[mudshovel]

I checked the archives but I did not see this discussed. We are installing a walkway at the end of a driveway, which lies uphill from the walk. Currently it is excavated but is a mud bath (the soil is 100% clay and does not percolate at all). So runoff from the asphalt driveway as well as water draining underneath the driveway through the basestone flows through our excavation. The question: How do you mitigate or eliminate water from draining through so we can get our basestone and pavers in. Do you just wait for it to completely dry out or is there another solution? We have tried channeling the water through the excavation to areas downhill, which works, but after rains its a mess. Any suggestions?

[eastern1]

I'm trying to understand your situation, so what you are saying is the water has saturated the base and you don't want to install base and pavers on this "mudbath".
Ok, what about overdigging this area and installing 2" minus to rid of the mud then install as usual. You could also add a bag or two of dry portland cement to the base area and it will soak up the water and harden your base significantly. Its worked for me a # of times. In particular on this job shown here, we could not get the base dry as you could imagine so we added portland cement to the mix.

[PaverDrew]

If you can't get it dry without killing your job costing in terms of man hours, Eastern1 is right on with using the larger aggregate to firm things up. Add it in thin layers, and compact it until the ground won't take any more. We do this successfully when we run into our " Blue Moll", clayey organic deposits courtesy of the formation of the ChesapeakeBay. In the future on jobs like this, you could dig a sump hole off to the side at the lowest point of your excavations. This will allow most of the water to move out of your work space, and you can pump it out as needed.

[mudshovel]

We already have overdug the excavation, but the issue is water seeping through the base stone of the driveway creates a constant flow of water through the excavation. Another issue is that even after paver installation, I'm concerned with excess water running underneath the geotextile fabric (because of the driveway drainage) and creating the mud which over time will possibly shift the pavers creating a call back, which nobody wants. Does that make things clearer? I am considering the addition of portland cement, but the constant flow of water is what concerns me.

[mudshovel]

Would using 3/4" modified stone work to soak up the water instead of using portland cement? just a thought.