Forest floor cleared by downpour &caused driveway washout. Preventable?

[Gary Fowler]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm going to call the guy who put in the culverts and see about adding a couple more. While we have plenty of gully washers around here, it was more than just the gullies that are clean. We got lucky and missed the rain that was to the west and north of us here in central Indiana.

I'll do a follow-up when I get something worked out.

I don't think more culverts is the answer, just some larger ones that can take the leave debris and pass it thru to the other side. You will still have to keep limbs cleared that might wash down and into the culvert but an 18" or larger culvert should allow leave debris to pass thru without clogging. I like the suggestion of opening up the timber a bit to allow some sunlight to the bottom for grass to grow also. Use the downed trees to make some flow restrictors, like little terraces, for water coming down the hill.
Larger culverts, thin the timber, plant some grass.

As a last resort if that doesn't work, widen the ditches on the uphill side. I think I would only do this if all else doesn't work as that will be some major dirt work to cut back that slope and get enough area to put in a wide ditch without compromising the road bed.

 

[Kapnfriday]

Just for comparison - the gravel road up to my property in north west NC is about 2100 feet and rises about the same as the original poster's from top to bottom - 250'. Going just from my memory we have at least 7 culverts along the course of the road that divert water under the road and out the downhill side. Most are 15" a couple are 12". The idea of more culverts is simply to reduce the volume of water the ditches are carrying as it all makes its way downhill.

We clean all the ditches out in the fall - usually at Thanksgiving when all the leaves have fallen and we have a little more time. Even with this things don't always work perfectly. This year we had a nasty ice storm in February that brought down a lot of debris - sticks, twigs, branches, etc. A torrential rain last week caused all this debris to clog a couple culverts and left the resulting washout.

Clogged culvert

Washout

Dug out culvert

The original poster's property does seem to be unusually devoid of understory vegetation in the first picture. You might try planting some creeping red fescue: http://plants.usda.gov/factsheet/pdf/fs_ferua3.pdf It's good for erosion control and apparently is shade tolerant.

 

[dave1949]

One technique to consider with multiple culverts in a sloping ditch that continues on to the next culvert, is to open up the continuing ditch at the top of culvert height. Then, if a culvert clogs, the overflowing water is still running in a ditch on its way to the next culvert and not across the driveway.

A clogged culvert in a dead end ditch is always going to be a problem.

 

[paulharvey]

You could simply.put some staked silt fence across the ditch about 5 ft up stream of your culverts. Costs about $0.50 per linear foot, can order at ASC, or pick up at Lowes, Home Depot. It will allow water through, but catch silt, sediment, leaves ect, keeping them from clogging your culverts.