Paving: it's time for “road base”...

Paving: it's time for “road base”...  The paving guys are now doing the last step before the actual asphalt goes on: they're laying down a 3" thick layer of “road base” – a mixture of fine gravel and very fine (almost powdery) dirt.  This will be wet down and carefully smoothed to form a layer upon which the asphalt will be put down.  They'll be done with this today, but the asphalt won't go on until the paving machine is available – and I'm not sure when that is.

The first two photos below show where the ends of a 3" diameter “sleeve” are; this is partly as documentation for myself.  The idea of the sleeve is to provide a way to run pipes or wires under the pavement, without having to resort to expensive horizontal drilling.  This sleeve is 30' long, and runs diagonally under the pavement just 10' or so from our house.  Next year I hope to put a greenhouse up just west of the pavement, and when I do, I'll use this sleeve to run water and gas (and maybe electricity) out to it from the house...