How to repair an earth road driveway

Earth driveways are made of the soil being cut and rammed to form a firm ground. Due to use and the rains, the road undergoes wear and tear. The pot holes start appearing and during the rainy season, vehicles get stuck in the mud arising. Usually where the wheels roll on gets deeper and the middle remains raised. This sometimes scratches the underneath of cars passing on this way. Earth roads should be maintained continuously so as to be accessible.

During the wet seasons, earth driveways tend to be slippery. It is important that this is controlled as vehicles may skid and hit the embankments causing car serious damage. There are various materials that are used for grading earth roads. These are murram, hardcore, quarry dust and bitumen. These materials should be laid on well prepared surfaces. It is to ensure that compaction, drainage, services and levels are attended to before materials are laid.

Earth driveway preparation starts by taking levels across and along the road. If a road grading machine is not available, this is done by hand. The road is first leveled and the hump at the center removed and flattened. After the road is leveled, wetting and compaction is done to achieve a firm base. The rolling is done three times wet and four times on dry surface. After the base is firm, hardcore is laid by hand packing it before it is compacted.

Earth road driveways should have hardcore or strong bases of hardcore to reduce the pot holes. If hardcore is not available, it is replaced by murram or quarry dust. The road should have a cumber running across to drain off water. It is also important to excavate drainage channels on both sides of the road. The murram or quarry dust is laid and leveled. It is then wetted and compacted and made to slope to drain water into the channels excavated.