Sloping Gravel Driveway Drainage

[squireg]

I would like to improve the drainage on our 110 yard sloping gravel (3/4" crushed stone) driveway. It is not ditched and the huge amount of rain this summer has turned it into a small creek which drains into our neighborhood road (also unditched) and helps turn it into a bigger creek. I would prefer a solution short of building up a crown, paving, or use of those expensive plastic paver grids. I am considering installing some type of french drains slanted across the driveway in three places and trenched farther into the woods on a downward slope. The driveway slope is not great but enough to cause problems when we have a downpour. Would appreciate any ideas or experience on this subject.

 

[Eagle1]

Slope the entire drive slightly to one side then ditch on that side to where you want.

 

[EddieWalker]

French drains always plug up. You can spend more money on them to delay this, but they will still plug up eventually.

Open ditches are the only way to ensure proper drainage for the long term.

Culverts need to be big enough to handle the worse storms, and they need to be protected from erosion with concrete at both ends to remain in place for the long term.

Sometimes the only solution is the one you don't want to do the most. Dig the ditches and solve the problem.

 

[2manyrocks]

I recommend the technical bulletins in the Surface Drainage section here: https://dirtandgravel.psu.edu/general-resources/technical-bulletins/

They've done an excellent job of explaining the various methods of dealing with water issues that pertain to dirt and gravel roads.

One of the things I find helpful is to actually walk the area with bad drainage during a rain to see how the water is actually draining. Then do corrective work when it isn't raining. Then re-check the next time it rains. Typically, you'll have to maintain whatever you do because water tends to want to go back to doing what you didn't want it doing in the first place.

 

[duffer]

Regular french drains (FD) will clog up. But OPEN french drains usually will not. What's an open FD? Kind of like a trough drain. Instead of covering the perforated pipe with dirt, or crushed stone, cover the pipe with #57 or larger stones (no fines) so that the water will fall into the FD freely. Personally, I'd use perforated PVC pipe that they use in leach fields for septic systems, rather than the black perforated corrugated flex pipe. Place it 4"-6" below the finish grade of the drive, slope downward and it should work pretty good. For 110 yard long drive, I'd probably do them every 20'-30' on the steepest sloped areas, and every 50' on the flatter areas.

As another poster suggested, slope the pipe outward to the low side of the driveway, and then dig the drainage ditch to relieve the water from the driveway. Your profile says you have an FEL. Dig the ditch with that if you don't have access to a mini excavator. I dug a drainage ditch/swale with my FEL that was 300' long. Works fine. Have to clean it out once every 2-3 years, but no biggie.

 

[repete]

Add drainage to both sides that you can mow.

 

[/pine]

You don't say how much the drive is sloped?...I generally agree with 'Eagle1'...the key is getting the water (runoff) to run off the drive and not DOWN the drive...pitch to the low side if there is one (even if it requires a culvert)...
...Stop the water from running down the drive and it will stop any loss of gravel due to storm water...because there is no room for accumulation...

 

[RalphVa]

I would like to improve the drainage on our 110 yard sloping gravel (3/4" crushed stone) driveway. It is not ditched and the huge amount of rain this summer has turned it into a small creek which drains into our neighborhood road (also unditched) and helps turn it into a bigger creek. I would prefer a solution short of building up a crown, paving, or use of those expensive plastic paver grids. I am considering installing some type of french drains slanted across the driveway in three places and trenched farther into the woods on a downward slope. The driveway slope is not great but enough to cause problems when we have a downpour. Would appreciate any ideas or experience on this subject.

What they do on dirt/grass trails in our natural areas is to imbed something like a 4x4 and run it across the trail with a slight downward slope on the one side that is a bit lower. You could imbed some PVC pipe with holes in the top. Think they make such for septic drainage fields.

I've done similar to what they do on natural area trails on slopes down the hill behind the house where I use them as tractor paths. Still get a bit of washout but fill in with drainage rock. These are mostly grassy slopes, maybe mostly rocks now.

I had a washout occurring from drainage off my neighbor's property. I put some 4x4ish material (1 bys screwed together) perpendicular to the flow and then laid a couple big logs on top these. This spreading out of the flow combined with similar 4x4ish material on my tractor path that was getting washed out has eliminated washouts there. A berm at the top of your driveway might help to spread the water out.

 

[ruffdog]

Right now, it is essentially a small creek bed. It should be higher than surrounding runoff areas to not hold the water so that may require some serious excavation.

 

[squireg]

Thank you all. Good ideas for me to consider. May have to bit the bullet with a ditch or at least working in a slant to one side. Will mean clearing some trees though.