# Water run off



## cowboybart (May 28, 2010)

I live halfway up a hill and my driveway is approx 5-600yds long. Normally we get 10" a rain a year, in the last 3 days we got 7". All of the run off made my driveway a mess!! The water cut ruts 12"-16" deep and that is before I drove on it. A lot of the dirt is gone and just fist to basketball sized rocks are left. I am asking for suggestions on have to divert the water during a rain or rapid snow melt. My driveway runs between 2 steep hills and is at the bottom of a "V". I'll try to get pix up later in the week. No other place on my property is suitable for a driveway unless I rent a scraper and spend 800 man hours making a new driveway. In the distance that my driveway travels I climb 120' in elevation - so it is a steep driveway.


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## sgtrunningfool (Dec 8, 2012)

What about ditches on both sides of the drive way and speed bumps every so often to force the water to the ditches


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## Caribou (Aug 18, 2012)

Ditches and culverts where the water wants to cross the road. My parents have a driveway like yours only twice as long. You can also put a slight crown in the road. With a road that long you want to direct the water to the ditches before it has a chance to gain volume.


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## Reblazed (Nov 11, 2010)

I'm thinking maybe a ditch or two across the drive (with a cattle guard atop the ditches)to divert the water into a catchment system on one or both sides . A lot of work but would serve more than one purpose.


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## Bobbb (Jan 7, 2012)

We all know the principles of physics that are involved here, so a solution has to account for the fact that the water coming off those two hills is going to seek the lowest point. If that lowest point is your driveway, then that's where the water will accumulate. The solution, as has been noted, is to have ditches or culverts that are lower than the driveway.

The alternative is to do nothing and just cope with such freak-year occurrences. 

Another solution is dilution or diversion. Don't allow ALL of the water from both hills to follow the same path to low ground. 

Any solution here looks like it's going to involve a lot of digging or terrain contouring. Maybe it's just cheaper to have your driveway regraded after a rare freak storm.


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## cowboybart (May 28, 2010)

I'm digging a large hole now. Any leftover back fill dirt will be used to pitch the driveway. I can only pitch it on one side due to the phone line being buried on the other side.


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## Tirediron (Jul 12, 2010)

if there is a decent supply of 8 to 10 inch rock in the area , fill the wash out with that, then the water can still flow but shouldn't cause nearly as much erosion, if the erosion is parellel to the road , a fairly steep crown would help, soil only gets soft if it gets saturated.


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## cnsper (Sep 20, 2012)

You don't necessarily have to dig a ditch, you can always build the road up higher thus creating a ditch on either side.


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