Raising my driveway...

[Lil Foot]

Thanks, always nice to have one's work appreciated!

 

[skeets]

Good work !

 

[Lil Foot]

After a couple years, it became obvious that the (rare) flowing water likes to run next to the driveway roadbed before entering the culvert. No problem now, but it may cause some erosion problems in the future, so I used the backhoe to cut some guide channels to re-direct the flow away from the banks. I used my 14" bucket with no teeth and tried to cut flat bottom trenches. I am pleased with the results, especially considering my hoe will not make combination moves. (not enough GPM) I alternated stick movements to simulate combo moves, feathering back & forth, forward & back. I'm getting better, in another 10 years or so I might know what I'm doing.

 

[Lil Foot]

Simulated action shots climbing up out of my "lowlands".

 

[CaveCreekRay]

Great thread! -Somehow, I missed this one...

Water management is like a chess game: If I do this, what happens after that? You looked at all the options and arrived upon a workable and doable solution, and then you groomed it and fine tuned it to solve the problem, once and for all. Good on you, Bill. Ya just paid for that little machine.

To get a contractor in for that level of work would have run way more than your guess. I have a friend a couple of streets over and his neighbor paid the local grading and earth moving company $15,000 (!!!) just to grade his DG driveway and raise it with some new material. It looks great but they did nowhere near the amount of planning and scope of work that you did.

Water runoff in the desert is really tough because what the Northeast or Northwest gets in rain in a day, we can get in an hour. These were from 2016 and the damage was considerable.

Here is water sheeting off my old front yard..

Once it overflowed, it cut across the driveway, transporting a couple three of tons of granite with it. Every time we got a heavy rain, it would trash the driveway.

I put in two retention basins and a third overflow basin. We got two inches of rain in an hour last month and I had zero damage from the areas I repaired. What a nice difference, all thanks to my orange machine.

 

[Daren Todd]

Great thread! -Somehow, I missed this one...

Water management is like a chess game: If I do this, what happens after that? You looked at all the options and arrived upon a workable and doable solution, and then you groomed it and fine tuned it to solve the problem, once and for all. Good on you, Bill. Ya just paid for that little machine.

To get a contractor in for that level of work would have run way more than your guess. I have a friend a couple of streets over and his neighbor paid the local grading and earth moving company $15,000 (!!!) just to grade his DG driveway and raise it with some new material. It looks great but they did nowhere near the amount of planning and scope of work that you did.

Water runoff in the desert is really tough because what the Northeast or Northwest gets in rain in a day, we can get in an hour. These were from 2016 and the damage was considerable.

Here is water sheeting off my old front yard..

Once it overflowed, it cut across the driveway, transporting a couple three of tons of granite with it. Every time we got a heavy rain, it would trash the driveway.

I put in two retention basins and a third overflow basin. We got two inches of rain in an hour last month and I had zero damage from the areas I repaired. What a nice difference, all thanks to my orange machine.

Great job ray We get similar rain falls around our place. Any where from 1" an hour up to an occasional 5" of rain in an hour.

We are also in a low spot where the surrounding area drains too.

I had two 24" culverts under my driveway that would occasionally back up. Then I would lose the end of my driveway. I got ticked off and purchased a 36" culvert to replace it with.

The way it works around here is you purchase the culvert, county will come out and install it. The minimum size culvert is 18".

They freaked when they had to come out and install the 36" culvert. And couldn't understand why I went that big.

I then formed it up and poured 10 yards of concrete over it. No more screwing with the end of my driveway

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

[Lil Foot]

Thanks Ray!
That is one beautiful spot you've got there! (even wet!)

 

[CaveCreekRay]

Daren,

When it comes to water drains its always best to go big! Good idea on the head walls to protect your driveway. Most people forget the power of water.

Bill,

Thanks. Those pics were pre "water project." Here's a couple completed pics I shot from my "big ladder."

Here is a shot of how weedie it was when we bought the place. This is right about where I put the rip-rap river bed.

When we bought this place, my wife and I pulled all the weeds in the front yard and back yard by hand -before closing. There were four "brand new" galvanized garbage cans on the driveway that were full of garbage. They had been there so long the bottoms of the cans had completely rusted out (almost two years).

 

[RCW]

Bill - followed your initial project, and your improvements look like they'll do the trick. It's amazing what a simple swale or ditch will do to direct water,
but as Ray said, needs to be thought out, which you did very well in a challenging area. Well done!

Ray - always like to see pics of your place - never seen a cactus up close “in the wild."

You and Bill have places SO MUCH different than Upstate New York.....oops, caught my bad seeding in the lawn....
..my Boxer dog helped there...[emoji5][emoji57]

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[CaveCreekRay]

RCW,

Yeah, rocks take dog pee and never burn!!! LOL. But when the "coyotes in costumes" leave you a butt nugget, you always pick up a few rocks welded to it. I ordered an extra ton to cover "dog loss."

Nowhere near as nice as walking on grass though!



One thought for Bill: Are there any burn areas uphill from your property that may lose mud or ash come the monsoon rains in the next month or two? Hate to see your channels fill up with gook from a mile away.

 

[D2Cat]

Ray, why don't you quit messing with us, you know you bought the Holiday Inn that needed remodeled!! You sure did a nice job on the project though.

I never realized the desert got that much rain.

 

[bcp]

I remember many years of 3-5 inches of rain, and it often flooded since it came in 2 or 3 storms.

Bruce

 

[Daren Todd]

Ray, county came in and installed an 18" culvert 2 driveways down from me. Guys never gave it any thought with looking down the street and seeing 2-24" culverts in the drive just above it, then a 36" culvert in mine and my neighbors driveway.

We've been raising hell with the county over flooding for the past 3 years. Next time I get a gulley washer come through, I need to get out and video it and the send it to the county judges office. Water still flows over my drive on occasion, but at least it stays put.

 

[Lil Foot]

RCW said

Bill - followed your initial project, and your improvements look like they'll do the trick. It's amazing what a simple swale or ditch will do to direct water,
but as Ray said, needs to be thought out, which you did very well in a challenging area. Well done!

Thanks, I just wish I could spend more time there. This last work has been planned for almost a year, this was the first chance I had to get to it.

CC Ray said:

One thought for Bill: Are there any burn areas uphill from your property that may lose mud or ash come the monsoon rains in the next month or two? Hate to see your channels fill up with gook from a mile away.

No, we should be good. All the burned areas are south & east of me. Immediately south of my place is the high point of the subdivision, and any excess water should flow south & east towards the burned area & away from me. On my side of the high point, water flows north & west, so I should have no problem with ash or mud. Thankfully.

 

[Lil Foot]

I should mention that east Clear Creek is going to suffer terribly with moonscape level fire damage on both sides of the canyon. The mud & ash is expected to severely affect several endangered fish species that live in the creek above & below Mac's Crossing, which is directly below our subdivision.

 

[skeets]

5 years old and it just POPS up again??? You got some splainin to do Lucy

 

[Lil Foot]

I agree!

 

[old and tired]

Most likely a spam-bot posted a link, the Bot and post got deleted... and here we are looking at a 5 y.o. thread!

At least it was a good thread!!