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Old 06-13-2011, 07:54 AM   #10
Rattlesnake Guy
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We are quite familiar with a dirt road in Alton for about 8 years. It has a fair amount of traffic on it and I would give it a B+. The town seems to do an annual grading. One of the things that happens on dirt roads is that you get a washboard effect when the tires get into a pattern that keeps getting worse. Hole bump, hole bump etc. Once this pattern starts, it seems to continue getting worse as the sine wave increases in height. Depending on the soil, the road can get pretty hard waiting for the grader to come by and redistribute the top 3 inches.

There is a huge difference between a well draining gravel road and a poor draining dirt road with lots of clay. If you look at the road on a day like today where it has rained for a few and just been through a weekend, the amount of ruts if any would be a great indicator of how good a particular dirt road is. (2nd to a rain storm in Feb when the ground is frozen under the dirt)

We are in Alton today, if you want a picture of a particular road just PM me.
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