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Ripping Pot holes

ovrszd

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 1, 2008
Messages
1,523
Location
Missouri
Occupation
Retired Army
I think our county may have you beat on that. My neighbor is a Commissioner and mentioned that he has a road budget of only $35k, and this county like most TX counties is not small... Fortunately frost heaves and ice damage are pretty much not a thing in Central Texas.

That would make a huge difference. How many miles of roads?
 

tinnerjohn

Member
Joined
Jan 11, 2019
Messages
22
Location
Ohio
Ditto on the horses. Buggy wheels do a number on roads, gravel or paved. Horse manure doesn't work well for filling holes either:rolleyes: John
 

ovrszd

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 1, 2008
Messages
1,523
Location
Missouri
Occupation
Retired Army
Dig them out deep as you can. scarify a good distance past them. Grade them. Then prevent them. Potholes are a symptom of poor drainage. Your road should be a highway in the sense that it is higher than the surrounding land. Install culverts if water wants to cross a road.

I like a roadbed of large stone only. 6" is about right. Water drains through stone. Next layer of smaller (2") crushed or screened stone enough to fill the voids of the top layer of bigger stones.

Top layer of crushed aggregate, here we call it pack mix. It is available in 1-3/4 minus.
A private road needs a crown, 4" higher in center than on the edge. I like a 15' wide road traveled surface plus shoulders. Drive on it with 2 wheels in the center. This prevents low wheel tracks where water pools.
When climbing steep hills, use four wheel drive, this prevents washboards.

If your philosophy is correct, as in, potholes are a symptom of poor drainage, why do highways have potholes? :)

My roads are generally 24ft wide. Most traffic straddles the center. I hate that. Creates exactly what you are saying it prevents, "low wheel tracks where water pools. Traffic better serves the roadbed to not drive in the same tracks.

Curious how I enforce traffic to use 4wd when climbing hills? :)
 

Willie B

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 2, 2016
Messages
4,040
Location
Mount Tabor VT
Occupation
Electrician
If your philosophy is correct, as in, potholes are a symptom of poor drainage, why do highways have potholes? :)

My roads are generally 24ft wide. Most traffic straddles the center. I hate that. Creates exactly what you are saying it prevents, "low wheel tracks where water pools. Traffic better serves the roadbed to not drive in the same tracks.

Curious how I enforce traffic to use 4wd when climbing hills? :)
At the time I thought we were discussing private road accessing one home. It occurs to me a driver education course might help.

I had the benefit of my father & Hugh Bromley. Hugh was less diplomatic than my father. Neither had any use for a boy old enough to drive who let his wheels down in the rut. By age 9, I was aware that was unacceptable. These men judged the value of a younger generation by these standards & knew which newcomers were beyond respect based on their driving skills.

"STAY TO F%^&K OUT OF THE MUD!!!!!!!

My son was about 9 when my imported from a Pennsylvania suburb friend came up to our land bragging: "I made it all the way up the hill in two wheel drive! I spun all the way, but I made it!" Seth has not respected him since.

Stewardship of land has become a political catch phrase. Maybe it's time to teach the framework of the term. It isn't working to hope the public will get it. Training a dog begins on a leash. Drivers are a little harder to train than a dog.
 
Last edited:

Willie B

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 2, 2016
Messages
4,040
Location
Mount Tabor VT
Occupation
Electrician
If your philosophy is correct, as in, potholes are a symptom of poor drainage, why do highways have potholes? :)

My roads are generally 24ft wide. Most traffic straddles the center. I hate that. Creates exactly what you are saying it prevents, "low wheel tracks where water pools. Traffic better serves the roadbed to not drive in the same tracks.

Curious how I enforce traffic to use 4wd when climbing hills? :)

Are we discussing paved highways? I believe that is another subject.
No, I've never seen a pothole in a gravel road that did not involve standing water.
 

cuttin edge

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 9, 2014
Messages
2,692
Location
NB Canada
Occupation
Finish grader operator
The government has their own graders to do any dirt roads, but most are paved or chip sealed. I sometimes think that if they were gravel, at least you could grade them now and again when they get rough. I find speed to be an enemy, especially when heavy trucks are involved. I do a haul road into one of our gravel pits. It's actually a government road, but they don't maintain it. Mostly just camps and a few gravel pits. Takes about a day and a half to do it in the spring. If it is really dry, I can use up a new cutting edge no problem. You know the kind of material that makes that hissing sound as you scrape it. Too many miles to scarify so you lean wheels, articulate a bit set your jaw so you don't bite your tongue and off you go. A driver once told me any man that can grade a road with no fines left on it must have some idea what he's doing. Anyway, I tell the boys all the time. It only takes 40 minutes to get in the road at 50km an hour, you're paid by the hour, why do you need to go 80? They start going fast, and it starts to get wash boardy, then it gets worse and worse until it's full of potholes again.
 

RenoHuskerDu

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 17, 2018
Messages
359
Location
Texas
good luck with teaching todays drivers anything...…..

There are still a lot of good kids out in the country. City kids are mostly rotten. I judge youth by how long I assess they would stay alive if/when the grid goes down. Even at churches in Texas cities, kids are soft and woefully unprepared for the physical world. Out here many kids rope calves, raise goats, build things with their hands. And they drive well.
 

ovrszd

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 1, 2008
Messages
1,523
Location
Missouri
Occupation
Retired Army
The government has their own graders to do any dirt roads, but most are paved or chip sealed. I sometimes think that if they were gravel, at least you could grade them now and again when they get rough. I find speed to be an enemy, especially when heavy trucks are involved. I do a haul road into one of our gravel pits. It's actually a government road, but they don't maintain it. Mostly just camps and a few gravel pits. Takes about a day and a half to do it in the spring. If it is really dry, I can use up a new cutting edge no problem. You know the kind of material that makes that hissing sound as you scrape it. Too many miles to scarify so you lean wheels, articulate a bit set your jaw so you don't bite your tongue and off you go. A driver once told me any man that can grade a road with no fines left on it must have some idea what he's doing. Anyway, I tell the boys all the time. It only takes 40 minutes to get in the road at 50km an hour, you're paid by the hour, why do you need to go 80? They start going fast, and it starts to get wash boardy, then it gets worse and worse until it's full of potholes again.

That's a Catch-22 isn't it? We work to smooth the road. We do a great job of it. Traffic speeds up because it's now smooth. And the circle continues..... :(
 
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