Filling a Swale

[trlong]

I'm looking for advise as to what materials to use, what depth, and how best to properly drain an area, once it is filled/re-landscaped.

Posted is (hopefully) a picture of the swale in the late Spring, after I had cleared and burned most of the scrub (weeds, various sapplings, and a bunch of aspen growing throughout the area) that had grown up while I was busy with other things and vegetation had begun to return. This area is a natural drainage, on my property, for my neighbor's property, draining down into a ditch, then through a culvert on my propery. The native soils are glacial silt with significant water within 6" of the surface a good portion of the year, sometimes on the surface if raining hard.

In the center of picture (although not obvious as pictures flatten everything) the land drops down about 4' from where I was standing. The rise on the right side is, maybe, 2 1/2 to 3' and the rise on the left side is at least 5' from the lowest, closest, area of the swale.

My basic intent is to fill the area such that I can seed and mow it while we decide what plantings to do. Obviously, there will need to be some form of drainage (more narrow swale, ditch with culvert to cross, ....???), so that the natural drainage can occur and still allow me to mow and landscape without being 2' in mud in the center.

The area is approximately 130' long (looking down that picture) by maybe 50' wide, narrowing to 10' wide.

Thoughts on materials and # of yards of sand, stone, fill, topsoil, would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Tom

PS [The birds nest spruce I rescued from the town park, and the native red-stick dogwood can not be disturbed...boss's orders /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif]

 

[trlong]

An pic taken earlier in the Spring, slighly different perspective, similar direction.

 

[trlong]

This from about center of the length of the swale, late July(?), looking across as everything grew back in. I'd have kept it down but got into issues with the neighbor not knowing where his lot line was, then his cutting 7 trees on my land even after he knew, and his septic leaking in the area.... Decided I didn't want to be out there working on it 'til the issues were cleared up.

Tom

 

[rswyan]

Tom,

I'm not real familiar with the soils in your area of the country but you might consider installing a dry creek bed after sculpting the swale (I see you have a FEL and BH) to suit you and the Mrs.

If you have the budget you could lay down some geotextile and then cover it with large gravel ... like No. 2 or rip-rap .... depends on what kind of flow you get thru it. How big of an area does it drain ?

One thing to keep in mind is that widening it should = slower flow and narrowing it should = faster flow ... and more potential problems with erosion.

 

[trlong]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( <font color="blue">you could lay down some geotextile and then cover it with large gravel ... like No. 2 or rip-rap </font> )</font>

rswyan,

That's kind of what I was thinking. I know the velocity would increase but the culvert down at the end should handle it. Fabric and rip-rap should help with the erosion. The area drains about 1.3 acres, not including the ledge above it which does contribute. The soil in that area is very silty, full of small to medium stone, packs hard and doesn't perk well at all. I'm figuring at least 150 yd.s of fill, just to get it to where I can mow it without tipping or getting stuck (maybe more). I'm not sure whether to just have fill brought in to bring it near the grade I want and then shape the ditch and add a mix of sand and topsoil or, if I need to have a sandy mix brought in to start with to allow for decent drainage.

If I'm lucky, the town will donate a lot of the basic fill when they clean the ditches up this way next spring. I'm just trying to size the job and be sure I'm using the right materials to keep from just raising the water level there and ending up with just a higher wet area.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Tom

 

[LarryRB]

When I use to work the local highway dept. we came across this several times. Dig a deep "V" groove, with 2/12 ft flat bottom. and top at 5'... Lay geotextile and cover 3/4 of ditch with rip rap. Then fill in with spoils,"free donation from local hwy dpt", grade and reseed. You are creating a "French" drain that will still take the water to the culvert. I would still have a minor swale over this area to keep heavy run off over the rip rap and still be able to cut the grass.

 

[MarkV]

Tom,

Don’t know if this is an issue in your area but here the county engineer would have to sign off on any modification to a swale that close to the road. In you first photo it looks like filling the swale could cause water to be diverted to the road surface which would be a big no no. Of course photo’s rarely tell the whole story so it may not be an issue. I would hate to see you bring in that fill and have the county come back and tell you to move it though.

MarkV

 

[trlong]

Larry,

Sounds like a good solution. Not sure I'll be able to get to it but, if I can I might be able to get the fabric and rip-rap in before snow flys. That might help the drainage in the Spring and allow me to get the rest of it done earlier in the Spring. Also, it would be great to have no (or at least a lot less) standing water out there. People are getting pretty edgy about "West Nile Virus". The less mosquitos around, the better.

Thanks,

Tom

 

[trlong]

Mark,

Thanks for the heads-up but, the "road" you see in the 1st pic is actually my driveway. I "plan" to make sure I don't raise water level enough to impact it. The spot I was sanding on, to take the pictures looking down the swale is also my land. The neighbor has a right-of-way across it for ingress/egress only. I'll make sure there's still plenty of grade from that area to continue to drain down the swale. Good catch though. Even though it's my land, if I undermined the neighbors' driveway I'm sure I'd end up having to fix it.

Thanks,

Tom

 

[LBrown59]

<font color="blue">If I'm lucky, the town will donate a lot of the basic fill when they clean the ditches up this way next spring. </font>
<font color="orange"> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ </font>
Check with the county township and state also.


Several years ago the state dumped me off about 20 of their dump truck loads free.
Check with your local lawn care and swimming pool places to.
A few weeks ago a lawn care company gave me about 30 tons of dirt and hauled it in free. 6 truck loads.

Looks like your project will take quite a lot of fill / dirt.
I just put in 122 feet of culvert. Hauled dirt for over 4 days with my bx 23 covering it up.
Still got a lot of landscaping to do on it smoothing and leveling it all up.