rework driveway - think pipes

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Any "expert" who didn't use culverts on a road with water issues is hardly an expert. Any roads I have rebuilt have never washed when I'm done and I gurantee them not to.

Good luck with them, and keep the ends clear of debris and silt. If silt reaches the bottom of the culvert you will have issues. If done right you should not have silt, but if you do keep the ditch and catch basins clean.

I agree.

Another thing I do is take big rock (8-24") and place it on the side of the road on the inslope of the ditch, then take the excavator and press/pound that rock into the gravel. In that way, as trucks roll over the road, it does not slump the gravel in the road. The pounded in rocks really stabilize the shoulder.

It is little things like that which keep a road in shape. My heavy haul roads are in better shape in the spring then the town roads here.

 

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I do not have any pictures of the original posters driveway, so I am not sure what they mean. If they added (3) culverts to drain (3) individual areas that were laden with water, that is good, but if they put in (3) culverts to drain a lot of water from one spot, then that is a mistake.

It comes down to math, (3) smaller culverts might be cheaper, but they will also plug with debris, and not have the volume that a bigger culvert has. That is because of the mathematical Pie when calculating volume of a cylinder. (3) 15 inch culverts gives a volume of 107 cubic feet, but (1) 48 inch culvert gives a volume of 125 cubic feet.

That is why for the USDA-NRCS for federally funded grants they mandate 18 inch culverts and not 15 inch culverts. An 15 inch culvert has a volume of 36 cubic feet, but an 18 inch culvert has a volume of 47 cubic feet which is a whole lot more. This extra volume makes a HUGE difference when they get silted up, or where I live, from the freeze/thaw cycles that often half-plugs a culvert with ice.

 

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Another issue I often see...and I mow the ditches of the road so I see a lot of failed culverts...is a culvert placed between two stagnant bodies of water. In that case a culvert is doing nothing and should not be there. To add a culvert under the road so that water just sits in it, is silly. A culvert's main purpose is to MOVE water from one point to another.

If a road crosses an area that is swampy, it should be ditched so that water flows somewhere. As long one side or the other is moving, then a culvert can be added to move water from one side of the road to the one that is moving. Or alternatively, both sides ditched and no culvert is used at all.