I wouldn't want any of that equipment on a concrete driveway if possible, except for moving trucks and landscaping, since those are likely unavoidable. If you really don't want to have so much of the work handled by your GC and the only thing holding you back is having heavy equipment on your new driveway, have you considered removing the concrete driveway from your GC's project and handling that on your own at the very end?

Most of the equipment you listed will cause no problems if the concrete has been properly cured for a month (yes a a month) to achieve maximum strength. A week of curing time should be allowed before driving anything on it but no way would I let an excavator use my new driveway.

The most critical part of a concrete driveway are the edges, and the excavator will bust the edges like a cracker and will also put deep gouges in the concrete when if locks one track to turn. If any heavy vehicle leaves the driveway the edge of the slab should be built up with crushed rock and compacted as an apron to avoid busting the edge.

If the wire remesh isn't applied right the other heavy equipment can also bust your concrete if a lousy job is done getting the remesh set right, and is the biggest mistakes I see and I've seen it often.

Concrete has a high compressive strength but very little tension strength and is the reason for the remesh wire and will do absolutely no good siting on the ground. It must be elevated to the approximate middle of the concrete and done by pulling up the remesh wire with a rake as the pour progresses. It's a hard job to do while keeping up with the pour and laziness or lack of man power are the reasons it's left sitting on the ground. YOU need to be there and watch like a hawk as they pour to make sure they pull up every square foot. Just last month my brother saw this happen from a third floor window on a massive pour and told the building owner, who told the contractor. During the rest of the pour the workers kept looking up to the third floor to see if anyone was still watching. It's something they can ignore and get away with, and don't rely on the GC to watch for you.

Commercial driveways are a minim of 6" thick but you can get by with increasing the thickness of the edges a couple of inches for the first 50 feet where equipment might turn off the driveway during construction, and also if you plan on moving heavy equipment around you may have like a class A motor home, ect.

TT, yes I have been seriously considering that. It's a good point and something I'll consider more. Based on your comment and Kevin's, I may be best served handling the driveway myself to hopefully select a better concrete contractor.

It greatly depends on your subgrade, what types of soils you have, and how well it's prepared. 10 feet wide is narrow. Heavy trucks will be driving near the edge.

Finished concrete usually goes in after heavy equipment is done.

Your spec is similar to our 80000lb driveway for fire trucks using 3000psi. This needs a 30 day cure. I only use welded wire by accident. Most of ours have #3 18 "OC.

BUT skid steers & other construction equipment can easily damage and gouge the surface and/or point loads caused by quick turns can put 9000 lbs on one tire & like high heels on hardwood, and crack the concrete. (pool contractor did that moving large boulders to back yard over driveway)

Any idea the cost difference between welded wire and #3 at 18" OC over 800 feet?

What does the 30 day cure entail in terms of usage? None? Some usage after X days but no usage of a certain type for the entire 30 days?

Welded wire fabric is not reinforcement, it's crack control.

Age Strength percent

3 days 40%

7 days 65%

14 days 90%

28 days 99%

I'd wait a week for car

Ask your contractor for cost differences. Based on local labor & materials costs.

"It must be elevated to the approximate middle of the concrete and done by pulling up the remesh wire with a rake as the pour progresses. It's a hard job to do while keeping up with the pour and laziness or lack of man power are the reasons it's left sitting on the ground. YOU need to be there and watch like a hawk as they pour to make sure they pull up every square foot"

No pulling on wire please. Rebar chairs are much more consistent and no need to babysit.

28 days to fully cure is true for a slab driveway, but other factors can effect the quality of the cure. Concrete watered down by a contractor to make it easy to pour will lower the compressive and tensile strength, excessive shrinkage and fine cracks and voids you won't see until they turn into large cracks, along permeability of water because of the cracks and voids and a unsightly appearance.

a slump test can ensure the right mix of water, but for jobs not critical for safety an experienced contractor can use his hand or trowel to get a good idea of a good concrete mix. If concrete dries to fast from heat and wind you can also end up with weaker concrete prone to cracking and chipping. the ideal temperature to pour concrete is 50 to 60 degrees, but I'm not saying 70 or 80 degrees is bad. If it's hot the contractor should do one of a number of precautions to insure a good pour. This is why you need a good contractor not willing to cut corners to do the job faster and easier, and the number one failure of any pour is lack of man power (and women). I would always have extra bodies to push concrete so finishers could do the job quick.

FWIW, concrete could be cured to be 25% to almost 50% stronger than a full 28 day cure by using a moist cure. If involves continuously wetting the slab with water from the first day of the pour until you decide enough is enough. Doing this for 3 months will add 25% to the strength and six months will get you almost 50%.

"what equipment can safely traverse our driveway without worrying about damaging it?"

Shoes.

Pour the concrete after the construction is completed.

bottom line mark is right............for once..... 😊 😊

Mark, I appreciate your expertise, but you can be fairly snarky and condescending when you don't really know the uncertainties of a fairly complex scenario.

Obviously in a perfect world one would pour concrete after everything is done, but consider the following variables:

-Maybe 6 months in you've lost faith in some of the GC's subs

-Maybe you've decided to handle the landscaping yourself but this would need to take place after the GC's CO has been issued.

-Maybe you're installing a 5,000 gallon underground water storage tank downstream of the well, a project the GC has never handled and isn't comfortable with AND would require excavation and the delivery of said tank, again which would have to take place after the builder's CO.

-Maybe even if the GC would handle the tank, the estimated delivery date is after the build will be complete

-Maybe all of this is complicated by the fact that the driveway was part of the GC's scope (and the construction loan) and will run roughly $80,000, which will be rolled into the mortgage IF completed by the GC. If I do it myself after handling the storage tank, that $80k would be paid out of pocket versus lumped into a 30 year note, as construction loans are approved and based on the build contract. If I find my own driveway contractor, the $16,000 storage tank and $80,000 driveway plus $20k to $40k in landscaping would be paid in cash. I can handle that, but I'd rather lump it into a mortgage at an attractive rate as I have far better uses for that cash.

- Maybe I'm also just thinking about the future and trying to learn. Maybe I envision us living in this house for 20-30 years and am trying to learn how various concrete driveway specifications lend themselves to the support of various equipment that may be used to facilitate any future construction that may or may not happen.

Just maybe.

Maybe when you do not share "the uncertainties of a fairly complex scenario" at the start, how would you ever think anyone else would know it, so you must accept what you get based upon what you give.