Those are pretty expensive. If gravel isn’t an option, then asphalt will be your best bet for a cost effective long driveway. It will warm up sooner in winter and melt the ice. With the proper prepared base, and the right contractor, it can last generations. Ours is 300 feet, and is 50 years old. It’s just now having some issues, but will easily go another 10 years before replacement.

Thanks TCK! We were thinking of permeable driveway to also divert water so it wouldn’t freeze on the surface. We though if we just did the 8’ width and the length is 130 per unit, it’d be about $4,000 for materials alone, I’m guessing asphalt would cost more. Thanks for your thoughts based on experience!

4K? Not even close to close. Not even by a factor of 10. The contractor’s prep work for the topsoil removal, base application and compaction layers, and the construction of drainage swales is where most of the basic costs of any driveway lie. The topping is the decorative icing on the cake. Gravel is the cheapest, by far. But it has high lifecycle costs if you don’t own and operate your own maintenance equipment. With a property that large, you‘ve probably already purchased your big tractor, grader blade, box blade, front end loader, bush hog, finish mower, boom pole, auger, and tiller? Then all you need is the occasional dump truck of gravel for you to spread after you box blade and redistribute the existing gravel, and then crown it with the grader blade.

Asphalt is the next cheapest. No lifecycle costs to maintain until it’s ready to replace. If it’s built on the proper base, crowned to create proper gentle runoff, and has the swales to handle the runoff. Concrete is next. Again, no lifecycle costs to maintain if it’s built properly. . Permeable pavers are the most expensive lifecycle choice. They frost heave, and get invaded by weeds. They’re twice the labor to install initially and much more maintenance over time. You have to periodically pull them up, add base, the compact, and reset. And weed, or apply herbicide. That’s fine for a 30’ suburban drive. Not a 750’ estate drive. You have to factor in that lifecycle cost and maintenance cost into any decision.

There is 40-50K of land and base prep before you ever get to the topping material. Gravel would add 20-30K. Depends on how close the quarry is. Asphalt would be another 45-50K. Again, distance factors in. Concrete would be 60-80K. Pavers would be another 70/90K, and most of that labor. It’s labor intensive.

We have a 60 foot drive...sloped we got an estimate in road base dumped , spread....and rolled $3,000

This is a good product in a rural setting as it looks natural..holds up under normal traffic and tough weather and is easy to repair when and if needed.....ours has lasted 20 years under light use....with a steeper grade than you have and we opted to not add the 3k refresh...the main requirement is the right grading , ditches , and draining...

The key to longevity for any driveway/road is the prep work to make it drain properly. That’s where all the money is too.

My neighbor had a 200 foot second drive put in 20 years ago to service the granny flat addition. Every year for 18 of those 20 years he has had to deal with washouts, puddles, and sinking gravel. They didn’t remove the topsoil. Or build ditches. They just dumped out 8K of gravel and ran the tractor over it a time or two. This was the year that their kids who moved into the main house got tired of it. To do it right, in gravel, cost them 25K to rebuild. Your driveway is 4x as long. But maybe bad initial construction doesn’t have to be excavated and corrected?

Thank you all for your comments! We do have a pretty good gravel base, swales and culverts installed a couple years ago when the land was first cleared. We do get a fair amount of rain and even the crude driveway has held up very well, it’s been somewhat trashed mostly due to cement and large trucks going up and down the driveway. We were looking for an environmental as well as practical option for us. This property is going to be vacation site for a few years and then our retirement place. My hubby did the math on the driveway with the at pavers, he’s pretty smart so I trust his estimate on the materials cost. I don’t think cement is financially practical but we are doing a cement pad under and around the port cochere. We were debating between asphalt and an eco paver. Was hoping someone with personal experience would share their thoughts. Thanks again everyone!

Here’s a pic of the gravel right by the house and the google earth aerial view.

The driveway is in red, approximate path. Google earth says the other path is a road, but it’s not, it’s a 4’ wide rocky path water tends to flow.

That’s a lot of money in that squiggle. 100K or so. This is just one of the reasons that when you drive down old rural highways, the houses are about 30‘ from the road. Spending money on driveways and utility hookups instead of the house wasn’t considered an acceptable expense. It’s only in modern times when a dirt road to no where is considered an inadequate way to get there.

@mackdolan...I think we’ll stick with gravel and a swale system suggested by a civil engineer. We are off the map so to speak, exactly where we want to be, no where near a city (I grew up in Chicago), enjoying nature.

@Lidia, just wondering if you ended up going with the Agtec pavers (or something else?) and how things are holding up. I am just starting to research permeable options ....

We used the PerformanceFooting BaseCore HD product. Is less costly than Agtech but also smaller cells so it could support the weight better with a lower profile footprint. We ended up using it for the driveway and a couple embankment

areas.

After using geocells as a base on our shed, I did it on our driveway. As a driveway base, this is the product that worked very well for me. Was only 3" and their HD product . So far had it in for 2 years with no upheave or any issues at all. Drive my tractor trailer on it, handles lots of water, and frost. Id highly recommend it. I had to put additional rock in after the first year just to cover the geocell but that was it.