Need Help With My Driveway

My driveway has been diagnosed with potholis majoris (major potholes) and I am looking for some advice on how to repair it in the near term. First, some backround: The driveway is in need of a couple of tandem truckloads of 1"3/4 minus from the street all the way to the house. Before I have that done, however, a curtain drain and a rock wall needs to be installed near my garage to drain away the standing water (see pic #1). I was going to have a pro do that work as the utilities run right near where the curtain drain would go. In the near term (before the driveway gets re-graveled), I would like to repair some of the major potholes in the driveway out toward the street. Looking from the street down the driveway (pics 2,3), I was thinking of making a small ditch or gutter on the right side so that water can drain away and thus not pool on the driveway. I should mention that water flows on to the driveway from this side as it is the uphill side of the property. When the driveway is re-graveled I will shape it such that it has a more substantial crown and this new gutter should function even better.
What do you guys think?
Bonehead

Here's what worked for me when I had a driveway like that. Pack the hole with your gravel until it is mounding out. Then get a big glob of NW Clay and pound it into the hole from the top. The clay will hold everything in place otherwise the loose gravel just agravates the hole and it gets bigger. Experiment with the amount of clay and you will find what works best.

It looks like your driveway is pretty old so I think it has mixed with the clay below and that is why fresh gravel won't stick in th holes very well.

But all this is just if you are looking to patch it and not if you are trying to re-do it completely.

You can do the drainage thing. I've seen trenches along the sides that drain into some PVC pipe that runs under the road. Depending upon the type of traffic you may have to reinforce above the PVC.

If you are re-doing the whole road then don't skip on the fabric underneath or the amount of gravel.

Does any of this help or make sense?

Stone dust along with some 3/4" crushed stone(AKA drain tile) mixed in will also work for the pot holes. It will stay in place as well as provide drainage.

In the past I have dug out the pot holes with the excavator, then put larger rock (rock that was used as a base for the driveway) into the hole, and then tried to fill it over with smaller gravel. That used to work but no longer does.
Bonehead

The problem with trying to fill potholes is that the material that you put into the pot hole doesn't bond to the material at the sides of the pot hole. The best thing to do is to periodically scarify the entire driveway and then regrade it. If you build up the driveway so it is higher than the surrounding area, and put a crown on it, then you will never have a pot hole to deal with. Pot holes form because the water lies in a depression and then when you drop a wheel into the depression, the water is pushed out and the hydraulic pressure of the water exiting takes with it some of the material, making the depression deeper. After a few "blow outs" like this, you now have a full blown pot hole. Left unattended, it will keep getting worse until it engulfs your entire car.

Try the globs of clay. The surface clay will wash away. Pound it in. If the pothole is deep do it in layers.

I don't know about you PB, but it is coming down hard here now. Half of the driveway is under water. I have to work tomorrow, but will try the clay trick on Tues, assuming it is not pouring.
Bonehead

BoneheadNW said:

I don't know about you PB, but it is coming down hard here now. Half of the driveway is under water. I have to work tomorrow, but will try the clay trick on Tues, assuming it is not pouring.
Bonehead

Click to expand...

Yes, non-stop frickin' rain here too. "If" it ever stops raining it's worth a try as a stop gap measure until you can get some better drainage.

Might be time to start work on that ark project.

Junk pretty much has it. Most potholes are a result of clay deposits or clay pools. Clay is a poor perculator. It will allow water to stand on it seemingly for ever.

My suggestion is to crown the drive ... put a large sub layer of rock (2-4 inch) and dress it with crusher run, shale, limestone, whatever your local quarry is serving up as a top layer.

Tain't cheap and won't last forever. If you've got the funds, a layer of road fabric should be put down first.

That's my 2 cents