The Driveway Project - Part 1

On moving into our new house we knew that the driveway needed to be paved. I heard from the builder that he'd left it ready for paving when he'd finished it several years ago, but it was never completed. As anyone who's seen it recently knows, it has significantly deteriorated since then. The problem is mostly due to the steepness of the drive, the amount of water that is diverted onto it, and the fine gravel base. You see, the house sits on top of a hill, and the driveway is about 500 feet (150 meters) long. When we get lots of rain the velocity of water running down the slope likes to take the gravel with it. This results in huge 1 foot deep gouges/channels/ruts in places where the water has eroded deep into the ground. Needless to say, the Driveway Project was initiated.

The Paving Project started by getting estimates from several paving companies. I arranged to meet with each one, so that we could discuss my concerns about the drainage. The concern is about where all the water will go. Erosion along the edge of a driveway can cause it to crack and crumble away. Several options where suggested along with difference widths, depths of asphalt, etc. These options included curbing, grading, drainage ditches, dry-wells and more. At this point we also consulted with a Civil Engineer and the Town Engineer. Apparently where we live there is a zero additional watershed policy, which means you're not allowed to direct water off your property onto the public roads etc. without permission. At this point I was beginning to wonder if we where over-thinking it a bit.

Eventually I selected a paving company and scheduled them to do the work at the start of June. They'd said it would take 2-3 days, so I presumed that if they started on a Wednesday, they would be finished by the weekend. Things seemed to be going well when they started the preparation work on Tuesday, a day early. They brought in several truck loads of stone "process" material to level and grade the base. We had a rain on Wednesday, but by the end of Thursday, the base looked like it was coming to completion.

Two weeks passed without the paving company doing any more work. Apparently they wanted to let the base "settle" before continuing work on the driveway. That makes sense and in the days after the work they did, we did notice several soft spots appear. Unfortunately we've also had some of that rain I mentioned a few paragraphs prior, and now yet again there are several good sized ruts running down it. Not as bad as before, but never-the-less, not ready for asphalt.

The paving company are due to return tomorrow, so we'll see what happens next...