Go ahead scare me

[ladycrofter]

Well I finally have someone coming to look at making up a road up the hill to a derelict cottage we own. The situation has gotten critical due to a tiny roof leak becoming a more serious one, but there's no chance of getting work started because the track is so bad it's only accessible by quad now. Me and my wee 3 ton digger won't look at it.
It's about 1/2 mile of rough and partly washed out track. There's a tight S bend from cart and horse days that needs re-engineered to allow emergency vehicles. The first 1/3 is a mild slope up but most of it is a slight incline then level. The drains and ditches are overgrown or non existent now.
The only option I think??? is tarmac or concrete. There are horrific flows off the hill in downpours and even a slight drain breach would wash the gravel all away again.
There's apparently a small borrow pit from the good old days when OH and his dad were forever at it with a wheelbarrow and shovel . What a laugh. I doubt there would be 10 ton in it though.

Any guesses what I should be expecting ?

 

[MrNoo]

We had a quote for tarmac on a 1 mile drive, base already down and several years ago now and that was £100k.

 

[PSQ]

Any guesses what I should be expecting ?

A big fat cheque, from a local skip company thats looking to re-home several thousand tonnes of crushed rubble.

Alternatively, do you know any decent retired digger drivers who could operate a hired in 14 tonner?

Edit: and if the council gets arsey about wanting planning for the 'improved' road, remind them that the SNP declared a "housing emergency' in the Scottish Parliament only yesterday, and it's up to them if they would rather the house rots due to their pointless requirement for useless paperwork.

 

[ladycrofter]

I'm expecting 6 figures. @PSQ that's exactly what will happen if we can't get repairs started. It will eventually collapse into a heap. Two other inaccessible ancient croft houses here are beyond repair. People were prepared to travel quite a ways on very bad roads in days gone by. And it must have been hellish in a cart with no suspension. I've been up said road standing in the quad trailer and it would knock your teeth out.

 

[suffolksmallholder]

Good luck!
I would come and make a mess with a 14 tonner if I was only up t’road like
SS

 

[PSQ]

Back in the days when people were encouraged to improve the infrastructure in the countryside, you'd see flat capped blokes driving D6 and D8 dozers making roads where you wouldn't imagine a dozer should be.
Sadly the people with that kind of experience are mostly in the church yard, but the next best thing will be to find an experienced 360 driver. The older the better, as you want someone with the nouse to put in a French drain here, and correct camber there, the kind of craftsmanship that can't be taught.
I'd be surprised if a gravel road wouldn't do, at least the short term, 10 to 15 years. The key to longevity (in no particular order) being drainage, camber, berms, decent stone, consolidation, hairpins and bends in the right place.

 

[Blue.]

If you worried about it washing away concrete sleepers would be best.

 

[Doing it for the kids]

We had a quote for tarmac on a 1 mile drive, base already down and several years ago now and that was £100k.

Did the solar pays for it as part of the deal!?

 

[nonemouse]

Anybody local run a tractor driven stone crusher (bit like a heavy duty rotavator) we used RTW road restoration ltd to do our lane, - crushed the lane, re-graded and then mixed in cement powder, was considerably cheaper than concrete and tarmac.

RTW Road Restoration - Road Restoration Service throughout the UK

At RTW Road Restoration we specialise in Track Repairs, Road Repairs, Farm Road Repairs, New Road Construction & Sealed Decorative Finishes throughout the UK.

www.rtwroadrestoration.co.uk

 

[Lili]

Had the road repaired here 7 years ago by a very experienced one man outfit with a digger and a dumper. His main concern apart from resurfacing with stone, was ensuring the whole length was properly drained, the gutters opened and running. ( If there was a heavy storm there can be a tidal wave which just used to wash the surface away.)

 

[ladycrofter]

Thanks for replies! I feel a bit better prepared for the visit tomorrow.

