Advice needed on gravel road ditches

[Kosmo]

Hi all,

I need some advice on maintaining the ditches on my gravel road. As you can see from the pictures the extraordinary downpours we had this past fall have eroded my ditches extensively. This is a steep road on the side of a hill of hemlocks. We have culverts diverting the ditch water under the road at several spots. They do become clogged occasionally and have to be cleared. I was wondering if filling in these ditches partially (they have eroded to a depth of about 2 feet) with larger ( say baseball sized rock) would alleviate the erosion into the roadway. I'm not worried to much about erosion on the bank side as I can remove trees as they become undercut. I'd just like to protect the roadway. Thanks for any input.

 

[jinman]

I would lay in heavy duty fabric and then cover with 4" to 6" rock.

 

[MarkV]

Looks like you had a good bit of water running down those ditches. Looking at the photo's I would say too much water moving too fast. The addition of more culverts to reduce the volume is probably the best thing to do. Adding barriers of rip rap too slow the flow down is also done in our mountain area to minimize erosion.

Gravel roads in the hills are a real challenge. Good luck.

MarkV

 

[teg]

In *addition* to the above, if you are worried about the road, cut the bank back more and make the ditch wider. It's on my "todo" list...

 

[rekees4300]

Our county uses rock that is called "riprap" to line ditches similar to yours. It comes in various sizes. Baseball size may not be big enough for your situation. Call your county road dept. and ask what size they recommend for your area.

 

[DennisArrow]

That is the way a gravel road should look>>>>>Great job on the road surface itself.....

Now, as others have said use rip rap type rocks especially on the inside of the bends/curves of the ditch where the flow is cutting into the road surface.........Baseball size to basketball size and laid perhaps by hand.....Time consuming but it sure will save that fine road you have going there..........God bless......Dennis

 

[Pirate]

I have a steep gravel drive which angles to one side for water diversion. I spent a few years digging the side ditch out. Then, I bought a few tons of rip-rip and paid a couple of local kids to place it nice and neat down in the ditch. It just clogged up and over-ran the ditch back onto the drive. So, I had to pay the kids to come back out and take all that rip-rap out of the ditch. We're talking about 500' worth here. Eventually, I paid the local backhoe man to come out, dig the ditch deeper. Then, I hired a lousy cement guy to come in and fill the entire ditch with cement in the form of a trough. It was the best thing I ever did. About once a year I shovel out the loose gravel from the cement trough but no more errosion-zip, zero, none, problem gone.

 

[big e]

Looks like there's too much water in the ditch. Do you have a catch basin at each culvert head? If you do, try and find an old metal grate to cover the culvert heads, keeps them from plugging. Also, drive your tractor in the ditches when they dry out to mash down the dirt and leaves and to keep the gutters uniform. Final thought, plant some K-31 fescue in the ditch to hold the dirt. Good luck! Looks like my driveway.

 

[Kosmo]

Thanks to all for the great info!!

 

[Kosmo]

No catch basin. I have to keep up pretty regularly cleaning out branches and such to keep the culverts open. The ditch has served me pretty well for the last 3 or 4 years but this fall we had a period of about a month of constant torrential downpours here in NE PA that really chewed up the ditch.