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Road and driveway maintenance
Carl,
This is not a thought you asked for and one I hate to mention but, you should find out what liability you are taking on doing work on the road. Sadly, you may find the risk is so great you can not afford to help your neighbor.
Let someone have a wreck on the road and get hurt and you may find a court holds you responsible. Even if you are cleared the cost can wipe out many people.
If you have a farm or business liability type policy you may find it will help protect you. I can tell you to BE SURE YOU ARE SAFE.
Now why is it important for clear thinking level headed people to serve on juries?
Again, it saddens me that such should be a concern but here is would be a major one.
kt
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Road and driveway maintenance
Kenneth has brought up a good point.
As a 'professional' I am insured up the wazoo, but the average homeowner is not, usually. Generally speaking a 'volunteer' is pretty hard to make the scape-goat unless there is a very blatant case of carelessness or stupidity, someone getting paid is held to a much hire standard of professionalism.
The simple solution, if not already accomplished, would be for the residents assoc. to pay for a liability policy, naming the 'volunteer'. We do periodic (3 or 4 times a year only) work on sevral private roads, they have a liability policy which takes the burden off any one person. If the road crosses several pieces of private property this may already be covered in the basic homeowners policy.
Better safe than very, very sorry.
Best of luck.
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Carldarnell
I have a 1/4 mile gravel driveway. First I must state I do not believe in 'crowning' driveways/roads - it causes a mess when plowing with a snowplow or blowing with a snowblower. I make sure my gravel base is high enough and wide enough to allow for proper grading thruout the spring,summer and fall. I use primarily my backblade with weights added to get a perfectly level surface(from right to left as you are driving). I occasionally will turn the backblade(angle) to move gravel to one side or the other.
I 'pull' the backblade backwards and set the blade as vertical as possible. It works great. And once you get it level, it doesnt take much time each year to keep it that way. Crowning is good for 'offroad' or logging roads, but I cant see it for a personal driveway/roadway.
My personal opinion.
doc
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Doc, if the ground is very flat, and the driveway well maintained there is little need for a crown.
I do not however understand how it can create a mess though, please explain it a little.
The problem is that inevitably wheel tracks will appear in a travelled road, then water starts to run in those tracks, ALONG the road, instead of sideways & OFF of the road. This will cause erosion.
I have seen good-sized sections of roadway completely washed away by surprisingly light rains, especially right around the time of snow melt in the spring.
Best of luck.
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The last time I talked with a dentist about a crown he tried to get big bucks out of my wallet That dentist probably didn't understand anything about gravel road construction either. If you put down the right material (1" or 2" minus with enough binder) having a crown is important for the water run off, The more the water can Run Off the better. Usually there is no need for a huge crown, just enough for good water flow ( 3 to 5 degrees).
IMHO.
David
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re: liability. We are in a private subdivision with one road one mile long and cul-de-sac at the end. The only traffic is owners and visitors. I have a mirror on my tractor and watch for animals, people, cars, etc. I will ask my insurance co. about it but the only hot spot is the entrance with the highway.
re: crowning. I am convinced that you need a slight crown to the road. Our road is terrible as it has never been taken care of. It has a concave surface and the water runs down the road in many places. I have tried to crown it and where I could it stays dry. If the road were higher than the surrounding land you may not have to crown it but traffic would put tire tracks in it and the water would run down those. If it is crowned slightly you would have to dress it less often. I haven't crowned my driveway yet but I blade it often. My driveway is a problem because it goes down a hill and turns to the parking area in front of the underground home and shop/garage. Runoff is a problem, so I tried to direct the water to the inside of the drive so it goes to the parking lot and then slows down and goes over the hill. I get some slight erosion on the road but I can blade it out. I am thinking about a ditch on the inside with a small catch basin at the bottom of the hill and a drain under the road to take the water over the hill. I have been experimenting on my property so I don't botch the meighbors land up and make them mad. I am working on the subdivision road from our home to the highway on both sides because it's ok with the owners. That is the down hill part and needs a lot of work. We are supposed to have a home owners association but we have never had a meeting. No one pays me and I would rather keep it that way. We all get along and I want it to stay that way. When it comes time to work the road on the top of the hill if the owners back there don't want me to do it I won't do it.
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Carl,
It is not when you are working where I think you run a liabilty risk. If some wreck, regardless of reason, they will look for all pocket books. If you grade the road or work on the road, do not be surprised if you are sued. The grade was not correct, the ditch too deep, the ditch not deep enough to handle the water, the road too narrow, the wash out was your fault.
I don't know nor am predicting it will ever happen. But I can tell you it does. I hope it never does. But that is much of what courts have become.
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Ahhh, I see what you mean now. Yes, I will talk to my insurance person about that aspect and see what they say. It may be that I will need a rider of some sort to cover me on my homeowners policy. It's a shame that we have the lawsuit system we do. It would be nice if you had to prove intent or neglect to sue.
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If you don't charge for your services, your homeowner's policy should cover. I have a $2,000,000.00 umbrella policy in addition to my homeowners stuff to carry the burden.
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Pete, I believe most homeowners policys only cover what you do on YOUR property, it doesn't cover you for liability beyond your property line.
"Shotgun Litigation" has unfortunately become almost the norm today. Sue everybody you can think of and let a judge & jury sort it out later.
We were named in suit a few years back. A guest at a cottage drove off the road and down the embankment and hit a tree, and in so doing wrote off his new Marcedes. He found through the cottagers association website / newsletter that my company had been hired to advise the assoc. on road maintenance, and so I must be liable because I didn't tell them to cut down the tree, or put up a guard rail.
The cottager the guy was visiting was so pithed at this jerk, the husband of a friend of his wifes, he contacted me to help with the defence. His affidavit that the guy was on his way to buy more booze because his hoist had cut him off pretty much ended the matter. ;->
Best of luck.
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