Driveway constructio n - Terram or not?

[dig dug dan]

to cut a long story short, a resident near to where i live has laid a new driveway, but ripped up the section that belongs to the parish council, and shingled it.
They seeked the parish council's permission, but before they got it , they did it anyway, and had the cheek to ask the parish council to pay.
Because they have replaced the drive with 20mm shingle, and it adjoins the highway, the parish council is not happy.
However, they claim that the contractor has put down terram, then 5" of mot, then the shingle, yet when i saw it being laid, it looked suspisciously like black plastic sheeting, not terram.
Why have they done this, and not used terram, and is it considered to be a cheap way out?
I feel that if the parish council simply removes the shingle, and tarmacs ontop of the mot, it may not be a proper job without first looking at this "terram"!

[Tony McC]

Have you been able to have a close look at this alleged "Terram"?

If it's black/dark grey and woven, then it's a weed barrier landscape fabric and NOT a construction grade geo-synthetic. It should be light grey, non-woven, and damned near impossible to rip if it's genuine Terram.

[lutonlagerlout]

i expect they had a bit of DPM laying in the back of the van and thought "doh ,we will use this instead,just as good "
i have heard much BS spoken about dpms and terrams under driveways I.E. "if you use terram you only need 50 MM of MOT"
" using dpc stops weeds coming up through the drive"
wrong and wrong
council should make them pay to rectify it
LLL

[dig dug dan]

I intend to dig a test hole to see exactly what it is and the depth of the type one.
If it is insufficient depth for tarmac, or if the terram is plastic, then it will have to come up. I will keep you posted

[dig dug dan]

further to the above, have dig a small hole and discovered a sort of membrane, but it does not look like the picture as here[URL=http://www.pavingexpert.com/geosheet.htm]terram[/URL

It is what i would describe more a weedmatting, the sort you see underneath shingle paths in gardens.
I am not up on types of terram, so could this stuff be correct. Incidentally, if it is not terram, they quoted to use it, so they may well have pulled a fast one.

[lutonlagerlout]

the stuff we use multitrack is like a white fine material
cheers LLL

[seanandruby]

Have used terrain then crush then low track ( which is probably what you have found ) then type one on roads where once was vegetation, after a good spray with weedkiller. that was on adopted roads.