# Advice on washed out driveway repairs



## rockinl (Mar 23, 2006)

Hi, after record-breaking rains here in Oklahoma, our driveway has developed major ruts leaving it impassable in some places. Water doesn't stand on our property very much, but we have a huge amount of water that washes through our place. The road is dirt with gravel on top, and we have used gravel several times to fill in, but it just washes away again in heavy rain. The approach off of the road is a pretty good decline, and I think we would like to have something permanent like asphalt done there. We aren't familiar at all with any of the available products. I am not even sure who I would call to come and look at it. 

What are your suggestions? Thanks a bunch, Kimberly


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## rambler (Jan 20, 2004)

Properly graded & sloped & crowned gravel, with a culvert where water needs to run under, rather than over, is what works up here. Water shouldn't be on your road for more than 1/2 the width of it. 

Water should run off to each side from the crown, and then down the ditches on each side. If it needs to cross, it should go through a culvert. Water should not run along your road. This all really applies as well to tarred or concreted roads as well - they will want to wash out too if water is eating at them.

Tar needs a good solid base under it, well packed.

Concrete also needs a good base, and will cost even more.

--->Paul


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## ace admirer (Oct 5, 2005)

not knowing the lay of your land,,, but if the water is running with the road you will probably need to divert it off to the side every few yards. if cutting across the road, a coulvert may be necessary. even concrete will be affected by wash water sooner or later.

anyway i try to look at water flow problems as, try to break down and divert water flows so that quantity and velocity are kept as low as possible. and try not to fight the lay of the land and mother nature , try to work with the lay of the land (if thats possible anyway)


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## MELOC (Sep 26, 2005)

i saw some really cool driveway drainage once. every 10 or 20 yards (not sure) the folks had built boxes out of pressure treated 2x6 that were open on the top to collect water and were slightly angled downhill toward a ditch on the side of the road. the boxes were set in the gravel so that the top of the box was about flush with the gravel. a car tire could easily cross the span.


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## EDDIE BUCK (Jul 17, 2005)

At our place we had that problem with water running straight down driveway and washing it from top to bottom. We solved the problem by putting down softball size rock for a base and topping that with pea size gravel. The large rocks hold the smaller gravel no matter how much it rains. :duel:


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## Okie-Dokie (May 12, 2002)

The weather guy on Channel 2 in Tulsa said there has been rain in the viewing area for the last 36 days in a row. Last night's storms knocked out our electricity for a while (East Central Co-Op out of Okmulgee). What you might try is checkin out the smallest rock that the water did not wash away and the next time you order crusher run, get the next larger size. In the long term, if you go for asphault you need to do something to stabilize the soil first. Get a load of fly ash or hydrated lime and till it in the ground really well, compact that then put a lift of wet screenings down, compact that, then call the driveway pavers Do this immediately after winning the lotery, lol.


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## zant (Dec 1, 2005)

Ditch,culvert,ditch-I had an 1800ft driveway that constantly washed out until I dug ditches at the obvious runoff points and maintained them constantly....When I sold home I told new owner to do same but I don't think they believed me...They ended up replacing parts of drive to tune of 2000.00...


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## wilderness1989 (Feb 23, 2006)

rambler said:


> Properly graded & sloped & crowned gravel, with a culvert where water needs to run under, rather than over, is what works up here. Water shouldn't be on your road for more than 1/2 the width of it.
> 
> Water should run off to each side from the crown, and then down the ditches on each side. If it needs to cross, it should go through a culvert. Water should not run along your road. This all really applies as well to tarred or concreted roads as well - they will want to wash out too if water is eating at them.--->Paul


Having maintained a 3/4 mile gravel driveway for years I know the above by Paul is the way to do it. The #1 thing to do to keep a road up is to get the water off of and away from the road. I went to a seminar put on by a Missouri University for professional people that build and maintain an aggregate surface road they could not stress enough about keeping the water off the road.


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## rockinl (Mar 23, 2006)

Great advice everyone, thanks so much. We know that keeping the water off is the most important, just aren't sure how to start seeing as how everything is so established. 
There are culverts, perhaps not enough. The "shape" of the road, like with a crown in the middle, could perhaps be improved upon. We need to establish a ditch system along side of the road too. 

Thanks again for all of your recommendations, Kimberly


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## Jim S. (Apr 22, 2004)

Let me tell you the cheaper way to do it, which is what my FIL did to his 1/2-mile drive before he passed, which has been there now for 20 years plus.

Where the drive goes downhill, install shallow ditches that slant across it in the direction of the flow. He used to call them "thank-you moms," who knows why? Anyhow, you build up a kind of speed-bump berm on the downhill side of the ditch, so when people drive over they go over the hillock and then through your shallow indentation.

This has 2 positive effects. It channels the water off your drive every so often, before it can run down it and wash it out, and it slows down your driveway traffic, which keeps your material in place longer.

Next, if at all possible, do not use gravel. Use chert if you can get your hands on it (and I know it does exist in Oklahoma). I thought he was nuts, but he said the chert he had spread would last way longer than gravel because of its much smaller particle size, and that as traffice went over it, it would compact better and stay there, rather than move off to the sides.

By golly, he was RIGHT! That chert drive, which is uphill for half of it, and is covered by stream floodwater at times on the other half, is still there with no new material added and still working perfectly with extremely little maintenance.

He also added a barrel at the end of the drive with SLOW 5 MPH and PRIVATE DRIVE on it. The faster traffic moves up any unpaved roadway, the faster material is thrown to the sides and ruts form.

The loads of chert cost him a lot less than gravel, and he cut the thank-you moms with his tractor and blade. This is a proven economical solution. Good luck.


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