Crushed shell driveways in Marstons Mills
Named for the grist mills the Marston family built on the river in the sixteen forties.
Marstons Mills is largely residential now, but it is threaded with cranberry bogs, lakes and kettle ponds, and that water is the most important thing about building a driveway here.
Kettle ponds mean a variable water table
Kettle holes are where blocks of glacial ice sat and melted out, and the ponds that fill them are the visible top of the groundwater. Near one, the water table can sit much closer to the surface than it does a few hundred feet away.
For a driveway this matters more than the surface does. Where groundwater is high, the base has to be deep enough to keep the wearing course clear of seasonal wet, and the grade has to move water off rather than let it pool and soak.
Bog edges in particular
Properties bordering a working or retired bog often have a section of driveway on ground that behaves quite differently from the rest. It is common for one end of a driveway to be perfectly firm while the other softens every spring.
The fix is not more material along the whole length. It is dealing with the wet section properly, which usually means excavating deeper there and improving where the water goes before anything else.
Crushed stone driveways in Marstons Mills
Crushed stone is the more reliable surface on the lower ground near the bogs and ponds, where the water table sits high. It does not soften as readily when the ground underneath stays damp.
Up on the drier ground away from the water, either material will hold perfectly well.
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Driveway in Marstons Mills?
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