×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

Min Slopes on Gravel Parking lots

Min Slopes on Gravel Parking lots

Min Slopes on Gravel Parking lots

(OP)
Can anyone tell me what the standard slopes are on a gravel parking lot?

I believe we can use slopes of 1.5% to 4%.

Is this okay or far off.

please advise.

Thanks

RE: Min Slopes on Gravel Parking lots

Usually 2 percent is the least.

However, rmember any standing water is a place for pot holes to form.  They are caused by the splash effect of the tires.

Depending on how fancy the lot is for use, the steeper you can make slopes, the less chance of pot holes.   I'd go for 4 percent if I  had a choice.

RE: Min Slopes on Gravel Parking lots

Wouldn't the minimum slope be contingent on the permeabilty of the underlying soils (just asking here, not really sure. . .)?  Recognizing that for asphalt/concrete pavement there is truely a need to limit birdbaths and a corresponding need to have a minimum slope, would the same be true for gravel pavement underlain by some texture class I or II subsoil?  I'd think that 8 inches of gravel with a porosity of 0.33 would provide full infiltration to quite a nice rainfall event (i.e., 2 1/2 inches or so) if then underlain by sandy or gravelly subsoil, where would the birdbaths be?

Comments?

f-d

¡papá gordo ain’t no madre flaca!

RE: Min Slopes on Gravel Parking lots

it has to do more with the accuracy of the grading as well as the possibility of settlement than it does with infiltration.  If you start out with flatter slopes, you run the chance of eventual birdbaths.  with steeper slopes, you more often can avoid this problem

RE: Min Slopes on Gravel Parking lots

This I get, but it's a gravel parking lot - that's where I wonder whether birdbaths are a likely problem if the underlying soils are relatively pervious. . . .

f-d

¡papá gordo ain’t no madre flaca!

RE: Min Slopes on Gravel Parking lots

Gravel parking lots usually need a surface course of crushed aggregate, which includes some (usually ~8%) binder (read silt & clay). So it may not infiltrate water so well. And ofter other soil tracked in can lessen its infiltration capacity over time.  Puddles may well infiltrate/dry out sooner than in pavement, but in the meantime damage is done.  The standard design for gravel roads I've seen has a 3% crown.

RE: Min Slopes on Gravel Parking lots

even if damage is not done, nobody wants to see standing water especially your client.  However, generally with standing water and traffic, the puddles always get deeper, they never seem to fill themselves in...

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources