Here's the Dirt on Rural Roads
(Page 3 of 4)
February/March 2002
By Hollis Walker
Free Resources
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Russ Lanoie, of Conway, New Hampshire, has written a book full of practical advice on dirt and gravel road construction and maintenance, A Ditch inTime, downloadable free at his Web site, www.RuralHomeTech.com . Lanoie, inventor of a front-operated landscape rake attachment for tractors, called the Front Runner, also will answer questions by e-mail: russ@RuralHomeTech.com .
The Center for Dirt and Gravel Road Studies at The Pennsylvania State University in University Park maintains an information-packed Web site, www.mri.psu.edu . To find local offices of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service, go to www.nrcs.usda.gov , and click on "State Offices." Information and services are free. You can also check the federal government listings of your telephone book. The publications pictured here are available through the NRCS in Capitola, California. To order, call (831) 475-2967; or write: USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service; 820 Bay Ave., Suite 107; Capitola, CA 95010.
To find local offices of state-run conservation districts, which vary in name, go to www.nacdnet.org , the National Association of Conservation Districts. You can also check state government telephone listings under "natural resources," "soil and water conservation," etc.
Don't overlook area environmental groups as sources of information and assistance. Efforts by the conservation group Trout Unlimited helped get recurring state financing for the Center for Dirt and Gravel Road Studies, which offers free road workshops throughout Pennsylvania, in addition to doing research.
The best low-tech solution to cross-drainage-directing water from one side of the road to another - are what Casale calls "rolling dips." These are wide but shallow depressions constructed across a road's width, which naturally channel water off the road. Rolling dips should be dug 3 to 6 inches deep at an angle of 45 to 60 degrees from the centerline of the road. Lanoie recommends replacing the removed dirt or material with crushed angular stone, then adding road surfacing gravel mix atop that.
If your road is in very bad shape, you may be forced to consider rebuilding it, at least in part. Even if you hire someone to do the work, make sure they're following advice from experts.
The base of a road should be constructed of coarse gravel with "fines" (clay and silt particles), so it drains well. Roads should be surfaced with crushed stone that is angular, so the sharp edges of the rocks compact into each other like pieces of a puzzle, helping to create a solid top layer. (Don't use round rocks; they roll out of the roadbed.) Lanoie recommends a maximum stone size of 1 inch in diameter.
Surfacing material also needs fines to hold it together. Often aggregates typical of what you might purchase at a gravel quarry, sometimes called "base course," are combinations of stone and fines that are ideal for building paved roads, but not so great for surfacing gravel roads.
