Concrete driveway - Efficient way to pour

[dig dug dan]

I have to pour a new concrete driveway in october, and I need to know the most efficient way of doing so.
The drive is between two houses(i.e. it touches each house wall, ) for a distance of approx 9m. It is 2m wide. Then at the back of the house, it travels a further 8 m till it gets to the garage.
I obviously need to create two or three seperate slabs and timber expansion joints. My problem is this:
If i pour a slab at the far end by the garage first, leave out the middle slab, then the one by the gate, it then shuts off our only access to the back garden for a few days. We will be unable to run our machines round, because of the un hardened concrete, and the fact that a big chunk of drive will be missing in the middle. we also have a time scale to stick to, so we cannot afford to wait several days until we can do the final slab.
Is there a way of pouring the whole lot in one go, and apply the expansion joints.
Bear in mind that we will be using screed rails attached to the house walls for our levels, meaning we will have to walk on the concrete to get them off and bullnose the edges.
I tried to post a picture of the area, but to no avail.

thanks

[Tony McC]

So: this structure will be 17m long and 2m wide? 100mm thick, I assume, so that means a (theoretical) max slab length of 3m (30 times the slab thickness). You could sneak that up to 3400mm, giving you 5 separate bays without too much worry, I suppose.

Assuming 5 bays, you would need 4 integral movement joints, and you could get away with just one expansion joint and 3 crack control joints. This would allow you to pour 3 bays @ 3400mm = 10.2m, then insert a 'former' before pouring the last two bays. Next day, once initial set has taken place, you could use the cut-off saw to incise your cracks control joints to one-third depth, pull out the expansion joint former and shove in your flexcell with polysulphide seal.

In essence, you can pour all 17m (only 3.4m³) in one go! Howzat?

[dig dug dan]

Thanks for the reply tony. Good to have you back

I forgot to mention, at the far end of the slab, we will be putting a drainage channel, (running the full 2m width)and at the front end the same. Do we still apply an expansion joint in this instance? if so, does it go against the drainage channel?

Thanks for the reply

Dan

[Tony McC]

As the linear channels are at the ends, there's no need to isolate them, and the suggestions I made earlier about crack control joints and the single movement/expansion joint, holds true.