The last, shortest leg down my long driveway. This slope has been here for at least 35 years. It was last graded two years ago. 90% of what you see happened in two days of severe rainstorms over the last week. Posting here because there's GOT to be a better way than paving it, which I'm being pressured to do. (See the last photo — I drove out of it, but I don't expect to be that lucky twice.) More photos at: https://imgur.com/a/EEvy10a
I need a hack that is feasible, durable, and doesn't cost 10k; I don't care what it looks like.
I know almost nothing about surfacing and runoff. Is there anything I can fill the gullies with that won't wash right off? Is there any cover for the gullies that can stand to be driven on?
I'd like to dig an upside-down chevron-shaped trench (peak at the top) and put metal culverts (with grilles covering them) in that empty off either side. I've seen that on ranch roads. Could some form of that work?
I apologize for bothering you knowledgeable people with my ignorant questions. Thank you.
by Suitable_Blood_2
15 Comments
Do you have a tractor? One of the best uses for ours is dragging the driveway as needed. Bucket works very well.
I am just a guy, not a professional. Depending on the slope above it, you could maybe dig a drainage ditch and just route it to the right or left of the driveway? Possibly add some gravel/stones to help with the erosion. Then backfill with the same material and hope for the best.
Also maybe edit the last photos so we can’t see your license plate.
There’s these or similar products but that’s a bandaid fix at best:
https://checkers.justrite.com/4-x-8-mambamat-composite-ground-protection-mat-95-ton-load-capacity-black-mm48
That might get you by temporarily but that looks to need some work done to fix it for good. Geotextile fabric and some base, possibly interlocking grids along with digging ditches or adding drainage to shunt the water away from that area as well as the house.
Those photos make it look like (to me, anyway) the house/structure sits on the downslope side of the driveway and that would cause issues if you don’t account for the water in your drainage plans.
I have a similar problem with a lot more slope. I had someone crown it, and used #7 rock to fill. I also have a 40 hp tractor. I use the bucket and back drag it after each heavy rain. It held up for 7 years now with no ruts, where it use to look like yours after one heavy rain, and much worse after a few
I’d do a search for USFS road drainage or USFS road construction and spend a little bit of time reading their resources. The forest service manages a ton of unpaved roads using largely local materials with a shoestring budget, and there are so many different ways to fix the issues going on with your driveway.
I have the feeling you’ll look though their ideas an stumble on one that looks like the perfect blend of durability and cost pretty quick.
I faced issues like this for years on two of the homesteads I lived at, with long 1/2-3/4 mile dirt driveways that got so bad people were throwing firewood into the mudholes to be able to drive in! I (and the other four to six people who shared the driveway) would make it a point to keep several big landscaping pots in my car, and whenever I’d go to town, I’d scrounge pavement rubble and gravel from wherever I could find it, usually piled up behind parking lots and at the ends of dead-end roads etc. Old bricks too. I would put the coarsest stuff in the holes and gullies first, and then “lock” it in with gravel all around. In addition to this, we would walk the driveway during and after rain to see exactly where water was coming from, accumulating, and crossing it, and then with shovels and picks attempt to redirect it away from the road, or if need be, to cross it in a deliberate narrow track, often bordered by treated timbers on either side. It took years at this but gradually the road improved enough that even small cars and bikes could come and go easily.
You could try putting cement blocks in there. Then shovel the gravel back into the cement blocks. Diverting the run off some how could help.
I use the box blade on our tractor to grade our driveway. I bought the tractor on craigslist for $5800 about 12 years ago. It also came with a loader, a box blade, a scraper blade, and a post hole auger. 35 to 40 horse 4 wheel drive Massey Ferguson. Box blade scrapes up dirt or gravel and levels it out into lower areas. A scraper blade scrapes stuff off the top like soil or gravel or snow. We use it for snow. The front loader bucket goes on the front and can scoop stuff up then dump it.
Some people use pieces of old heavy duty conveyor belt across the driveway to divert the water. You can drive over it. Some people use old pieces of guard rail to divert water.
good luck
Posting from Alaska, where water can be dramatically destructive through the seasons –
No, no, no, the people who are telling you to blacktop it are misinformed! If you blacktop this, you’ll just have broken blacktop, pot holes, and washouts a couple years from now.
What you need is drainage! The road itself should be sloped very gently down from the center, and you need ditches, and probably a buried pipe or two, with a bunch of pebbles at the higher end, to facilitate drainage.
You can almost certainly diy this! In fact, you’ll be the expert on where water pools, so you’re probably the best person for it.
Wishing you luck!
corduroy road
I see someone else posted about usfs roads…this is the same thing.
We buried a couple guard rails across where we thought it would be helpful. Now the water goes to the side of the driveway.
Maybe fill the ditches with some larger crushed rock???? 3-4″ or so.
I did a road for a friend on his homestead. Trick is construction and water management. We went roman. We layed out a box using red oak logs in problem areas. We layed the box on compacted sub soil. We then took large flat river stones and layed them down on top the compacted soil. Then we mixed 3 parts aggregate a mix of gravel more river stone and broken tiles from a hardware store to 1 part lime and 1 part sand and filled the box 2/3rds full and compacted it.
Ontop of this we made a fine pea sized gravel or smaller aggregate of river dredgings along with fine sand and lime. Same ratio as before. But we mixed in some c We then finished with compacted gravels. We dug trenches along both sides of the road. Lined it with clay then filled it with gravel and sand. We also edged the road with some clay and sand sand gravel berms.
We finished the road by skimming. That is a layer of fine gravels mixed with lime and sand….the dustier the lime and sand the better.
It worked so well we had to do the same for the whole road eventually. When the red oak degrades in 5 or do years and the ground above sags the slabs left behind will work like a form of their own allowing patch work as needed. The red oak should last for 5 or more years maybe upto a decade
I don’t know the name of the product(s), but there are 3d plastic meshes that you put down and then fill with gravel. The mesh (several inches deep) keeps the gravel from moving when there is water flowing and the gravel takes the weight of the vehicles, preventing the mesh from being crushed.
Geogrid could be a cost effective solution for this. Look it up.
The cheapest and most effective way to fix this is to fill the are of water flow with 4” rock, then cover with 3/4” road base. The 4” won’t wash away and the 3/4 will provide a smooth drive. The second cheapest is install a culvert and cover with rock. Metal culverts are best as they have a higher weight rating for traffic and won’t burn in the event of a wildfire.