drainage into culvert

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on my .place in far northern california i have a drainage problem around. my driveway that i am trying to solve. i installed one 18" diameter culvert under the driveway. during the heavy rains of last winter the area around the culvert eroded badly. i was thinking to cover the earth around the culvert with stone or possibly crushed .rock, to prevent the erosion. which would be a better choice?

-- .bob mccaffrey (bobmccaffrey1@netscape.net), August 25, 2001

Answers

A larger culvert may be a solution to stop the scouring. If that's not possible use shot rock (rip rap) rather than crushed as the latter will wash away easier.

-- Susan (smtroxel@socket.net), August 25, 2001.

If your neighbors have entrances crossing the same ditch nearby, compare the size of your culvert with theirs, both upstream and down, if possible. Obviously, your culvert should not be sized smaller than theirs. If you need to increase the diameter of your culvert, but don't have enough cover over the culvert to carry the load, you can add another culvert beside the present one. This will allow a greater volume of water flow while keeping the water level at a lower elevation than you would have with a single larger diameter culvert. The downside of the side by side installation is the possibility of trash catching on the upstream end and restricting the flow, and then you're back to square one.

-- Paul (hoyt@egyptian.net), August 26, 2001.

Crushed rock will wash away pretty easy. Use larger rocks and them grout them in with concrete redi-mix.

-- Skip in Western WA (sundaycreek@gnrac.net), August 26, 2001.

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