Rough cost of repairing a white road

10/29/2009 - 04:57

Does anyone have any experience of having a white road repaired? Any idea what the approximate cost would be for 100m on a fairly steep slope?Antinello

Topic

Renovating

Location

Umbria

Comment

Depends on the condition, if it needs needs comprehensive renovation work done properly ie stabilising (with crushed rock / hardcore) and a complete recovering with breccia rosso plus rolling and drainage (VERY important to prevent water damage again especially if on a slope, otherwise repairs will be an annual event) you could be looking at a very large figure indeed as apart from the materials, It requires heavy duty plant, plus labour costs. I know two people who shared a bill of E40,000 (one Italain one uk) for no more than 100 metres and that was 3 yrs ago, so E 50,000 is possible. Obviously if the hardcore still exists and the breccia is just thin or washed away in places and needs patching then a lot less. Whatever you do have someone sort out the drainage with pozzo if necessary! Or just buy a landrover and ignore it. Where are you and do you own the track?

As a guide, something around €70- €80 mt2 is about right for full reconstruction.

Previous posts on ItalyMag have suggested costs of 10,000 Euros per KM (1000 metres). Obviously it would be dependant on current condition but these are cheap country roads and the figures above are likly to be extremly high. Good luck and please do post how much it actually does cost you.

I'd like to know too, so do give us updates Thanks

Do you have a house at the end of the road? if so then the commune may be liable to pay for it.It took me 3 years of asking, but after I wrote to our local mayor, he came out to look at it and the commune paid for it, it was done within 8 weeks.They said the reason it wasn't done previously was because I had a landrover!Its worth asking at your local commune, even if you are not resident I think they are obliged to sort it in case you need emergency services to your property.

Sorry, I think the quote I gave above could be misleading. This would be the price for road overlaid with stone on a hardcore type base on an existing dirt track. Bit like crazy paving. I now realise that you are talking of a gravel pebble road which I don't have any experience on costings.

I don't know If it of any help but I am at the end of about 500 m. of "white road" it was recently repaired to the standard for ordinary cars to use. This consisted of the holes filling in & a load of chippings distributed on the surface.I shared the cost with the two other users of the road, my part was €80. This was not arranged by me & is usually done when the ruts get too deep for my neighbors cinque-cento!Pip pip

We live 650m down a white road which previously had only been used by farmer to access his field and the owner of a semi-derelict property further down who uses the garden in Summer. Comune would not pay for road repairs, but after much discussion (and time) eventually agreed to smooth road and spread stones if we paid for materials. It cost us €2650 for material. Comune only did basic job, no drainage etc. and the road is still only passable by 4-wheel drive vehicle when wet. In fact we have friends who even when dry will not use the road. We are resident, living here full time.

There are 1000s of ruins collapsing and many already a pile of stones, simply because of the expense of upgrading, repairing or in many cases providing for the first time a lane. Its always sad to see but unless they have a spectacular location many of these houses will eventually disappear, taking their history with them.There is one in particular near us which is beautiful, a classic vernacular stone house sitting on a ledge overlooking the valley, we are still tempted, even though the roof now gone, but the topography is such that even after the remedial work the lane would always be prone to landslide and water damage etc. Dont be fooled into thinking of them as "simple" roads as someone above said, buyers should be very circumspect and wary before they commit if there are access issues with the road, when they break down you cant repair them by chucking any old gravel on it, they need solid foundations and drainage just like a main road, or any other structure, and done well they are relatively cheap to maintain, adaptable, fun and to me far more sympathetic to rural architecture than tarmac.

Yes and even if you do live along a council run road you may still have no repairs for 3 years and have to somehow drive around huge holes almost wrecking your car as we have in Manoppello (PE) where it appears the coffers of our municipio have been emptied to provide a top notch road up to the Volto Santo - a catholic shrine - leaving the rest of us high and dry! Or rather high but not very dry particularly when the neighbours well over flows and makes the lane into a river.

All,Thanks for your responses on this.We own the land the road is on and it leads to a plot with a ruined farmhouse (which we don't own) through which we have access to our lower olive grove. So this is a private easement and therefore not the Comune's responsibility. The road was built in 1994 by the owner of the ruin and is not in bad shape. It appears to have proper drainage etc and probably just needs resurfacing as opposed to completely rebuilding. The easement is so steep that even with a perfect white road I am pretty sure it would not be impossible to drive a normal car up and down there. A local farmer who looks after our land below uses a tractor and has to take it slow going down... The owner of the ruin is hinting that it needs to be 'repaired', will be expensive and and that we should pay 50% of the cost. Is this the normal process in the absence of deeds that clearly state who is responsible for maintenance?Will certainly keep you updated re actual costs.Antinello