Keeping water off lane. Longer I work on worse it gets.

[coffeeman]

Hello everyone
Have LONG driveway. About !/2 mile long. 200 yard steep hill. Solved water running down with a swale at top deflection water at top. Crosses a small creek with spring water draining along lane another 400 yards more. At beginning of this leg I cross creek. 200 yd further cross road + another cross 200 yd, 3 crossings. I bought my place in 73. Only had 2 crossings and no problems with water as long as I diverted water at top. In 2007 company drilled shallow gas wells anded 3rd crossing. The removed my old fashioned concrete 24 inch pipes and replaced with 2 18 in plastic pipes. about every other season since, a big rain & leaves, branches etc plug pipes one or two and do damage to drive lane. Usually can fix with box blade. Last 2 years needed a hoe and lots of work. Seems like more rain. This year I got Slammed 3 times. I had planned on replacing 18 inch plastic with 2 24in. aluminum at all 3 crossings.

This week end, here in Pa, we got about 10 inches of rain in 2 days. Soil was already saturated. All the creek water went down the 250 yd road for 2 days. just got lane opened so I can use 4 wheel dr SUV. Tomorrow will patch to make ok for cars. Now I'm thinking 2 24 inch pipes might not be big enough. I wonder if can get a drain device thats square on sides at 24in by 48 in, thus less chance for branches to get jammed up. If such thing what do they call it? Any other ideas? Im speculating 2 24in may be good. I'm thinking we got a once in 100 yr burst rain? But I really don't know.

Looking for any suggestions, as I have never been accused of being the smartest guy in town. Cheers......Coffeeman

 

[texas42]

Look around for precast box culverts. Have seen them as small as 2 X 3 and 2 X 4.
Usually s concrete precast yard will have them. Inquire about seconds that don't pass inspection for one reason or another. Sometimes these are still very useable and a lot cheaper.
Precast boxes are heavier and harder to install, but will do what you describe in your post

 

[jmc]

I've seen guards on the upstream end of culverts. They pass water but filter debris. Sloped vertically so that debris will be pushed up above the inlet. Maybe you could try a prototype out of rebar before you start replacing culverts?

BTW, I had a similar problem but on mine there were 4 culverts, 31x19" oval cement that still plugged up. I guess it's all in how big the watershed is and how much debris is in it. Mine is thru a woods.

 

[jaxs]

Maybe you can construct a catchment pond upstream. Leave openings at bottom equal to culvert. During heavy downpour,catchment will fill while water escape's at bottom. During break in downpour,catchment will drain so that there's room to catch next downpour. It's easier to make the dam from logs or large rocks than soil plus the dam is more resistant to washing out.

 

[Coyote machine]

Two culverts side x side do not work well, as you have experienced. I'd talk to the most frequented local yard that sells lots of culverts to towns and such, and maybe have someone come to your place and determine the proper size single culvert from polyethylene, double lined so it flows well, and try that.

Swale/waterbar at top- good! Maybe additional culverts needed too- see counsel on distance apart from the culvert seller or local excavator. I've had to add two to my drive due to all the torrential rain and runoff- the drive just washes to my neighbor's yard otherwise...yikes! :irked:

 

[ZTMAN]

Don't know how big your creek is, but I feel your pain with the PA rains. We have a couple creek crossings at our camp that got blocked. These are the typical three foot wide creeks that swell with heavy rain.
I started walking the creek banks in the winter removing the fallen branches/limbs etc... Takes a little time, but if I am walking in the woods anyway, might as well be productive.

Had one crossing wash out, so when the ground drys out, I am going to get a load of rip rap to put around the pipe.

 

[crazyal]

I have a couple spots that's always a problem with heavy rain. What I had to do is think of it not as a road crossing but as a pond. When building a pond you always have a primary drain and a secondary. The primary is what controls the level of the water while the secondary is just for emergency purposes. One of my spots I had to go upstream a little ways and dig a second path for the water to go when it gets above what I felt the culvert could handle. It's on the outside bend in the stream so when the water is really raging it forces the debris down the secondary path. In another section the road has large fractured stone for a base with some fines making it smooth. It's all but impossible to grade with the tractor but when the water gets to it the water doesn't wash it out and it sheds the water off to the down hill side. The third area has a ditch running down the side of the road. If the water doesn't go through the culvert it then finds the ditch. It'll turn the ditch into a trench as it washes away the dirt in it but it keeps it off of the road and all I need to do is drag the dirt back up from the flat area that collects it. Putting in larger culverts and having the proper amount of gravel on top of them to prevent trucks from damaging them usually is the limiting factor on how big you can go.