How much weight will a blacktop driveway hold?

Answer 1

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Answer 2

That is a tough question. I assume you are asking how heavy can your vehicle be? Residential driveways are made to support passenger cars and light delivery trucks. They are not made to support the weight of heavy commercial trucks. The load-bearing capacity of a typical driveway depends on the soil beneath the driveway, the driveway's foundation (amount of gravel below the asphalt), age of the driveway, the moisture content of the ground, thickness of asphalt, the particular mix of asphalt used and the ground temperature. The typical well built driveway will have 2`` - 3`` of asphalt plus a 4" substrate of gravel. To get some idea of how much weight should be allowed on your driveway, maybe the State load limit is a good reference point. In California the law says: ``The gross weight on any one axle shall not exceed 20,000 pounds, and the gross weight upon any one wheel, or wheels, supporting one end of an axle, shall not exceed 10,500 pounds.`` What that means is a truck with four wheels weighting more than 42,000 Lbs is not allowed on any streets in California. That maximum load is for City/State streets. Those streets are usually built many times stronger than residential driveways. Using that as a gauge, you can decide how much risk you want to take by allowing a heavy truck on your driveway. If I was to make a call, I would not allow a four wheeled truck weighing any more than 10,000 Lb on my driveway. Any more than that and you are likely to get damaged asphalt.