Summer Road Maintenance
Our gravel road is a muddy mess! Can you do something to stop this springtime situation?
We can try, but in the spring when the frost comes out of the roadbed, what was once frozen and solid turns to soft and unstable. It will remain this way until the moisture comes out of the roadbed. The best cure for this is warm, dry temperatures and a good wind. If we attempt to haul gravel on top of this condition, it could turn into a bigger mess. There is a saying in the trade that “adding a bucket of gravel to a bucket of mud just gets you a bigger bucket of mud.” There is much truth to this quip, as adding sand or gravel to fill a mud hole usually has little or no effect because the gravel ends up mixing with the mud, just making more mud and sometimes aggravating the problem as equipment stirs things up.
The Gravel Road I live on feels like a washboard - when are you going to grade it?
Grading is done on a routine basis. However, many times it must be postponed because of the weather. If the road is too dry or too wet grading has little affect other than to re-arrange dust or mud. In the Spring, we grade roads after the frost has left the ground. In the summer, we try to grade roads after a rain and the road has softened. The moisture will allow the gravel to pack down, limiting the amount of dust generated.
I live on a gravel road and I can't leave my windows open because of dust - what are you going to do about it?
Brining is done on a routine basis. However, many times it must be postponed because of the weather. If the road is too wet, brine has little affect. In the summer we try to brine roads in between grading and after the roads have dried from a recent rain. Brining also depends upon how much brine is available in the well, priority is given to higher traffic areas.
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