How did your roads / trails hold uop after the big storm? What worked, what didn't?

[airbiscuit]

I get that sometimes, nothing can stand up to torrential rains. That said, I am guessing that some of you are pleased that road work held up as well as it did. I also am guessing that others are rethinking their erosion control techniques.

So, what did you learn, for better or worse?

 

[CADplans]

My 1/4 mile driveway used to have one culvert (8") that crossed most of the runoff water,,
and I had a second 8" culvert that carried little water,,

Early this summer, I installed three 12" culverts, and one 15" culvert.
Well, the big Florence rains came, and the culverts worked to perfection.

Besides being larger in diameter, and more of them,,, the culverts are twice as long.
The longer length caused the culverts to be at a steeper angle and they now even flow water at a higher speed.

This is the first time since 1982 that we got 6 inches of rain, and I had Z E R O water damage on the driveway,,

It cost eight culverts 20 feet long each,, but, it is worth it,,,:thumbsup: - :cool2:

 

[RNeumann]

The first few years I cut the road to slope to the side I wanted the water directed. That didn’t work well at all. I’ve now put a crown down the whole driveway (1/4 mile or so) and it works much better. I’ve also had better luck with 1 1/4” minus. At first I was getting the 5/8” minus. Although road base is location specific as my last place used a 3/4” minus from a different query that was excellent. I also have road fabric in a soft spot. That stuff works well.

 

[GirlWhoWantsTractor]

Yah, a nice "bragging" thread.....I like it.

Mine, as usual, was unaffected. Only got around 10" hurricane-related rain instead of the predicted 24"+ but still quite a lot of rain, and that was on top of a couple of weeks of non-hurricane-related rain. Vewy vewy soggy indeed. When it was all over, my lawn was literally a foot tall, as there was zero opportunity to mow for several weeks.

The only thing I did as prep was to create a last-minute *extra* water bar across the driveway that proved unnecessary, and make sure all my little ditches and drains were clear.

As a side note, it took a few years of hard work to get the drainage right on this "whole side of a mountain" steep property, but once done it has performed very well.

 

[GirlWhoWantsTractor]

The first few years I cut the road to slope to the side I wanted the water directed. That didn稚 work well at all. I致e now put a crown down the whole driveway (1/4 mile or so) and it works much better.

Yep, shed the water in as many different directions as possible.