Temporary access driveway

[WWilts]

Pic shows host dwelling at left, new build at right. Not broken ground yet.

Eventual driveway will be reinforced grass (for various reasons incl planning). A reinforced grass driveway is already in place. Reinforced grass does not require a deep sub base for cars. 

 

Problem: heavy lorries/a crane (for roof trusses) probably need something more substantial to drive on.

What would you do?

Options considered so far:
1) Leave the reinforced grass in place and hire heavy duty mats to sit on it for the build duration

2) Pull up the reinforced grass, put in hardcore, create hard driveway for lorries. Later restore reinforced grass over the hard core.

Reinforced grass installation took a day's work from a 3 person team. Materials price £1k approx for 20m.
One quote so far for heavy duty mat is £1700 for first wk, then £300/wk (x 14 wks total) - £5600 excl VAT

One builder allowed provisional £12,000 for creating works access driveway with hardcore

Eventually,  some form of hardcore probably needed under permanent reinforced grass driveway, but sufficient for cars/ambulances at worst. Not heavy lorries.

Feeling uncertain about what to do.

[epsilonGreedy]

I think you need to clarify whether a crane will be required for the roof trusses because cranes come with special working platform requirements. If a telehandler will do the job then your hardcore area can be simplified.

 

It is not clear from your map where the site access is.

 

Concrete wagons and brick deliveries are the most problematic to deal with. After that the regular Builder Merchant lorries just need a small drive to park on before they use their onboard crane to swing loads onto your site. Scaffolding crews need some space for all their components when they arrive.

 

I wonder if you have a 3rd option, geotex over your current grass drive. The spread  different grades are hardcore on top.

 

My site drive and longterm house drive was created in a single day with an expert driver in his mid sized 13? ton digger. The area was an L-shape measuring 19m x 12m. By the time I arrived on site at 11am digger man had scraped the whole area down to a level and was waiting for the first hardcore delivery. From memory it took 7 lorry loads of hardcore delivered over 4 hours to form the drive. To finish off he spent another hour driving his digger over and over the surface to firm it up. Job done.

 

Total cost about £2000 in hardcore + £500 to the digger man for his time and machine.

[WWilts]

18 minutes ago, epsilonGreedy said:

It is not clear from your map where the site access is.

Site access at left. Public highway

[WWilts]

20 minutes ago, epsilonGreedy said:

The spread  different grades are hardcore on top.

Not understood

[WWilts]

2 hours ago, epsilonGreedy said:

3rd option, geotex over your current grass drive

Thanks Epsilon.

Set me reading. The current grass drive is reinforced enough to take 8 tonnes per axle. 
An articulated lorry with 6 axles & max weight 44 tonnes should be ok driving over it.

 

Something on top might well be needed to prevent diggers/trackers from shredding it all. The grass has grown nicely enmeshed with the grid, but probably not enough to withstand a heavy digger.

[Ferdinand]

I believe there  are  also various kinds of mat products that you can lay down on top.

[WWilts]

5 hours ago, Ferdinand said:

mat products that you can lay down on top

Yes, probably a good idea to lay mats on top