Erosion control on my driveway?

[Mango20]

Yesterday I spent an hour regrading the big hill in my driveway after Tuesday night’s storms. My driveway has a pretty steep hill for about 150 feet or so before mostly leveling out. It’s also cut into the hill (has banks) so when we get really hard rain, it runs down there fast and creates Grand Canyon-like ruts in the driveway, with my gravel washing down the road somewhere. I know a permanent fix for this would be expensive, but I’m looking for something temporary with the hurricane coming and 10-20 inches of rain on the way.

Do you think a row of 80lb sand bags across the driveway, maybe halfway down the hill, would slow down the water enough to prevent erosion? Two rows? Something else entirely?

[baytraks]

Always give the water a path to travel; create a ditch along the side of the driveway, and do your best to grade the driveway with cross-slope toward the side with the ditch.

[tangledweb]

There’s not much point in slowing it down. What you want to do it get it off the drive ASAP. give it a side to flow off all the way down rather then letting it get trapped on the drive and run the full length.

[Flash44]

Sand bags will help divert, and maybe some old hay/straw bales too? Agree that rain will fall and water will run downhill, it’s up to you to direct it to where it will do the least amount of damage.

[Mango20]

Yes, the “real” fix would involve an excavation company and thousands of dollars. I’m hoping that might be in the cards someday, but I can’t dig any diversion ditches tomorrow. The driveway access is only 50ft wide, and the banks are cut right to the edge of where you drive, and go up about 2 feet on either side, so there’s nowhere else for the water to go (also makes getting the snow off of it difficult). It actually handles regular rain fine, but intense downpours are too much for it. I love my property, but REALLY hate my driveway.

[RacetrackReject]

The term erosion control should actually be erosion relocation. Where you fix erosion issues in one location, they will just move elsewhere, so the key to fixing your drive is creating somewhere else for the water to erode.

You could maybe try adding some low terraces (low enough for you to drive over) to slow down the flow of water. Putting multiple terraces down the length of your drive would make speed bumps for the water, help to divert it to the sides (to a point), and the water would pool a little before running on down if it did not divert.

My father owned an erosion control company for many years.

I tried to find a google image for you, but couldn’t find anything quickly. Basically, make speed bumps, but wider and flat on top with slopes up each side, angled the way you want the water to flow. If you can make them out of rock and soil, then put a secured wire covering of some sort over the top, that would help to stabilize them.

This photo is labeled “sponges”, but you can see the terraces here and what looks like hay, but I guess is sponges on one side of them.
http://sscafca.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/sponges.jpg

[Jim_in_PA]

You can reduce (perhaps) the effect of the downpours on your driveway slope by doing as you say…redirecting water off the drive toward the “low side” at intervals as a temporary measure, but you’re still going to be faced with repairing it after the heavy rain. As you already know, a “real fix” to keep most of the ground water actually off the drive can be expensive, and even then, unusual storms will still likely cause small to significant damage just from what falls from the sky directly on the driveway. It’s the nature of gravel roads and drives, unfortunately.

[DHCarrotfeeder]

[QUOTE=tangledweb;8339762]
There’s not much point in slowing it down. What you want to do it get it off the drive ASAP. give it a side to flow off all the way down rather then letting it get trapped on the drive and run the full length.[/QUOTE]

Yep. Water moves the most stuff when it’s moving fast and moving in volume. Set up multiple diversions along the driveway and let the water shed it little runoffs. Don’t let it carve its own river.

[ReSomething]

I have tried without much success to find the forest service stuff that I know is out there regarding the care and feeding of dirt roads in logging areas to protect salmonid habitat, because they really really really want to keep the dirt on the road and out of the streams.

I remember that they used things called water bars, that were like angled speed bumps, as mentioned, to get the water off the road as fast as possible and flowing onto vegetated ground. You don’t even want the water flowing down a ditch on one side or the other, you want it off altogether.

A lot of it had to do with how the road was cut in the first place, so it’s too late now if that’s part of your problem, but the little angled ditch/speed bumps will make your drive less fun in the short run but save your driveway from turning into the Grand Canyon in the long run.

[Tom_King]

Water cannot run down, or cross a road, and the road stay there no matter how the road is constructed.

[HungarianHippo]

Look into recycled conveyor belts at regular intervals across your drive. It will divert the water to the side before it has enough volume/velocity to do damage. and you can drive and plow over them. It does require trenching to install, so maybe that’s not in the cards for you right now. But prob cheaper than culverts. Here’s a brochure on how to do it, and Repurposed Materials is a good source for used belting.