Strange query

[dickm]

Down the side of many motorways, there are French drains to carry off surplus water. For those not familiar with these, they are basically open channels filled with coarse gravel. Over time, they obviously get silted up and need cleaned. Some 30+ years ago, the son of an old friend/colleague came up with an ingenious idea to do this fairly cheaply. He got hold of an industrial carrot washer, and ran this alongside a plough or similar which lifted the mucky gravel into the cleaner, which washed off the silt and the gravel went back into the gully. No idea how well he did with this, but I've now got a problem which needs something similar.
Our drive consists of a thickish layer (150mm or so) of what locally are called chuckies, 20mm rough gravel. Twenty years or so of driving over these, washing cars etc. added a goodly mix of silt, which actually made the surface more practical than the raw chuckies. However, we've just had a problem with the drainage from out septic tank, involving the construction of a new soakaway. The guy doing this used a middle sized Doosan digger, and the weight of this, plus the sideways movement of the tracks has really compressed the chuckies and squidged the silt and mud into a mucky layer on the surface.
Something like Ken's son's french drain cleaner would be ideal for tidying this up.
Anyone got any ideas of firms that might offer this sort of service? Don't fancy trying to rotavate it and washing the chuckies with a hose!

 

[Fitzroy]

Something like this with a hose pointed inside. Chuckles come out clean the other end. You’d have to process them by hand though which would be hard graft.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/11546057..._mbU4hWQSq&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

 

[TheUnicorn]

I've a similar drive, the main issue we have is moss and grass popping up where it isn't wanted. we were able to borrow a section of chain harrow and drag it with a ride on mower which brings the weeds to the surface, I then normally blow the weeds to one side of the drive with a leaf blower where I can shovel them up. It definately rejuvinates the gravel, bring back the crunch when cars roll up and decompacts everything. It can also be done with a rake, obviously more effort.

depending on the scale you can also just wash the gravel with a cement mixer, but then you've got to seive out the gravel and dispose of the sludge

 

[Tris]

Check out the likes of Farmers Weekly, there are a few companies that do that sort of thing. Whether it's more cost effective than digging it out and replacing I don't know

 

[Inspector]

Would getting a load of new chuckies and spreading it on top 25mm to 50mm thick work to bury the mud and keep the feet clean? The original rock must have settled some over time anyway and this would bring it back to the same height.

Pete

 

[Ttrees]

Have u not got a wheelbarrow?

Only kidding, the washer sounds like a much better idea!

 

[dickm]

Thanks for the suggestions. Some years ago I built a hand powered version of the blue electric beast, which I used for small areas of drive when there was grass or similar needing cleared. Problem is that several years ago, I was several years younger, and was not on a prostate cancer medication that completely destroys muscle mass!
The easiest would certainly be another layer of chuckies, but the weight of the digger has so compacted some areas that even over broken rock (you try gardening on that!!) water is not draining away. Debating whether my rotovator might have the muscle to loosen up the compacted areas, then go for the extra chuckie layer.
Must be very polite to daughter and son-in-law, to see if they can do the manual bit!