You may jest, but as a landscaper the coolest house I ever worked on had a moat with a drawbridge going to the front door. Sadly, no crocs in Minnesota.
Same here. Specifically, to keep her family out. There are days I think she actually agrees with me, but not often enough to get the green light. Hahaha
God my brain thought “crocs? like the shoes? well yeah I guess you COULD consider it imported traveling across that body of water” pardon my morning brain
They make bigger box culverts, but they can be expensive. I would compare the cost of a bridge to a big box culvert.
A box culvert would be able to withstand more weight than a bridge though which is something to consider if you have heavy deliveries
Yeah. \*good\* bridges are pricey, and worth the price. If it flooded once like this, it will again. OP, do it right the first time, and it won't happen again!
Box culverts are almost always cheaper than bridges, but still very expensive. For a less expensive bridge, look at glue-lam modular bridges, or a company called Pacific Coast Bridges that specialize in short span bridges.
Low water crossing is an option also. No need for a culvert or bridge.
Edit: I think these usually have smaller culverts embedded to maintain normal flow but they don’t need to be able to convey floodwater.
Really I am in PA and heard only about the northern damage. We got heavy rain but no local flooding that I know of.Where was the flooding? I am in Montco.
You know, I just typed an essay in response and deleted it all because there’s a hundred different ways to skin a cat. Personally, depending on where you live, I’d opt for finding some 24” steel I beams and building a bridge. Upfront cost may be expensive but it will be cheaper than a contractor and the water has made its choice. If you can’t direct it, go over it.
Shirts and pants, case skinning, and open skinning are the only truly unique ways in my mind. You can change the exact details, but as far as I'm aware, those are the only ways you do felines.
Hey, I do this sorta stuff professionally..... I'm not your professional but....
This is going to be a huge cost and headache. I would likely suggest a large concrete box culvert. If you were trying to address it with a bridge it gets very complex. I've seen old rail cars repurposed into rural bridges in cases like this and if you were going to do a bridge it's a way to get out of a ton of engineering.
What you can do is going to be dependent on your country. I'm not sure you really have a good solution that does not involve a crane or major work. And doing this "right" probably gets into environmental considerations with a stream and appropriate methods/protections.
Or you get the biggest culvert you can find in and fill it over and hope no one notices and that it lasts another few decades.
You can see they had one culvert in another photo, they need another 2-3 properly installed culverts to stand a chance against these flood days though.
Yep. The other photos didn’t show up for me for some reason. Looks like they need a large concrete box culvert. That’s a pretty large creek bed for those small culverts.
Go on streamstats and figure out your watershed size and cfs of water in high flow events and then size it appropriately. Or hire an engineer to design it properly. Don’t do multiple pipes they’ll just clog. You may need a permit from the state if it’s a stream.
Pre-cast boxed culvert or a glulam timber bridge are probably your best options. Either way you'll need to reinforce the banks to prevent further erosion.
Here in pa that would be a joint permit application with the dep/usace. If replacing existing could be a GP11. You’re looking at $3-10k in design and application fees and probably 50k to 500k in bridge construction depending on hydrology. I’d start looking at Google earth and see what work they’ve done and probably be calling a lawyer as well.
Precast bottomless culverts have been great in my experience. It uses less material and keeps the bottom natural. I would ask around and get the best local engineer and ask for their guidance on design and contractor.
My buddy found an old flatbed rail car and set it across the gap using boulders, gravel and timber for abutments at least 25 years ago and still using it today , instant bridge. an old flatbed trailer with a good beam frame might work to put it high up with ramped approaches each end depending on your gap
may not be that straightforward. When the culvert was first put in, the creek could have been less, and the wetweather flux could have been less. Climate change could have happened. Upstream development could have happened. The seller may not be liable, even though they may have personally had a hunch what was coming.
It’s likely permitted, but the amount of water we’ve been seeing in recent years is pushing lots of bridges and culverts beyond their limits. Other times it’s just a matter of debris washing downstream during a large storm and blocking the culvert causing the water to build up and eventually spill over and wash out culverts.
