Posts Tagged ‘asphalt’
Driveway 2.0
Our next big project is now underway. We have committed to spending too many of our hard-earned saved dollars to fix the driveway that has been crumbling since the first few months after we arrived here. That was almost ten years ago. In the ongoing saga of our adventure of leaving the suburbs to create a sanctuary of rural bliss that we call Wintervale, this improvement on the land might be the least important but the most visible.
The old dilapidated pavement was still driveable, but it looked completely neglected (it was!) and was becoming increasingly more of a nuisance by the day. Smooth new asphalt will be a joy to have and it will make this place look even more amazing than it already did despite the lousy driveway surface.
We are contracting with two different companies that have worked together many times before. Yesterday, the excavating company that has supported us on multiple projects in the past, started the process of removing the old asphalt from a majority of the length. Specifically, the portion just above the shop garage all the way down to the road.
The asphalt company will overlay new pavement on top of the old asphalt in front of the shop garage and up to the house where little deterioration was evident.
After the excavators pulled up the first chunks of asphalt, they deduced the material used for the base looked like it was not as coarse as they recommend and it was not applied as thick as it should have been, especially in the low area where wetness and our clay soil combine to create a potential for problems.
Watching the process was mesmerizing for me. I stared in wonder like a little kid. The man operating the backhoe was an artist, deftly manipulating the controls to efficiently pull up and then break chunks of asphalt in one smooth motion.
After the first load of broken asphalt was hauled away, the truck returned with a full load of gravel to slowly pour out over the length of the excavated section. Then, that truck would be positioned beside the backhoe to receive more removed asphalt.
Eventually, a second truck showed up with gravel and joined the rotation. By quitting time, they had torn up about three-quarters of the length. They should be able to finish the entirety of their portion of the work before the end of the day today.
The asphalt company has us on their schedule to start next Monday with their work. When the quote was made this spring, the man said it would be best if they could lay the pavement during the hottest days of summer. It is looking good at this point with high temperatures in the 90s°F expected.
When your driveway is 900 feet long over two rolling hills, it becomes a significant feature of the overall property. I’m really looking forward to having ours updated to a new and improved version 2.0.
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Tough Decision
We are approaching the first anniversary of our time on this property that we have named Wintervale Ranch, and many milestones have been achieved since last year, most significantly, the arrival of the four horses. With the completion of one phase comes the opening of another, and so now we set our sights on the next areas of immediate need.
Cyndie wants to put some sand or gravel over the topsoil in our paddocks, to keep them from becoming a dangerous muddy mess. I am wary of the scope such a goal would entail. That would take a lot of truckloads of fill. I would like to try redirecting runoff, first, to see how much difference we can make, and hopefully minimize the areas that would still require cover. In addition to the creation of drainage ditches to reduce water entering the paddocks, we are looking into gutters for the barn.
On the subject of fill, another load was just delivered on Monday, to finish the driveway loop when the culvert was replaced. That accomplishment came with a cost. Our poor asphalt driveway suffered another blow, because the ground was still soft from the rain we had recently received.
Right now, the driveway is our weak point. We don’t have a plan on how to deal with it, so we have just let it go, and of course, it just gets worse. Trying to plow it in the winter is going to be a real hassle. The expense of repairing it is daunting, and is the real reason we have done nothing. Our limited funds are being consumed by other commitments.
It was a very tough decision to make, when we chose not to accept any of the bids we received for asphalt maintenance. The long paved driveway was one of the special features of this place. I’m not sure we’ll have the patience to live through the process of letting it just disintegrate and become a (much more common around here) gravel driveway, which is the most affordable option.
I’d love to have a humble two-tire-track path with grass in the middle, but I think we are well past that, at this point.
For the time being, we are putting our focus toward other areas, and will try to make it through the winter without having paid for repairs. We’ll probably get it re-quoted in the spring, and replace just the sections experiencing the worst damage.
The destruction of the driveway that has been caused by our other projects is one of the more frustrating things we have faced in the last year. Luckily, the improvements have turned out so well, they make up for the angst caused by the compromised pavement.
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