Anyone have advice on how to fix and/or prevent erosion on a steep road? I’m in Zone 10a and we just had a major storm roll through. Soil is mostly decomposed granite.
Ditches and culverts. You need to manage water flow.
Keganator
I’d put a ditch on the uphill side, possibly a few culverts to drain it under the road depending on where it drains to. Get the road above the ditch with fill from the ditch or bring in gravel.
mtntrail
Ditches and culverts as has been said. I would also install straw coils, loose straw and seed with a native erosion control mix.
Outside-Exercise-642
Water bars every so many feet, closer together on steeper areas. Run them at at 45* angle to the road to turn the water back onto the vegetation covered hillside.
CajunonthisOccasion
Outslope the road.
Breach the berm on the downhill side.
Install rolling dips to drain collected water and quickly discharge it down slope.
The idea is to disburse the water down slope before it collects and erodes. Sheet the water off of the road as much as possible before it collects and erodes. Less troublesome, less expensive, more effective.
Ditches and culverts collect and concentrate the flow. They may be necessary where it is difficult to broadly breach the down slope berm.
Good reference:
Handbook for Forest, Ranch, and Rural Roads: A Guide for Planning, Designing, Constructing, Reconstructing, Upgrading, Maintaining and Closing Wildland Roads.
There is a YouTube lectures called “planting the rain.” Greatest forty five minutes about water management on a plot of land I’ve ever seen.
BlueOrb07
No trail or road should be more than a 7 degree grade. More than that and it is tough to walk and will erode faster. You need to build up culverts and burms. Work on diverting the water from the road and then diverting that water from eating away at the sides of the road.
stansfield123
Ideally, roads should be placed on ridge lines (right in the middle, so that the water flows down on both sides).
Second best option, along contour. This allows water to flow across and off the road uninterrupted, instead of what’s happening in your picture. (The water is coming off the ridge and gets re-directed to follow the road, because the road isn’t following contour.)
I see this everywhere I go in the countryside, btw. Almost always, if it rains, the water is coming down the road. That’s bad for the road, and bad for the land too. You’re losing that water.
And often there is no reason for that to be happening. They could’ve put the road in the right place, there’s nothing where the road should be. They just didn’t.
So yeah, if at all possible, I would move that road. It’s an investment, but it will pay off in the long run.
Special-Steel
In the south, Texas in particular, you used to hear old timers call ditches “bar ditches”.
This supposedly is because you “borrowed” dirt from the ditches to crown the road. You can do this with a box blade behind a tractor if you tilt the blade.
-ghostinthemachine-
All of the advice being given is great, and I would just add: be vigilant, and assume the job is never done. Lack of maintenance will undo even the best drainage.
jerry111165
You gotta dig a trench on each side and hopefully fill them with rocks
11 Comments
Ditches and culverts. You need to manage water flow.
I’d put a ditch on the uphill side, possibly a few culverts to drain it under the road depending on where it drains to. Get the road above the ditch with fill from the ditch or bring in gravel.
Ditches and culverts as has been said. I would also install straw coils, loose straw and seed with a native erosion control mix.
Water bars every so many feet, closer together on steeper areas. Run them at at 45* angle to the road to turn the water back onto the vegetation covered hillside.
Outslope the road.
Breach the berm on the downhill side.
Install rolling dips to drain collected water and quickly discharge it down slope.
The idea is to disburse the water down slope before it collects and erodes. Sheet the water off of the road as much as possible before it collects and erodes. Less troublesome, less expensive, more effective.
Ditches and culverts collect and concentrate the flow. They may be necessary where it is difficult to broadly breach the down slope berm.
Good reference:
Handbook for Forest, Ranch, and Rural Roads: A Guide for Planning, Designing, Constructing, Reconstructing, Upgrading, Maintaining and Closing Wildland Roads.
https://www.pacificwatershed.com/sites/default/files/RoadsEnglishBOOKapril2015b.pdf
There is a YouTube lectures called “planting the rain.” Greatest forty five minutes about water management on a plot of land I’ve ever seen.
No trail or road should be more than a 7 degree grade. More than that and it is tough to walk and will erode faster. You need to build up culverts and burms. Work on diverting the water from the road and then diverting that water from eating away at the sides of the road.
Ideally, roads should be placed on ridge lines (right in the middle, so that the water flows down on both sides).
Second best option, along contour. This allows water to flow across and off the road uninterrupted, instead of what’s happening in your picture. (The water is coming off the ridge and gets re-directed to follow the road, because the road isn’t following contour.)
I see this everywhere I go in the countryside, btw. Almost always, if it rains, the water is coming down the road. That’s bad for the road, and bad for the land too. You’re losing that water.
And often there is no reason for that to be happening. They could’ve put the road in the right place, there’s nothing where the road should be. They just didn’t.
So yeah, if at all possible, I would move that road. It’s an investment, but it will pay off in the long run.
In the south, Texas in particular, you used to hear old timers call ditches “bar ditches”.
This supposedly is because you “borrowed” dirt from the ditches to crown the road. You can do this with a box blade behind a tractor if you tilt the blade.
All of the advice being given is great, and I would just add: be vigilant, and assume the job is never done. Lack of maintenance will undo even the best drainage.
You gotta dig a trench on each side and hopefully fill them with rocks