Asphalt Driveway - $100 per square foot?

[Nikhil Agarwal]

Hi everyone, 

I currently have a side lawn and back yard. I want to convert the side lawn into a driveway and add 6 parking spots in the back yard. In total, it looks like I need around 1700 square feet of what's currently a lawn to be converted into an asphalt driveway. 

I'm currently being quoted approx. $100 per square feet by a contractor. I mistakenly budgeted around $15 per square foot based on online articles when I purchased the property. Certainly a lesson learned in getting quotes from contractors rather than relying on websites. I'm about to scrap this project but I wanted to get thoughts here before I do. Am I nuts for thinking it would be closer to $15 per sq ft?

When I spoke with the contractor, he mentioned that the increased cost is because this would be a new driveway where I currently have a lawn and it's not an existing driveway that is being re-surfaced. Specifically, excavation and 4 layers of rocks would need to be added to prepare the land and that is driving the cost to a bit more than $100 per sq ft.