Muddy gravel driveway

Ack

We have 700' or so of long curving driveway at our newly constructed home. It was a muddy mess any time it rained, and our contractor recently put down some gravel over the whole driveway. This helped with every spot except for one low spot in the driveway where water pools up when it rains. Even with the gravel down, it becomes a muddy mess the first time it rains and we try to drive over it.

The contractors solution is to keep dumping more gravel on this spot. To me, it seems that if this spot is so low that water always collects there when it rains, the gravel will keep washing away or sinking into the mud, no matter how much is added. I think it might make more sense to build up this low spot with more dirt so it's at the same level as the rest of the driveway, then gravel it.

Can anyone help with ideas on the best way to handle this? I'd just like to end up with a gravel driveway that I can drive up and down even when it's very wet without getting my car coated with mud or risking getting stuck!

Bondo

Ayuh,...

The area should be graded to provide Drainage,...
If it can't drain off,.. It'll Never get much Better...

Btw,...
Filling it with Gravel is better than using dirt,+ capping that with gravel...

Ack

Thanks for your help in this and my other thread. He's actually decided now that he's going to run a tinhorn under this area of the driveway to allow drainage from another low spot in our yard. He says this should raise up the low area in the driveway too. Wish me luck!

jpsmith

If water is pooling there, then yeah, drainage must be addressed. But I'd like to mention that there will be times - such as right now after a whole winter's worth of snow & ice melted away in two days - that it will still be muddy and spongy. Right now my gravel driveway is a bit of a mess with mud coming through when I drive on it. I don't have a drainage issue; this is on a slope. Each spring for the past three years since laying the gravel I have put down more gravel to address the muddy areas and it gets a little better each time. Eventually so much gravel will be smooshed into the mud in the trouble spots that it will reach a sort-of gravel saturation point and the mud won't be so much of a problem anymore. The number of trouble spots now is far fewer than it was a few years ago. It's just one of the joys of having a gravel driveway.