Lake County is the smallest county in Ohio by land, and almost all of it faces the lake. It has 31 miles of Lake Erie shoreline and sits east of Cleveland, in the stretch the lake-effect snow belt runs through. Mentor is its largest city and Painesville its county seat. For a driveway here, winter is the whole story, and the ditch along the road is most of the rest.
Mentor, Mentor-on-the-Lake, Willoughby, Willoughby Hills, Eastlake, Willowick, Wickliffe, Kirtland, Painesville, Fairport Harbor and Madison, and Concord, Painesville, Perry and Madison townships.
The Chagrin River, a state scenic river, runs through the west of the county past Willoughby and Eastlake to the lake. The Grand River, a state wild and scenic river, comes in from the east and meets the lake at Fairport Harbor. Between and around them the county was once a country retreat for wealthy Cleveland families with large estates. Today it is mostly suburban, and the drives run from long private lanes on old estate land to short suburban drives on tidy lots.
Where a house sits well back from the road, the drive can be a long lane under mature trees. Those lanes have their own habits. Roots lift the edges and push cracks across the surface. Shade keeps the asphalt damp long after rain and slows a fresh coat of sealer, so a shaded lane is done on a warm, dry spell and given longer before cars go back on it. Leaves and needles left on the drive all winter hold water against the surface.
A lane like that is measured along its length, not guessed, and the quote says whether the root damage is a crack to fill or a section to cut out. Where a tree is breaking the drive apart, you will be told the patch will not last while the root keeps growing.
Many roads here drain through a grassed swale along the edge rather than a curb and a storm sewer, and a driveway has to cross that swale on a pipe. The Lake County Engineer's rules on county roads are specific:
That last rule is the one to remember before widening a drive: a wider drive means a longer pipe, and the county sets the limit. In the cities the right-of-way is handled by the city; Willoughby, for example, issues right-of-way permits through its Building Department and has its own contractor registration.
The piles. Deep snow means big banks along the drive for weeks at a time. The edge under them stays wet and loaded, and it breaks before the middle does.
The melt. Each thaw sends water off those banks and across the drive. Where the drive is low, that water sits and refreezes, and any open crack it crosses gets levered wider.
The pipe end. Where the drive crosses the swale, snowmelt and road runoff pour through the pipe all spring. A crushed or blocked pipe backs that water up under the end of the drive, and the asphalt over it sinks.
The calendar. A drive here gets its coat as early in the season as the weather allows, so it cures fully and has months of warm weather behind it before the first storm.
The asphalt can be rebuilt, but if the pipe is crushed it will sink again. On a county road, the pipe is covered by the Engineer's permit.
Usually, but a wider drive needs a longer pipe across the swale, and the county caps the length. That is checked first.
As early in the season as the weather allows, so the coat has the whole summer to cure.
Seal the part of the drive that will not be dug up, and leave the end over the swale until the new pipe is in. Asphalt disturbed by the pipe work is patched afterwards and sealed with the next coat, so nothing is paid for twice.
Yes. Ask anyway if your town is not listed.
To the west: Cuyahoga County. Beyond it: Lorain County.
