Driveway repair needed!

[Greg Woloshyn]

Here is a definite off-topic thread. The change in weather with all this snow melting is causing a few deep ruts in my driveway. These ruts are deep and wide, so it would require many bags of expensive cold patch asphalt to fix. I was thinking maybe I could buy some crusher or gravel and fill the hole with this first, then leave 1-2 inches for a top layer of cold patch to finish things up. I want this to last and be a long term fix, does anybody think this would be ok to do?

[Dave Lehnert]

How much is cold patch going for now days? Last time I purchased it was not expensive.

[JohnT Fitzgerald]

Greg - I'm no expert, and I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night :) but I would be concerned about drainage. I would think as long as the ruts had a place for water to drain, it might work. If not, any water would freeze/thaw under the cold patch, and probably cause it to fail pretty quickly.

[David G Baker]

I agree with JohnT.

[Larry Wadman]

You need to take care of the drainage first. Water under any road surface will cause failure of that surface whether it be portland cement concrete or bitumous asphalt concrete. If you have an asphalt paving plant close by they may have some RAP material (the old roadway material which has been milled off of an existing road). That material makes a good temporary patch.

[Greg Woloshyn]

Thanks for the advice and I agree it will probably fail if water were to collect underneath my repair. The rule is to allow a gentle taper from the middle of the drive to the sides for the water to run off so if I patch up this hole the right way meaning cut a line straight up and down around the effected area then fill in, the water will run past it and along the sides of the driveway.

[tyler mckee]

I would say throwing more material in is only a temp. fix. Sounds like you might need to remove the old driveway and see what is under it, sounds like the subgrade is built from bad material.

What happens to the water after it runs off the road? is there drainage along side the driveway, or does the water shed off the road then saturate the road bed?