Turning a Gravel Drive Into Asphalt on a 2 to 5 Acre Lot

The typical Elbert County driveway

Outside downtown Elizabeth and the newer subdivisions, most places sit on two to five acres or more, in spots like Sun Country Meadows, Pawnee Hills, Wild Pointe, and Ponderosa Park. The driveway's usually a few hundred feet long, it comes off a county road that might be gravel itself, and it went in as gravel when the house was built. Turning those drives into asphalt is one of the most common calls we get.

A gravel drive on this kind of lot has the same problems every year. You've got dust in the summer, washboard after every rain, gravel pushed into the ditch by the plow, and a regrading bill every spring. Asphalt fixes all of that, but only if you treat it as a construction job and not just a layer of blacktop over whatever's there.

Step one is checking the old gravel

The first question is whether the gravel you've got can be part of the base, and sometimes it can. A drive that's had gravel on it for 15 years, gets graded now and then, and sits on sandy loam may have several inches of hard packed material that's worth keeping. Other drives have two inches of loose rock over dirt, and those get treated as a new build.

We dig a few test spots to check the depth, look for soft areas after a rain, and note where the ruts keep coming back. Ruts that come back mean water's sitting in the base. Those spots get dug out and rebuilt, not covered up.

Building the base

Asphalt's only as good as what's under it, and that goes double at 6,500 feet with dozens of freeze and thaw swings every winter. The base for an acreage drive is a packed layer of road base over dirt that's been shaped and packed itself. How thick depends on the soil and the load. A drive that sees a horse trailer or a hay truck gets more base than one that sees two sedans. Our gravel to asphalt page covers the build in more detail.

Soil matters out here. The sandy loam around Elizabeth drains and packs well, but clay pockets show up where you don't expect them, and clay holds water and heaves in winter. If we hit clay under your drive, we deal with it before the base goes down, either by digging it out or adding depth to the road base.

• Strip loose gravel and roots, keep what's solid
• Shape and pack the dirt with a crown
• Lay road base in lifts and pack each one
• Thicker base at the apron, turns, and parking spots
• Roll it with a loaded truck before paving to find soft spots

Drainage on a long drive

On a 400 foot drive, drainage isn't a detail. It's the whole design. Water's got to get off the surface fast and move away from the edges without cutting under them. That means a crown or cross-slope the whole way, a ditch on the uphill side where the land slopes toward the drive, and a culvert where the drive crosses a low spot or the roadside ditch.

The spot that fails most often is where the drive meets the county road. The roadside ditch carries water along the road, and your drive crosses it. If the culvert's too small, crushed, or missing, water backs up under the apron and the asphalt fails there first. We look at the culvert on every conversion, and replacing or adding one is often part of the job.

Access permits from Elbert County Public Works

Paving a drive you already have on your own land usually doesn't need a building permit in Elbert County. But the minute a job creates a new connection to a county road or changes the old one, you need a Residential Access Permit from Elbert County Public Works, which is the Road and Bridge office in Kiowa. Changing the culvert, widening the apron, or moving where the drive meets the road all count. Work inside the county right-of-way also needs a Right-of-Way Permit.

Inside Elizabeth town limits it's a Right-of-Way Permit from the Town of Elizabeth Public Works for anything touching a town street or easement. We'll tell you at the site visit if your job looks like it needs a permit, and we build the timeline around getting it. It's not hard, but it's not instant either, so start early.

Timing and what to expect

Hot-mix paving in Elizabeth works from about late April or May through October, when the ground and the air stay above 50 degrees. A full conversion on a long acreage drive usually takes two or three days on site. We dig out and build the base, pack and shape it, then pave. Permit lead time is on top of that. Once it's in, a sealcoat after the first year and crack sealing each fall keep it tight. This post on why driveways crack over our winters explains what you're protecting it from.

If you want to convert your drive next season, get a site visit this fall. We'll measure, check the base and the culvert, flag any permit needs, and send you a written quote so you're ready when the ground thaws. Call (720) 897-1677 or send the estimate form with your address.