Good luck!
I would come and make a mess with a 14 tonner if I was only up t’road like
SS

I could make a fair mess myself with my 3 ton

 

[Farmer_Joe]

Road scalpings laid with diesel and vibrating roller

 

[carbonfibre farmer]

Anybody local run a tractor driven stone crusher (bit like a heavy duty rotavator) we used RTW road restoration ltd to do our lane, - crushed the lane, re-graded and then mixed in cement powder, was considerably cheaper than concrete and tarmac.

RTW Road Restoration - Road Restoration Service throughout the UK

At RTW Road Restoration we specialise in Track Repairs, Road Repairs, Farm Road Repairs, New Road Construction & Sealed Decorative Finishes throughout the UK.

www.rtwroadrestoration.co.uk

Without moving too far from the OP, were you pleased with the job and is it holding up alright?

 

[nonemouse]

Without moving too far from the OP, were you pleased with the job and is it holding up alright?

Yes pleased with the job, we have a very long lane that serves 3 farms, we did it in sections over a few years. The first bit could be 10+years old. It is starting to get some small holes in now, but still very good considering traffic.
The section we did as a dry mix and then topped with tar and chip, is holding up best, and we only kept traffic of for 1 day

 

[egbert]

Back in the days when people were encouraged to improve the infrastructure in the countryside, you'd see flat capped blokes driving D6 and D8 dozers making roads where you wouldn't imagine a dozer should be.
Sadly the people with that kind of experience are mostly in the church yard, but the next best thing will be to find an experienced 360 driver. The older the better, as you want someone with the nouse to put in a French drain here, and correct camber there, the kind of craftsmanship that can't be taught.
I'd be surprised if a gravel road wouldn't do, at least the short term, 10 to 15 years. The key to longevity (in no particular order) being drainage, camber, berms, decent stone, consolidation, hairpins and bends in the right place.

I was thinking much the same.
dirt is fine as long as you can accommodate keeping water off it/not running down it.
Good luck.

By the by, I love laying cobbles...but not that many!

 

[Dry Rot]

Thanks for replies! I feel a bit better prepared for the visit tomorrow.

I could make a fair mess myself with my 3 ton

Is there no possibility of digging down to the bedrock? Yes, big ditch on one side for drainage, possibly both sides, and big storm pipes under wherever water will want to flow in a storm. I saw plenty of hill roads build in the 1970s when they were dishing out grants for fun.

 

[suffolksmallholder]

My Dad and one man in particular made roads on The Chiltern escarpment, in the early 1960’s, to enable the forestry team access. These were cut into the chalk with an IH crawler.
The camber was into the hill and surface water ran into a deep ditch. When this came to a corner it then went over the edge. The wash kept it quite clean.
There was one section of escarpment that had a beautiful chalk road about half a mile long, right into the base of one of the steepest Coombes, which was created by a battalion of Royal Engineers in 1915 and known locally from that time as The Engineers Road. They also practiced digging the classic zig-zag trenches infamous in WW1. The remains of which are now under a preservation order.
SS

 

[ladycrofter]

Is there no possibility of digging down to the bedrock? Yes, big ditch on one side for drainage, possibly both sides, and big storm pipes under wherever water will want to flow in a storm. I saw plenty of hill roads build in the 1970s when they were dishing out grants for fun.

It's half a mile long. The real problems are at the start, a tight s-bend on a pretty steep incline. There is a good base of larger stone, quite rough and bone jarring but not moving even in torrential rain. Likely over 100 years old. It's mind numbing to think about how many tons of stone went in by hand and horse cart. We need to re establish the top layers.

 

[RushesToo]

I wish you well, but here is an example of learning in how to build roads and then doing it single handed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calum_MacLeod_(of_Raasay) [not recommended].
The learning how was what made this road work well - as @PSQ noted "drainage, camber, berms, decent stone, consolidation, hairpins and bends in the right place."

It's a great story.

 

[gmgmgm]

I find this a useful guide, from the Forestry Commission:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/721066/ON025-ForestRoadsandTracksv1.0issued110809__1_.pdf

It's all about camber & drainage.

Do you have a tractor & box blade?