Dirt driveway maintenace questions

[68Charger]

I've got 3/4 mile of road I have to maintain, and had to build it originally on top of a mostly clay base, but it also has a steep hill- the "lay of the land" will determine your challenges.

First priority is planning the drainage- you need to ensure anywhere that you plan where the water will go everywhere- if there are places where it must cross the road, you either put in a culvert (sized for the water flow you expect... and there are nuances to properly installing them for best flow) or if that's not practical, a flat "wash" made of concrete will work if it rarely has water on it.

Your budget can very well determine what your material will be.
But you need something that binds together... I used crusher fines- at the time they were free (except for the cost to haul them)... hard to say what you have now, but if it doesn't bind together at all it will become mud. Old saying is "a bucket of mud plus a bucket of rock = a bucket of mud" the key is getting stuff that binds properly- you take a handful of it, squeeze it into a ball- if it stays together then it's good (at that moisture content) Whatever material you're looking at, ask for a sample and do the above test... just because they call it crusher fines, class5/6, etc doesn't mean it binds properly (one place around here is crushing river rock, and it's total shit for binding, too many round surfaces)

The crusher fines worked well for many years (it was put down around 2002), because it created a barrier that would make the water run off the road and drain away... but that was many years ago, and I'm looking at having to do something again. Eventually the binders washed out, and I'm left with gravel on top of clay in some areas. Also, on the hill it's too smooth for traction with more that just a little ice/snow- I'm going to re-do the hill in either class 5 (1.5" minus crushed), road base or recycled asphalt.

If you can afford the recycled asphalt, that is IDEAL- the bitumen in the asphalt is the binder. Absolute best is if they can put it down with proper equipment... but even putting it down in the heat of summer and grading it smooth will result in a very good surface compared to gravel/etc.