Hi folks! I had an extensive uphill driveway installed last year at my new house prior to the ground freezing for the winter. The house is elevated from a road that has about a 30 degree grade. The driveway area was entirely wooded with mostly new growth trees, and there was a significant amount of excavation done.
Photos 1-3: Now that the snow has melted and the ground is softening, we’re experiencing erosion at the top of the driveway.
Photos 4-5: Mid excavation photos for context.
Photos 6-7: Show the boulder retaining wall on the opposite side of the house (my dad and dog for scale 😂).
I’d like to poll this fine group on retaining wall options. My first thought was to replicate the boulder retaining wall shown in 6-7 for the driveway for continuity. For reference, the wall will need to be approximately 7 feet high at the highest point.
The contractors in this area… tend to lack creativity. Hence why I’m here. The driveway cost $50K. I imagine a retaining wall will be $75K+. I’m willing to spend for high quality work.
Thanks in advance!
Location: Eastern Catskills, NY
by russ3llgt
6 Comments
I like the boulder look a lot for this setting. Before even seeing pics 6-7…I was going to say boulders the size of a Fiat 🤣
I can tell you that the wall should have come first, or at the same time. Machinery is going to wreck that road when they dig back for the wall.
Make it look natural. Use big boulders plucked here and there and fill the gaps with plants. Roots will stabilize the slope. I’ve been there, done that and it’s awesome.
looking at the soil and rock content – you may be better off grading it back a bit and rip rapping ontop of a geogrid. Any wall to hold that back is gonna be a big bastard and will have to have a fair amount of back anchors. Loads of work and expensive.
A gabion wall perhaps
Forester here. I don’t know real engineering, but I know more than a bit about insloped gravel roads. This looks like a hack job.
OP, don’t do a retaining wall.
Those trees at the edge are already fucked and dead, they (and you) just don’t know it yet. In the next few years, every single one of them is going to die and come down into your road, in one piece or pieces.
You also don’t want trees anywhere close enough to a permanent insloped gravel road, to shade it. You want to maximize sunlight hitting the road, to keep it dry, and significantly reduce its lifetime maintenance requirements.
Cut those trees down, have the machines pull the stumps, then make the slope down into the road as gentle as possible. DON’T seed with cheap turf grasses. Seed with deep rooted grasses like little bluestem. Also plant native shrubbery. The root mass will end up holding the slope together, and the grasses and shrubs will help keep trees from seeding back in too quickly. You can maintain this with anything from periodic burns, or just a flail mower a couple of times a year.