very wide (2 lane) areas of driving or parking spaces. We found it online with a search and ordered it, delivered by semi truck. Even an entire roll is not “that heavy” to unload and move about, roll out. You can cut the stuff with regular scissors or a sharper knife. This fabric lets water thru, but keeps dirt and fill apart, so you keep that firm top layer in place.
We have also used crushed cement and asphalt, as toppings for wet places, parking areas under heavy trucks. Often are cheaper than gravel or crushed stone, work very well. At times you might get a break on the price, should you want a lot, keeps the drivers in work. Summer is better than spring, with road weight restrictions on you pay more for each load in getting smaller loads.
ALWAYS buy the entire truck FULL, even if you don’t need it NOW. Cheaper that way, since your cost is mostly the driver and fuel. Dirt or fill doesn’t spoil, you just put it in a pile out of the way for now. Could even put it on an old tarp, to pick up easier later. You WILL need the fill sometime, and have it already handy, can get the job done now!!
I love, love, love reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP). They put that stuff on a dirt street I used to live on and when I visited a year later, it looked like regular pavement. The installers rolled it out and it was kind of gravelly and loose at first, but the traffic compacted it little by little. I thought there were going to be ruts but it all ended up smooth and level.
Maybe you could start improving the dirt road a little every year with that recycled product, a load or two at a time?
You haven’t said if the dirt roads are public or all your own property, but that’s another issue, because the city or county might have rules or hoops to jump through to improve their roads.
[QUOTE=PeteyPie;7741807]
I love, love, love reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP). They put that stuff on a dirt street I used to live on and when I visited a year later, it looked like regular pavement. The installers rolled it out and it was kind of gravelly and loose at first, but the traffic compacted it little by little. I thought there were going to be ruts but it all ended up smooth and level.
Maybe you could start improving the dirt road a little every year with that recycled product, a load or two at a time?
You haven’t said if the dirt roads are public or all your own property, but that’s another issue, because the city or county might have rules or hoops to jump through to improve their roads.[/QUOTE]
Thanks so much for the ideas… the roads are our property. There is a paved road up to our property. Once in our property it’s all dirt. Very soft and powdery. Out land is very sandy soil. Great for growing…
Road base, gravel, more road base, more gravel. We had a friend with an orchard and he put down the RAP, it was actually the debris from the road widening project in front of his farm so not quite as tidy as the small crushed stuff but it was great.
Pick the roads you are going to use for major traffic and get those bulked up quickly, including turnarounds etc.
I get the feeling this hasn’t been much in use if the roads are all still dirt, it’s sort of a sneaky surprise to discover that you’ll have to spend money on improving your access but it has to be done or if there is a fire or other emergency you could be out of luck.
Make sure to set up for wide vehicles - we did a cut and fill access for the rock truck and it was just barely wide enough but it had looked fine with the tractor and our trucks - we need to cut a foot more into the slope.
Go on line and check to see of there is an excavating, sand, gravel supplier in your area. Ask them about options.
If there are several, check with all, some are easier to work with than others.
This can be quite an expensive project even if it is only a few hundred feet. Even more so if you have to truck in material from any kind of a distance.
If not properly “engineered” the rule of diminishing returns kicks in quite quickly. This can be a good example of being penny wise pound foolish. I know I got that T-shirt myself.
Completely agree with others that have suggested getting RAP if possible. I did and all it cost me was my time on a tractor. Call your local DOT and see if they have any projects in the works or slated for in your area. They have to pay to dump it somewhere so they are usually more then happy to haul and dump for free. Most likely you will have to sign a release holding them harmless in case there is something “nasty” in the mix.
With California having so many rules and regs there might be a lot of paper work. You could also call around to contractors/companies that deal with parking lots, demo, etc. They have to pay to pretty hefty dump fees.
This is a pretty easy DIY IMO and experience if you have a decent size tractor with a Fel and rear scrapper blade. You can rent a small roller to “finish it” off if needed.
