5 Tips for Stabilising a Dirt Road
Posted on: 11 June 2018
Paving the road often doesn't make financial sense in remote areas, but unfortunately, dirt roads can get rutted and eroded relatively quickly, especially after a rainstorm. Then, you have to go out and repair them. To minimise repairs, you may want to take steps to stabilise your dirt road. Consider the following ideas:
1. Remove Vegetation
Roots from nearby trees can stretch into the road and disrupt its surface. To prevent this from happening, you may need to remove some of the trees around the road. Alternatively, consider going underground and trimming the roots, and then, put in a barrier so that they can't grow into the road. At the same time, remove weeds, bushes and any other vegetation that may be affecting the area.
2. Eliminate Large Stones
Any stones that are in your dirt road need to be significantly smaller than the height of the top layer of the road. Although it's time consuming, you need to find all the rocks that are overly large and manually remove them. A company that specialises in road stabilisation can help you with this process. If you don't remove the stones, water may wash around the dirt around them, leaving large rocky protrusions in your road.
3. Consider Limiting Weight
To keep your dirt road in usable condition, you may want to limit the amount of weight that goes on the road. For instance, you may want to ban commercial trucks over a certain weight. As a general rule of thumb, the heavier the vehicles using the road, the thicker and deeper the layer of dirt needs to be.
4. Use Nets on Nearby Rocks
If the dirt road is in the mountains, along a canyon or in any other environment where its surrounded by rocky walls, those rocks can fall into the road. That can lead to more erosion or blockages. To get control of this process, you may want to put nets on nearby rocks. This stops rockslides from impacting your road.
5. Invest in the Right Equipment
To keep your road stabilised, you need the right equipment. A ripper or crusher can move unwanted debris out of the way, and you can even add a screen to this machinery so you can find rocks that are too large. You may also want a grader to keep the road level. Finally, to keep the road as smooth as possible, you need a drum vibration compactor, and a tanker with a spray bar can wet the road to dampen the dirt.
To make this process as easy and as effective as possible, you may want to hire a professional. Look for a company that offers road stablisation services today.
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