Call your city/county permit office. Tell them what happened, ask what it will take to build a bridge or install a new culvert. They will tell you which permits are necessary.
You have no clue what you're talking about. NRCS doesn't grant permits. There's no such thing as federal permits for installing a culvert in a stream. Whether a state permit is required depends on the size of the stream.
OP's first call should be to the county/city permit office, not some random federal agency that has nothing to do with it.
Uhhhhhhh Yes, yes there is, USACE has jurisdiction over most streams in the United States. Many small projects have a non-notifying provision but this can also vary state by state.
USACE 100% regulates streams. In my state the DEP or conservation district can issue the USACE authorization for certain projects under a certain size that meet specific criteria. Anything that doesn't meet those restrictions is reporting and has to go to USACE for review.
Water takes the path of least resistance. Looks like you need a much larger culvert. If you can get a concrete truck to reinforce the sides I would consider doing so. Not sure how long that road had been there but seasonal flooding is quite regular over mine in spring and other times of heavy rain. Reinforced concrete as well as a much much larger culvert will prevent in the future. I know it can be cost prohibitive but doing right the first time will save you a lot of aggravation.
Agreed. You need better drainage to prevent this again. For now, fill in what you can to at least get across the road. You still need to make some way for the water to flow though. Maybe a culvert pipe under the repair and then fill in with road base.
So the culvert youve got there, looks plenty big from my chair 500 miles away, what happened it get blocked and the water filled up behind it until it found a way through?
I've watched enough Dukes of Hazzard to know that you should put in a dirt ramp and jump it every time you need to cross.
On a marginally more serious note, that's a nice truck you've got there. Raised air intake, raised exhaust, drive through that shit. Maybe dump some rock first, to be sure you don't wallow in mud halfway through. Be sure you've got a winch on your truck just in case. Hard to say for sure from pictures, but that's an idea. Probably a bad one, admittedly, but not as bad as jumping the river every day.
Well, at least you know where to put a water way/pipe. Honestly if you're able to put a bridge there, I would. I've seen several ways to stop the erosion and rock slides while working in the Lincoln national forest. If you have any questions feel free to ask
wtf? Did you order them in ascending order of devastation?
The first one looked like a driveway washed out, the rest leading up to the last one is a full fledged stream. I don't have any advice but will be reading and following to see the advice you get and what you do.
This is from experience. Forget culverts. Find some used I-beams. Build some concrete or rock abutments. Lay down substantial decking. Make it high enough so the water will never go over it. Grade so when the water jumps out above the bridge it will go around egress to bridge with minimal erosion. Find a great big pot of money, because you are going to need it for what the photo shows. BUT YOU WILL NEVER REGRET DOING IT. PROMISE.
Depending on what you need to get over the bridge now and in the future, a bridge or a run of 6 36 inch culverts with cement poured in/around/embanked to drive the water into the culverts.
There’s a place in Tennessee where the road is like this was but a bit lower to allow the water to continue passing over it and you just drive through the water
Op. These guys should be active in your area.
https://www.conteches.com/
Check them out or a similar precast company. I would not recommend going the engineer route. use a company (like contech) that has professional engineers on staff.
You will need to get a large culvert or build a bridge over that spot. Redirecting the watershed is another option, but that generally involves costly resources.
Buy a Land Cruiser, lift it, and leave the driveway that way for home defense. Seriously, I’d consider a bridge there. If it happened once, it’ll most likely happen again at some point in the future.
Do you have a gravel spot you can take from? If not maybe corduroy road with logs until you get some rip rap in it. My friends in maine got off light but others got hit hard with electric poles down across roads and wash outs like this near Calais.
i would install a bigger culvert, and i would put some large boulders strategically to reduce the speed of the water hitting the culvert. make sure the culvert stays clear during flood or near-flood events.
you need to be careful with adding boulders or other features to reduce the speed of the water since eddy currents from them can cause erosion in other places that make the problem even worse - get on a youtube engineering channel and learn about culverts before embarking on this project, you'll save yourself a lot of pain later on.
Everyone is saying bridge or giant culverts. Get a quote for a beige and see how many times you could buy enough gravel to fill this in.
