How to make water bars in a driveway?

[Garrett2006]

Looking for some good info or video on how to make water bars in a gravel road the proper way. I have a driveway repair job coming up and e customer wants them added in the driveway. I知 sure several on here have some good advice on making them. I値l be using the box blade and land plane to redo his driveway, but have a skid steer if that痴 need to construct the water bars. Thanks

 

[farmeratheart]

We made these from pressure treated 2x4’s and a 2x6 and 2” pipe nipples. Sunk 3 of them into my sister-in-law’s gravel driveway. They have controlled erosion really well. They can be kept clean of leaves and debris with a leaf blower.

 

[airbiscuit]

 

[/pine]

The first rule of designing any type of storm water runoff system in simple terms is "the year storm size"...
...A swale designed for a 25 year storm can be much less severe than one designed for say a 100 year storm...

Assuming there is no crown (defeats the purpose of a bar or swale etc.) the lane should be pitched enough to the low side so only minor accumulations reach a swale...the runoff should run across the lane not down it...the latter will always cause wash ruts...

Effective swales can be quite mellow and not seem like speed bumps etc...

 

[fried1765]

We made these from pressure treated 2x4’s and a 2x6 and 2” pipe nipples. Sunk 3 of them into my sister-in-law’s gravel driveway. They have controlled erosion really well. They can be kept clean of leaves and debris with a leaf blower. View attachment 650289

Be certain to use ground contact PT.
The standard PT from the big box stores is usually junk.
You need .60 CCA treatment

 

[Pixguy]

We made these from pressure treated 2x4’s and a 2x6 and 2” pipe nipples. Sunk 3 of them into my sister-in-law’s gravel driveway. They have controlled erosion really well. They can be kept clean of leaves and debris with a leaf blower. View attachment 650289

I built one with a 2x10 and a 4x4 on either side allowing a 2" trough. Pricey but very strong.

 

[LouNY]

What I do is put a small furrow in mine at a steep angle.

 

[ruffdog]

Using rubber belting is interesting too:

Waterbars: DIY erosion prevention for roads, paths and trails

 

[Peter 315]

The rubber belting is how New Hampshire does it on the atv trails in the state forest......

 

[LouNY]

I like the wooden ones and the wood and belting ones but I would wonder about snow plows in the winter,
and it would be quite a bit of labor to install and remove every year.

 

[airbiscuit]

I've also seen them made with old fire hose.

 

[BrokenTrack]

I just use earthen humps on an angle, terminating the downhill ends with rip-rap to keep erosion at bay as it diverts road surface water into the ditch. I then put an rock check dam in the ditch, across the ditch, to prevent ditch erosion. (These can be seen in the photo)

I do that just because I plow my Heavy Haul Roads all winter, and figure if I plow them out, I can put the angled swales back for free, instead of having a rubber razor or box culvert to replace at a cost.

I think it looks professional, and is functional, but what "looks good" is subjective.

For what it is worth, this road, on a 9% grade, in soil characterized as Highly Erodible Soil, was approved by the US Dept of Agriculture, and met the Federal Soil Engineer's specifications for this road. The right side rock check dams have nothing to do with the swales; they are just for ditch erosion control, but the left side is just for erosion control of the water being diverted to the ditch by the swales. Just as a note, this road looks flat, but truly is a 9% grade, which is about the maximum a truck should be climbing/descending. The photo is an optical illusion.

 

[s219]

If you can find used guardrail, it makes excellent waterbars. I got lucky and found some at a scrap yard, but there are businesses that exist specifically to resell used guardrail. It's used for cattle fences and all sorts of other projects. The US Forest Service recommends it for waterbars and other types of drainage control. There are a few videos on youtube about this.

More info and some videos here: https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/rural-living/421209-trench-channel-drain-gravel-driveway.html

 

[Garrett2006]

So you just pile up the material at an angle across the road and pack it in? I like what you have and it’s what I looking to do with rock and crush and run material. I’m interested in exactly the process of making the swales in the road to stay and not wash over time like you have. Thanks

 

[Code54]

If you can find used guardrail, it makes excellent waterbars. I got lucky and found some at a scrap yard, but there are businesses that exist specifically to resell used guardrail. It's used for cattle fences and all sorts of other projects. The US Forest Service recommends it for waterbars and other types of drainage control. There are a few videos on youtube about this.

More info and some videos here: https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/rural-living/421209-trench-channel-drain-gravel-driveway.html

Exactly! Guardrail will last a LONG LONG time and works great.

 

[Citydude]

Just a question, would the highway department have used guard rail?

 

[airbiscuit]

Also check recycling plants and Craigslist.

 

[Citydude]

Also check recycling plants and Craigslist.

Thanks. So far in my search the closest place i found to buy used guard rail is 200 miles away in eastern South Dakota.

 

[BrokenTrack]

So you just pile up the material at an angle across the road and pack it in? I like what you have and it痴 what I looking to do with rock and crush and run material. I知 interested in exactly the process of making the swales in the road to stay and not wash over time like you have. Thanks

You can make it two different ways, depending of course on what you have for equipment.

1. The first way is to take a backhoe or the bucket of your loader (it does not have to be a big backhoe) and scrape the road down from the uphill side, to the bottom. This creates a berm. That berm should be about 30 degrees of an angle across the road. Then just take a garden rake and rake out the berm so that it is a smooth transition. It does not have to be a long, deep berm...water will take the path of least resistance, and obviously drain downhill.

2. If you do not want to scrape down into the road, then you can always just form a berm at the 30 degree angle, by hauling in gravel and placing it across the road. Then raking it out so that it is a smooth transition.

I think mine are something like 6 inches deep...maybe 8 inches at most, with the berm tapered back by four feet on the downhill side of the road. Just be sure to rip-rap where the waterbar terminates in the ditch because it channels an amazing amount of water in that one spot.

I thought my truckdrivers would complain as they rode over the (4) waterbars that I put in, but when they never complained (and truck drivers ALWAYS complain), so I mentioned it, and they said they never even gave it a second thought. And they were rolling over them with 100,000 logging trucks.

 

[John_Mc]

If your grade is shallow enough, I prefer broad-based dips to waterbars. Broad-based dips hold up well and are easy to drive through, a true waterbar in the forestry sense is a bit of a pain to drive through (let alone plow, if you are in snow country). Unfortunately, broad based dips don't really work on grades steeper than about 7%. Since you mentioned a 9% grade, that option may be out.

I've seen rubber belting with one edge sandwiched between two PT 2x6's. I've heard it worked well at redirecting water. I'm not sure how it stood up to occasional snow plowing (it was more of a "back 40" access road, than a daily use driveway). They tipped the rubber over to lean fairly heavily to the uphill side, and angled it across the road to direct the water off. During heavy rains the rubber might stand up a bit, but it would not flop all the way over to the downhill side. The idea of tipping it uphill was that it would both hold water running down hill, and stand up well to plowing if you only plowed when going up hill (you would just lay the rubber down, rather than catching it when plowing.) I never did stop by after that first winter to see how it worked when plowing.

I've been temped to try the box culvert or guard rail on my own driveway, but figure I'd constantly be catching it with the snow plow.