Asphalt Millings or a Gravel Driveway in Alabama: What Does Each Cost?

Asphalt millings run about $10 to $20 a ton for the material. Crush and run runs about $20 to $40 a ton. Those are national cost guide numbers, not our price list. Installed, the same guides price a millings drive at $3 to $8 a square foot. A gravel drive runs $1.25 to $4.00.

So crush and run is usually the smaller number. Millings buy you a surface that knits together instead of staying loose. Neither one is pavement. Hot mix asphalt runs $7 to $13 a square foot. It is a different product, with a tested mix behind it.

What do millings and crush and run cost by the ton and by the load?

The guides do not all agree. Some put an installed crush and run drive closer to $3 to $6 a square foot.

Both materials sell by the ton. A load is the ton price times the tons on the truck. Cost guides say some suppliers will not deliver under 9 tons, and others set the floor at 20 tons. At those sizes, a load of asphalt millings holds $90 to $400 of material. The same load in crush and run holds $180 to $800. Hauling sits on top, roughly $50 to $100 a trip or about $5 a mile.

Alabama has a harder number than any guide. At the state road letting on June 26, 2026, contractors bid crusher run surfacing between $20 and $99 a ton. Most bids sat between $28 and $60. Those are public job prices carrying public job overhead, so read them as a ceiling.

There is a local reason stone prices move so much. South Alabama has no hard rock pit. The state’s approved aggregate list names the stone terminals for this end of Alabama. They sit at the Port of Mobile, Blakely Island, Saraland, Theodore, Bay Minette and Cut Off Road. Stone arrives by water, then rides a truck. The farther inland the job sits, the more of that ride lands in the price.

How is each surface built?

The ground does the work under both. The site gets shaped and a crown gets cut so water runs off. Soft spots get dug out and filled back. Rock or millings laid on ground that holds water will not stay put.

Crush and run is crushed stone with the fines left in it. The stone carries the load and the fines bind it, so the surface forms a crust. Cost guides put the minimum depth at 4 inches for a drive. At that depth, a cubic yard of rock covers about 80 square feet.

Millings go over the same prepared ground, then get rolled. The federal gravel roads guide says recycled asphalt should go down at least three inches compacted. It also wants a strong subgrade under it. Heat helps it knit, and Clarke County averages about 67 days a year at 90 degrees or better. A ton of millings covers about 80 square feet at three inches.

Which one makes more dust, and which one washes out?

Millings usually run less dusty once they are rolled. The federal gravel roads guide explains why. In that material the old asphalt becomes the binder. The pieces hold each other instead of drifting.

Gravel gives up its fines. The same guide says surface fines are lost under traffic as dust that rises and blows away. It also says no gravel surface performs like pavement. Some loose stone floats on top of almost any gravel road.

Washout is a drainage question, not a material question. That guide puts good crown at half an inch per foot, about a 4 percent cross slope. Without it, water stands in the wheel tracks and the drive ruts out. Rain here is heavy. The Jackson station in Clarke County averages just over 60 inches a year. Mobile averages 66 inches, and July is the wettest month. Where a drive crosses a ditch, driveway culverts and drainage pipe carry the flow instead of the surface.

How much upkeep does each need, and how long does each last?

Both are surfaces you maintain, not pavements you seal. Gravel wants blading back to a crown and fresh rock in the thin spots. National cost guides put regrading or resurfacing a worn drive at $0.50 to $2.20 a square foot.

Millings want the same grading, plus topping up where the surface has worn. The federal guide is blunt about the trade. Rolled millings can take on the character of pavement. It will be a weak pavement. The guide says it often develops potholes and is hard to blade back into shape.

Published life spans for millings and gravel drives are estimates, not tested numbers. ALDOT has no specification for a millings driving surface. Its closest item is a soil or aggregate type surface. For comparison, national cost guides put a hot mix asphalt driveway at 15 to 30 years.

When is each one the right call?

Crush and run is the call on a long drive with light traffic. It keeps the cost per foot down. It grades back easily, and it is the same material that goes under asphalt later. Most of this county runs on it. Clarke County maintains 804 miles of road, and 506 of those miles are still dirt or gravel.

Millings are the call when dust and loose stone are the problem. Farm lanes, timber roads, shop yards and long drives past a house all do well in millings. They also suit a drive that gets graded and then left alone for a stretch.

Hot mix is the call when you want a sealed surface that sheds water. It gives you a clean edge at the garage and at the road.

What does it take to move up to hot mix asphalt?

Less than people think, if the base was built right the first time. A drive that was shaped, crowned and compacted is already most of a base. That same base carries an asphalt driveway.

Getting hot mix is simpler here than in much of the state. Hot mix has to reach the job hot. The state’s approved plant list names a Grove Hill area. There is an approved plant in Grove Hill itself, plus plants at Leroy and Mexia. The Mobile area list adds Mobile, Theodore, Saraland, Chickasaw, Bay Minette, Foley and Atmore.

One thing to settle first. Paving an unpaved drive counts the same as a new entrance under ALDOT’s permit rules. That applies where a drive ties into a state or US highway, and a permit application is required. On a county road the county engineer’s office sets that, so ask before the work starts.

Getting a number for your own driveway

Every figure above is a market range, not our price list. What your job costs comes down to the size and the shaping and ditch work. The depth of material and the miles from our yard move it too. We come out, look at the job, measure it and give you a written quote. Call or text (251) 589-9970, or read more about millings delivered, spread and rolled.