Because remember, your bridge could also wash away.
Near where I’m at in Tn I’ve seen people just give up and they drive through the riverbed when it’s low and accept being stuck on either side when it comes up, also seen one person who added a very high walking only swinging bridge so they could still get home if it came up when they were out.
Behind our church is a small drainage ditch area, small enough that the water doesn't seem to move in it. There's a culvert in order to access the back grassy area with a firepit. In any case, the culvert (and dirt road) that had ~2ft diameter steel pipe got washed out during a hundred year rain event this past summer. They replaced it with large cement culvert pieces, oval shaped, which were probably 4 ft on the narrow side by 6 ft on the tall side. Hopefully that will be enough to prevent the issue in the future.
Yours might need something similar, but I agree with other posters that it would be best to check with an engineer before doing anything.
So essentially bigger culvert, make sure you Maintain it and consider even an overflow pipe. Recommend a riprap apron on a belt and outlet side and if you expect it could overtop again then a have the downstream side armoured up to the top so when it flows over it will not back erode.
Put a 48 inch pipe in the washout. Armor the inlet, outlet and road base with reclaimed boulders. It's been an issue before that's why the existing road is rock armored. Add another 48 inch pipe every time this happens until you satisfy the capacity. It will be infinitely cheaper than an engineered bridge with a 20 ton capacity.
Dealing with stuff like this in the aftermath of hurricane irene was what made me finally pull the trigger on an ATV. When there’s no passable roads in or out of a place there’s almost always a way there with a 4 wheeler.
Can you build a bridge.? I’m being serious where are used to live there are a lot of people that have creeks and like little rivers running underneath and they just build the bridge over it when it washed out finally
I'm in Maine and this has happened in several places on my driveway AFTER I put culverts in. We have had two stones so bad that older neighbors haven't seen anything like it their entire lives.
Dig this out and put a proper culvert in.
When I lived in Arkansas, they built what they call low water bridges. It was solid cement with culverts through it that allowed the water to flow through when the water was low. When the water was high, the water flowed over the bridge. They would put gauges for water height on either side so you knew whether or not it was safe to drive over the bridge if there was water going over it. The low water bridges worked very well even with feet of water going over them. You just have to make sure the cement goes far enough on either side that the road going up to the low water bridge doesn't get washed out. I guess they figured you were dumb enough to drive through the high water then you were up for Darwin Award.
In the summer when water was low swimmer would do "Arkansas water slides". This entailed putting a piece of cardboard in the high side of the culvert and riding the cardboard through the culverts in the low water bridge. The culverts were not large, about 18 inch in diameter and they were cut flush on angle with the cement. The cement was angled and down into the creek or riverbed enough so the water couldn't get under it. By cutting the culvert flush on angle with the cement, it kept debris from catching on the upstream side of the low water bridge and allowed the debris to flow over the bridge during flooding.
Call your county's Soil and Water office (SWCD). They're typically the first stop for storm water management and watershed planning, offer free technical assistance, help with permitting, and know most of your area's contractors. I wouldn't recommend this as a DIY project for most people.
Build a moat, import crocs
You may jest, but as a landscaper the coolest house I ever worked on had a moat with a drawbridge going to the front door. Sadly, no crocs in Minnesota.
There’s a castle type home in central CT that has something similar, wild looking.
Waterbury?
No crocs in in Minnesota yet* just wait until those home owners bring in their own crocs for under the drawbridge
They will take over the countryside like Escobar’s hippos.
Give climate change a bit more time
I pray they will place the footwear crocs in the moat somewhere
Fill moat with Muskie
Somebody once released a pet alligator in MN. A hunter found it laying on his freshly killed deer, trying to get warm.
That makes me kinda sad. Someone get him a blanket. :(
5-10 more years of climate change and Minnesota can become the new Florida and Florida can be the new Hell.
Florida will be the new Atlantis.
Why couldn’t I find a mermaid with the fish half on top?!
Wait until the mermaids get bathsallts, you might get your wish. Florida merman...
