Stone tracks and estate drives in Petworth

A stone track is still the right answer for most rural access around Petworth. It carries heavy machinery, it can be topped up rather than replaced, and in parkland and open country it looks correct in a way a bound surface does not.

Building on estate ground

The greensand and clay around here vary a great deal over short distances, and the wet spots are rarely where you would guess from looking at the surface in summer. We walk a route before quoting it and, where we can, in poor weather, because a track alignment that looks obvious in July can be crossing a seasonal spring line.

Where the ground is soft we lay a geotextile membrane under the stone. It is not an upsell. Without it, stone migrates down into soft ground over a couple of seasons and you pay for the same material twice.

Shoot and forestry access

Shoot tracks have an unusual load pattern: very little traffic for most of the year, then repeated heavy use through the season, often in the wettest months and often with vehicles that are wider than the track was built for. It is worth building for the season rather than the average, and worth putting the money into passing places and turning heads where vehicles actually stop and manoeuvre.

Camber and cross drains

A track that holds water will not see out a winter here. It needs a camber so water runs off rather than down the wheel ruts, cross drains at the low points, and somewhere for the water to discharge that is not the next stretch of track. Ditching and culverts are part of building a track properly. Skipping them is the single most common reason a track that cost real money fails within two years.