Natural Road Building

[oink]

Prior to paving the road in S. Fl. I currently live on, it was originally sugar sand. This required grading twice per week and during dry weather was washboard later the day it was graded. When bad, the washboard would give you two speed choices, 5-10MPH or 50 MPH. 50 wasn't very safe. During the rainy season, it could become a disaster nearly requiring a 4X4. Fortunately, it was a county road and thusly maintained by the county. The county eventually decided to cut maintenance by laying down a layer of shell rock. This did help stabilize the road but during a dry season it turned a bumpy dusty road into what looked like a winter wonderland from the drifting shell rock dust as the top few inches were quickly ground into baby powder dust. Then they found out that shell rock dust did bad things to people's lungs. The next solution was what I believe was a version of this http://www.buildinggreen.com/auth/articl...81108a.xml called Road Oyl in the linked article. It was called something else when the county used it but I think it was the same. I don't recall the name but it began with a "B". I think it was Pine Bitumen but googling was unsuccessful. We heard, at the time, that ideally it was to be plowed or mixed into the top layer (several inches) of the road and then compacted. The county elected to just use a tanker drip truck and apply it. It stank a bit like Brunswick Georgia and was a real mess for the first few cars to travel it. Where it was able to form an unbroken layer after mixing with the dust, it produced a fairly asphalt like surface. I thought I remembered hearing it was water soluble. It would withstand a fair amount of rain but they would eventually have to reapply it. They eventually gave up and paved it with asphalt. I wondered at the time what would have happened if a thin layer of sealing tar had been applied on top to seal it. While it lasted, it produced a decent pavement. You must remember the county did no preparation. This was put down in an area that was originally a lowland pine/palmetto environment known for flooding during the rainy season. The base was sugar sand with a layer of shell rock that was thin or nonexistent in places. The road was subjected to both very dry conditions as well as flooding which would result it it being largely covered with water for up to three days. The county did no preparation other than laying it down with a tanker. I provided this long and mostly irrelevant narrative as I appear to be the only person here with first hand experience with these products.

ps: They did a crap job with the asphalt too.

Pua`a
S. FL
Big Islander to be.