concrete drive approaches
A concrete drive refers to the approach pavement providing access for vehicles from a road to a private driveway, parking lot, or pavement. It is common for concrete drives which receive basic compact car traffic to be 6″ in thickness. For commercial vehicle access drives it is common for concrete thicknesses to be 8-10″.
Because of the wide turn radius nature of a large moving object such as a vehicle, flares or wings are usually provided on either side of an access drive to eliminate or minimize sod, grass, and right of way disturbances and rutting. Approaches may or may not receive wire mesh or rebar reinforcement.
If a curb runs perpendicular to concrete drive access, the curb must be tapered downward at the drive. If the curb is being poured prior to the drive being installed this tapering can be done when the concrete finishers pour the curb. Otherwise it must be done by sawcutting the existing curb to create safe access. The protrusion or ‘lip’ of the drive or drive/curb combination adjacent to the road is approximately 1/4″ – 1″ thick.
