A load of sand

[unjonharley]

I would be happy to chip in for couple of loads of sand dumped over the rocky apron onto the playa..

[maryanimal]

I don't understand unjon...

[Sham]

No one understands, but please just put your hand on your chin and nod knowingly!

[Elderberry]

A ton of gravel.

[ygmir]

I've built a lot of roads............

[unjonharley]

I've built a lot of roads............

Just improving that one area would make a difference..

[ygmir]

I've built a lot of roads............

Just improving that one area would make a difference..

I felt I knew exactly where you were going with that, and was waiting to see what responses you got.
As a person who's built roads, and owns my own tractors, I'd say sand is not the right product, though for what you're after.
It still needs to be crushed rock, albeit smaller mesh size.

The large rock there, is straight for stability. The impact on that short section of earth, is tremendous with all the traffic and such. weight and vibration, would sink smaller materials right into the playa, and it's be gone. The stuff there, locks together, and can almost form a bridge, (and will bridge soft areas for a distance) with greater stability, weight distribution and load carrying abilities.
The addition of smaller size materials, of course, would smooth the surface, but, would require much more maintenance, in that it'd "washboard" and pot hole, much more.
I'd also bet, the large aggregate size was left as a surface, and rough, to slow traffic mechanically.......it's not bad, if you drive slow........but if you try to go too fast, it's rough as heck.
I can see a few reasons, the ORG would want to leave it like it is, and I'd bet, BLM and County roads, are on board.

of course, I'm no engineer, so, these are just my opinions and thoughts. YMMV.

[Bob]

I watched them build that ramp, was from a big stockpile they had up near the Soldier Meadow Road. Probably from blasting the local volcanic rock, and screening out the boulders. Should have topped it off with two or three feet of well-graded roadbase, but they would have had to bring a crusher, or truck material up from Spanish Springs.

[ygmir]

there's a borrow pit, just past the 12 mile entrance, that looks like the same sort of rock.
Even screening would produce finer aggregate. I'm still thinking it rough and coarse, on purpose.

[Bob]

I think because the local volcanics are like Swiss cheese to begin with, can't get the same results from blasting as you would with a more dense and massive basalt or granite. The Spanish Springs quarry is all granite, Burning Man uses the overburden DG pipe backfill material for burn scar pads, and the quarry crushes the fresh granite for misc aggregate products.

[Bob]

eta: Yeah, you have a point with using coarser material for most of the ramp, less effort to get compaction and would "pump" less when wet than finer aggregate, but they could still have topped it off with a good road base.

[unjonharley]

My little trailer takes a 200 mile beating in that little 200 ft space..

One year on exit, Some ass rear ended me.. I was doing a good 6-7 mph.

[Drawingablank]

I wonder if PSP (Marsden Mat) would do the trick. They used it from WWII through 'Nam and possibly beyond, so there must be some surplus around.

[ygmir]

the base is fine, now.......as Bob says, and others.......some finer stuff on top would smooth it out though.
but, I maintain, they want to keep it rough, just to slow people down, especially considering how narrow it is.
I can see people hitting it at highway speeds as they turn off the pavement, and, all.
How difficult, to drive 3 mph for 200 yds?

[Bob]

Think a lot of those cobbles are glassy-sharp, probably cuts into the sidewall on some lighter-duty tires.

[unjonharley]

Think a lot of those cobbles are glassy-sharp, probably cuts into the sidewall on some lighter-duty tires.

I went to 6ply five years ago.. Hate to think about replacing them.. But I will when I put the bearings this year.. The trailer came with 2ply rated 6 or some shit like that.. This years MV will be very light.. So shelter, MV and liquids I should be under the axal weight..

[Ugly Dougly]

How about concrete?

[ygmir]

How about concrete?

it's only money...................

[Lassen Forge]

Concrete doesn't drain well... you'd have washout and scour on either sides of the pad... and you'd lose the subbase from hydraulic pumping, so that concrete would end up cracking and spalling. There's also a liability issue - since it is on federal land, would the feds want to spend the $$$ on maintaining it to keep their liability for damage due to failed pavement down, on a site used hard one week, and left to shugga under a few dozen vehicles the rest of the time?

But smaller aggregate? Yeah, I could see that, only because it would cure the washboarding effect they already have. Speaking of, what about allt he washboarding on the outer streets last year?

Which leads to the next question - how much pea gravel would it take to put a blanket over the entire BRC site to alleviate the washboarding effect? As a side benefit, it would keep the dust down...

[ygmir]

Concrete doesn't drain well... you'd have washout and scour on either sides of the pad... and you'd lose the subbase from hydraulic pumping, so that concrete would end up cracking and spalling. There's also a liability issue - since it is on federal land, would the feds want to spend the $$$ on maintaining it to keep their liability for damage due to failed pavement down, on a site used hard one week, and left to shugga under a few dozen vehicles the rest of the time?

But smaller aggregate? Yeah, I could see that, only because it would cure the washboarding effect they already have. Speaking of, what about allt he washboarding on the outer streets last year?

Which leads to the next question - how much pea gravel would it take to put a blanket over the entire BRC site to alleviate the washboarding effect? As a side benefit, it would keep the dust down...

about 1,419,733.33 cubic yards, by my rough calucaltions.
assuming the city stays the same size. 5.5 sq. mi. and the gravel is 3" thick.

and, if my calculations and equations are correct.

[Bob]