How to fill in potholes/road maintenance

Filling in potholes after a washout. What's the best way to go about doing it, without wasting mountains of material blanketing the whole roadway? Doing it the way I do it, I backblade a whole bucket over a bunch of potholes, but I waste a bunch covering the road and not the potholes and after a few passes of rock truck the holes pop back out just as bad as before I put the gravel. Thanks guys, For reference I'm on a Komatsu 475

Are they full of water? Water just makes the material mushy and squish out. But you can use the material to displace the water and come back a little later when the water has drained off the road. With a grader, if I can't cut them out, I'll fill them, wheel pack them, top them off and repeat our let trucks do the wheel packing. I'll ask trucks to aim for the holes to splash the water out before I get there but for whatever reason, they usually won't even though they have no problem driving through them to make them. Just have to stay on top of the holes until you get them fixed if you can't cut them out. Or if I can cut a little, I'll top them off, wheel pack and get them mostly filled, then cut down a little to get below what I filled, but I still have to touch them up after a little traffic so they don't get away from me. But getting the water out of them to start is a big help. Do youu have teeth or a smooth cutting edge?

To have a lasting repair you need to dig them up and all around them then re-level the whole area. The loader should pack gravel really good especially if you have a bucket full of material.

That sounds like a good idea! I will bring a full bucket of material, dump off to the side , cut the holes out , fill and wheel pack. It makes sense to cut until you’re on good ground with the water gone , then build back up. Thank you for your replies.

I struggled with potholes on the driveway at my property. Didn't want to dig up what was hard packed but filling them with road crush never lasted very long.

The only option is cut then rebuild the road unless you want a temporary solution that lasts half a day.

X3 - Gotta dig the potholes out and re-grade other wise the holes will come right back. Same way with washboards.

I ran into this problem again. There was a big set of ruts on a sharp comer and a muddy hole before the corner. For the corner I back dragged a thick layer over the ruts cutting the middle hard top and wheel packing layer by layer until I was happy with the results The mud hole . I back dragged the mud out the best I could and did the same thing I did for the corner brush out rocks and the last bit of mud that got mixed up in the material I brought. Wheel packing layer by layer , the last layer I put on a bit extra and pressed it down with a weighted bucket before smoothing it out and wheel packing one more time. it looked a lot better than just covering it up and hoping for the best. The rock truck drivers were thanking me and saying it was a lot better as a was building it and they were rolling by. Thanks a lot guys Cutting out the mess/water/mud is number 1

I missed something. You fix potholes with a 475? I’m impressed. Good to have you on the HEF LoaderMan94. “For reference I'm on a Komatsu 475”.

it’s a 475-10, thank you!

Coaldust said: I missed something. You fix potholes with a 475? I’m impressed. Good to have you on the HEF LoaderMan94. “For reference I'm on a Komatsu 475”. View attachment 361761 Click to expand... How can you even see 'em up in that cab ? Just put the rippers down, take out all the concrete and start over ?

One our driveway, I cut a small channel to drain the water. Once dry, I pack the pothole with deluxe road mulch (3/4 crush with crusher dust) and if there are more than a few, I bring the plate tamper down and hit them a few times. Seems to work reasonably well here. Getting rid of the water before there is much of a pot hole works the best.

I took care of a gravel equipment yard for time. We got busted asphalt from some milling jobs for free. I busted it up more with an excavator bucket and then spread with a grader. Pressed it in with a roller and it lasted pretty well. The dozers took their toll on it over about a year. No the asphalt contractors want you to pay for the stuff.

John C. said: I took care of a gravel equipment yard for time. We got busted asphalt from some milling jobs for free. I busted it up more with an excavator bucket and then spread with a grader. Pressed it in with a roller and it lasted pretty well. The dozers took their toll on it over about a year. No the asphalt contractors want you to pay for the stuff. Click to expand... Here the local and state DOT want a credit back on all the millings per ton so that has pretty much eliminated the ability to get any millings unless it's a private job like a parking lot. Our equipment yard started with a 1' layer of well hammered out limestone then topped with some dense grade base and 8910 (stone dust). Every 2-3 years we'll order 25 tons of 8910 and freshen it up. Hard as a freakin rock and drains very well. The pile of stone is dense graded base which is our ALDOT 825B left over from a coffee shop project a few miles away. Hardly ever have the heavier track machines on the yard but when we do during the winter for cleaning this combo of rock holds up great.

You can weld different cutting edge on it and the sides what ever YOU want. They do come with cutting edges.

aussiechunda said: What would help is magically making every other operator learn the niche skill of floor building with raw material so I dont have to fix them all the time, I have enough work keeping the face floors where I want them between my normal job of loading the crushing plant without having to worry about fixing the tip head. If I can achieve that then my job becomes twice as easy but those floors always end up downhill toward the hopper. The fact that our site uses loaders to do it is absurd in my opinion. View attachment 362017 Click to expand... Give us a little more background on this operation. Obviously it's a hard core recycling yard but what's going on overall?

aussiechunda said: I think it would be ground into dust after a week of pushing concrete, ***** abrasive. Teeth, heel plates and shrouds on my bucket last about a month. Just need a dozer. View attachment 362019 Click to expand... Loaders are awesome for grading there basically a ruber tire dozer and they have a bucket Loaders also cost less than half to operate what a dozer does It sounds as tho the other folks around you lack the skill or care to make the place clean doesn't matter a dozer or loader same problems will persist

CM1995 said: Give us a little more background on this operation. Obviously it's a hard core recycling yard but what's going on overall? Click to expand... Concrete/brick recycling trucks bring in the concrete from demo sites and that is tipped off at the tip head, munched with excavators then pushed over down to the tip face where I feed it into the fixed crushing plant, we dont do aggregates just 20mm and 40mm road base, class 2 is straight concrete, class 3 is 85% concrete, 15% brick and class 4 is 70% concrete 30% brick. 40mm is generally also just straight concrete unless its a special order. Also runs through a pugmill after the plant for wet mix and cement treated in 1% 3% and 5% Pic related was the floor fixing i did this weekend, honestly the most satisfying part of my work is fixing the weeks damage to floors and then being a live face it never ends. Before

After

DDoug said: You can weld different cutting edge on it and the sides what ever YOU want. They do come with cutting edges. Click to expand... Sales buckets with a cutting edge dont work at all for it because you are working with raw material, you are building the floors by filling your bucket then the fines dropping out between the teeth of a rock bucket, really its a lot like setting the floor level in a pit mine in a face loader.