Why not put your trash down at the end of your dirt road, next to the hard top? If you have a tractor or gator that runs on your dirt roads, it would be way cheaper than paving.
For feed deliveries, can you leave a covered trailer or something at the end of the drive that they can deliver to? Then it’s a matter of you waiting til your dirt road is drivable and bringing it in.
[QUOTE=trailpal;7743529]
Why not put your trash down at the end of your dirt road, next to the hard top? If you have a tractor or gator that runs on your dirt roads, it would be way cheaper than paving.
For feed deliveries, can you leave a covered trailer or something at the end of the drive that they can deliver to? Then it’s a matter of you waiting til your dirt road is drivable and bringing it in.[/QUOTE]
Sometimes you “only want to handle things once” like a huge feed order custom mixed, which needs to get into the bin-on-legs by the barn. They auger that in, no hands! Not bagged, all loose grain, MUST go straight into the bin.
No stacking piles of bales in the open, when you need them at the barn to feed animals, handling it 3 or 4 times instead of just “off the truck into the pile in the barn.” No one has time for that handling stuff with 500 bales or a couple tons of grain to get into place.
I expect the dumpster is in the handiest location for ALL the buildings to use it. Putting it 20 acres away, means a trip to empty trash with the truck or machine for EVERY can you dump. Lots of extra work there.
What works on smaller acres, is just not feasible if things come in large quantities or with bigger acreages. OP has BIG trucks delivering for a reason, can’t get away from it, because I am sure she wouldn’t be buying fill if she could avoid it. Any kind of fill in massive quantities needed to support LARGE trucks is EXPENSIVE.
Thanks for all the ideas!!! Our road association will be demoing a section of the road in October so you guys gave me a great idea… I will ask them if they are willing to put the demoed asphalt in our property. We can spread it with a bobcat.
goodhors is spot on. We have no options. The dumpster is near the road but the driveway in is dirt. When it rains I cannot even get in with my van. Feed farriers, vets etc will need access as well.
Trucks can get in now; but it’s really powdery on the top layer. (Gawd my cars are always filthy)
I think 30 years ago the previous owner put some material down on the main roads and we added a bit since we moved in but it didn’t pack as I would have liked. It was a cheap ag base. It helped get us to a point. This land was originally under water… the Soils engineer had told us when he met with us and did our soils reports. We find sea shells and a giant fossilized clam. And some Indian pestles.
No one has ever lived here and there are over 1,000 fruit trees. Some of the roads are sandy and we travel via quads. Looking forward to building an arena; the soil is lovely 
So gotta look at the positives.
We will pour concrete to the main house in about a year but I want most of the roads to be dirt - but drive worthy. So the investment will not only be for new construction but future uses. Also the company that comes and harvests fruit throughout the year brings in some pretty heavy equipment.
And we laugh at trash day - - it’s newness hasn’t worn off on the kids yet but we haul house trash up the road via the quads with wagons/wheel barrels bungee corded to the back.
Not sure if it is available in your area, but the County sprays many parts of our dirt roads with Chloride or Wet Beet Pulp Juice. The Beet Juice is much cheaper, but it CAN SMELL on wet, hot days. Chloride is more used, no smell so folks will pay more for that. Both products kind of bind the dirt together, makes it solid into the ground and quite hard for traffic, keeps the dust gone. Saves the County having to come OFTEN to scrape dirt roads that develop holes with traffic and farm equipment going over them.
The County roads are engineered, graveled, so the Chloride and Beet Juice are on top of well built, good draining roads. But as a short term “fix it” they are something to consider, see how well they work on your “most used” portion of dirt road, at holding down dust and keeping the base hard in wet weather.
Our Fla farm has sandy soil, we put down a sand/shell,clay mixture (road base) which has held up super well for over 20 years. It does get dusty during periods od drought but is solid during rain, even for large dump tucks and horse trailers.
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