Maintaining unmade road/track

[Laughton]

We live nearly two miles down an unmade road. Some stretches have at some stage been tarmacked but that was many years ago and since then when potholes have appeared they have been filled with road planings. Other stretches look as though they consist just of compacted road planings.

Every year the 11 houses along the road and the farmer whose farm is halfway along contrubute to getting a load of planings that the farmer then tries to fill in the holes using his tractor.

This year is a nightmare - in 14 years here this is the worst I can remember the road being. Lots and lots of rain and a few frosts have helped make the road a real obstacle course.

Does anyone on here have a similar problem and have you come up with a better solution than just filling in potholes two or three times a year? Is there some sort of grader (if that's the correct term) that we could jointly buy that the farmer could tow behind his tractor to churn up and level off the road surface?

Getting the track professionally tarmacked is beyond what we can jointly afford.

Prefer recommendations from those who have actually found something that works rather than just links to youtube videos.

[Lootman]

Access to our house in Devon was via a private road. Nowhere near as long as yours but otherwise the same problem. It served about 7 homes and, as a dirt road, it would get very muddy at times.

The various households held a few meetings to figure out what to do. In the end it was agreed that the road would be tarmac'ed and that the cost would be apportioned between the households in proportion to how far down the road each house was.

Needless to say, the guy who lived at the far end of the road was the least happy, but he came around in the end.

[DrFfybes]

Does anyone on here have a similar problem and have you come up with a better solution than just filling in potholes two or three times a year? Is there some sort of grader (if that's the correct term) that we could jointly buy that the farmer could tow behind his tractor to churn up and level off the road surface?

Yes, no, and sort of.

We have 300m of potholed and speedhumped(!) tarmac Parish owned track, then another 150-200m of farmer owned lane leading to the field behind us. Apparently this year it is really bad, not helped by the wet conditions at harvest last year so the farm vehicles sucked the 3t of MOT/scalpings the famrer dumped last year out of the holes.

You can scrape and grade the surface, however it doesn't seem to make a long term difference, although it does remove the high spots which makes the low spots seem less deep.. When wet vehicles tend to wear grooves, which fill with water and then holes soon form. You can fill the holes and then use a compactor (Whacker plate) on them which helps a bit.

FWIW we can get dumpy bags (circa 850 kg) of scalpings for £40/bag, or we can get a 30tonne load loose tipped for (last year) under £500.

Paul

[AF62]

Access to our house in Devon was via a private road. Nowhere near as long as yours but otherwise the same problem. It served about 7 homes and, as a dirt road, it would get very muddy at times.

The various households held a few meetings to figure out what to do. In the end it was agreed that the road would be tarmac'ed and that the cost would be apportioned between the households in proportion to how far down the road each house was.

Needless to say, the guy who lived at the far end of the road was the least happy, but he came around in the end.

With that type of apportionment then if I had been the person at the end of the road then I would have said ‘no thanks’ and just let the others get on with it.

That way I would get to drive down 6/7ths of a nicely tarmac’ed road at no cost - and the final 1/7th, well only I would be driving down it so the maintenance cost should be minimal.

[Laughton]

Thanks both.

I should have mentioned that 4 of the houses (not counting the farm buildings) along the road/track are owned and rented out by the farmer. I can't see him being interested in stumping up almost half the cost of proper tarmacking (after all, he's got his old landrover/tractor and quad bike to get around).

We do get 40 tonne loads of scalpings/planings but this year it looks as though we'll need several of those and then there's the hole filling/spreading to be done - none of us are getting any younger.

What I was really looking for/thinking about was something that could be attached to the back of the tractor that would spread and level out the planings. Even if that needed to be done every month it might be a lot better than what we have at the moment.

My wife had to sell her VW Golf automatic a few years ago after the third time the oil sump plug sheared off going over potholes.

AF61 - we've already been down that road as you guessed, the people at the very end were happy to take care of their 20 yards of track.

[Lootman]

Access to our house in Devon was via a private road. Nowhere near as long as yours but otherwise the same problem. It served about 7 homes and, as a dirt road, it would get very muddy at times.

The various households held a few meetings to figure out what to do. In the end it was agreed that the road would be tarmac'ed and that the cost would be apportioned between the households in proportion to how far down the road each house was.

Needless to say, the guy who lived at the far end of the road was the least happy, but he came around in the end.

With that type of apportionment then if I had been the person at the end of the road then I would have said ‘no thanks’ and just let the others get on with it.

That way I would get to drive down 6/7ths of a nicely tarmac’ed road at no cost - and the final 1/7th, well only I would be driving down it so the maintenance cost should be minimal.

His problem was that it was more like 1/3 of the road that was only used by him and his visitors. So he figured it was better to get the other 6 households to contribute to his 1/3 or else he has to pay 100% of that stretch, or else drive through the mud.

Plus we might have abandoned the project without his agreement, and he was the one most affected by the mud.

I had bonus leverage as my hardstanding was the only place along that road where he could turn a vehicle around, and he didn't want to have to reverse his car the entire length of the road.

[88V8]

Even if that needed to be done every month it might be a lot better than what we have at the moment.
My wife had to sell her VW Golf automatic a few years ago after the third time the oil sump plug sheared off going over potholes.

Not knowing your transport needs, but might it be simpler for you to run some sort of 4x4 during the winter, and just surface the road once in Spring?

Tractor grading attachments are easy to find, but without vibration rolling or this deadweight a graded surface will soon cut up.
Even maintaining the very lightly trafficed drive to the local church defeated all sticking plasters until the wealthy owner through whose garden it runs decided to tarmac it.

V8

[AsleepInYorkshire]

We live nearly two miles down an unmade road. Some stretches have at some stage been tarmacked but that was many years ago and since then when potholes have appeared they have been filled with road planings. Other stretches look as though they consist just of compacted road planings.

Every year the 11 houses along the road and the farmer whose farm is halfway along contrubute to getting a load of planings that the farmer then tries to fill in the holes using his tractor.

This year is a nightmare - in 14 years here this is the worst I can remember the road being. Lots and lots of rain and a few frosts have helped make the road a real obstacle course.

Does anyone on here have a similar problem and have you come up with a better solution than just filling in potholes two or three times a year? Is there some sort of grader (if that's the correct term) that we could jointly buy that the farmer could tow behind his tractor to churn up and level off the road surface?

Getting the track professionally tarmacked is beyond what we can jointly afford.

Prefer recommendations from those who have actually found something that works rather than just links to youtube videos.

Geotextile membrane or to quote a trade name Terram.

In the area where the track is subsiding or the aggregates are being washed away then a geotextile membrane (circa £2 /m2 to buy the material) will help. Also if you are buying aggregates with a lot fines in them to allow a smooth surface finish I'd suggest you don't. A clean MOT Type 1 20mm single size will cost more, but on top off a geotextile membrane will last much longer, subject to driving at sensible speeds. It may be necessary to dig out the potholes to deepen the amount of aggregate being put in them.

If you want to drive at high speeds tarmac is the answer.

AiY(D)

[raybarrow]

Hi,

The various households held a few meetings to figure out what to do. In the end it was agreed that the road would be tarmac'ed and that the cost would be apportioned between the households in proportion to how far down the road each house was.

My first thought on seeing that was "That's a bit mean" along the lines of 'why should I pay the Child Services of Council Tax as I have no children'.
But I know life is not that simple and started to consider how are the house spaced along the road, how often do the occupants actually drive along it, do people have lots of deliveries, do some have children, elderly parents, is there a mobility scooter, does anyone have a bycycle. motorbike, is there ..., does anyone have ... etc etc. Nightmare! Well done that you managed a simple solution.

Cheers,
Ray.