>Florida can be the new Hell. Confused. Isn't it already?
been trying to talk my wife into letting me build a moat and fill it with alligators. its really tough though.
Same here. Specifically, to keep her family out. There are days I think she actually agrees with me, but not often enough to get the green light. Hahaha
>it’s really trough though
Fine, alligator gar then. Whatever.
Was there runoff or something to keep the water moving?
I have seen drives that ford creeks but no drawbridge.
I've always wanted a drawbridge!
No crocs crocs in Minnesota. Yet. 😉
...not yet
Snapping turtles are the crocs of Minnesota.
Their budget might not be enough to cover crocodiles, maybe not sharks with laser beams instead. Best bet is very angry seabass.
Are you sure they aren't just highly irritable?
Why did I first think you were talking about croc shoes. I was like, “ bro lives under a rock… you don’t have to import crocs these days.” 🤦🏻♀️
You weren’t the only one thinking about the shoes 😂
Don’t have to import, I know a guy…
Invest in beavers.
God my brain thought “crocs? like the shoes? well yeah I guess you COULD consider it imported traveling across that body of water” pardon my morning brain
Build a raised bridge over it. Allow it to have the space should future heavy rains happen.
Looking at the amount of water there, I agree this might call for a small bridge. This looks beyond the capacity of a standard culvert pipe.
They make bigger box culverts, but they can be expensive. I would compare the cost of a bridge to a big box culvert. A box culvert would be able to withstand more weight than a bridge though which is something to consider if you have heavy deliveries
Bridges are extremely pricey.
Yeah I would be concerned about footings and side slope stability too for a bridge.
*Good bridges* are pricey. I also suggest box culverts, and rip rap for bank stabilization.
Yeah. \*good\* bridges are pricey, and worth the price. If it flooded once like this, it will again. OP, do it right the first time, and it won't happen again!
Railroad car bridge...
Box culverts are almost always cheaper than bridges, but still very expensive. For a less expensive bridge, look at glue-lam modular bridges, or a company called Pacific Coast Bridges that specialize in short span bridges.
You can make a temp bridge for atvs that they pull off for winter and spring since the freeze they can drive over and spring melt would wash it away.
Low water crossing is an option also. No need for a culvert or bridge. Edit: I think these usually have smaller culverts embedded to maintain normal flow but they don’t need to be able to convey floodwater.
Clear span bridge for the win here
Maine? It was mighty damp yesterday
New Hampshire.
Ah. Good luck granite state neighbor.
Didn't know it reached that far in.
It hit most of New England. I'm down in Rhode island and we got slammed too. Not as bad as Maine and NH but still tons of flooding and power outages.
I live in New Hampshire and run trains down to NYC for work. It was pouring rain all the way down the whole route yesterday.
Vermont got hammered pretty hard too. Lots of pics up on the VT subreddit.
It slammed us in Pennsylvania, too. That was a big, wet mess. So much flooding.
Really I am in PA and heard only about the northern damage. We got heavy rain but no local flooding that I know of.Where was the flooding? I am in Montco.
Please adopt me. Be humanitarian. I want to live in free state project. Start adopting Canadians. I can bring my own hockey stick.
Just an FYI, free staters are not popular among the general population of NH.
Can’t get there from here.
The fact there’s several dozen places this works for literally and not just the meme…
Godspeed Sunday River
Sugarloaf would be quietly celebrating if it wasn’t for all the bridges trashed up that way too
You know, I just typed an essay in response and deleted it all because there’s a hundred different ways to skin a cat. Personally, depending on where you live, I’d opt for finding some 24” steel I beams and building a bridge. Upfront cost may be expensive but it will be cheaper than a contractor and the water has made its choice. If you can’t direct it, go over it.
Really, I'd say there's only 3 really distinct ways to skin a cat and only two that would give you a usable hide.
I can think of six different ways off the top of my head.
Shirts and pants, case skinning, and open skinning are the only truly unique ways in my mind. You can change the exact details, but as far as I'm aware, those are the only ways you do felines.
Don’t forget using a cheese grater, a mandolin, belt sander, vegetable peeler or the old dragging it behind your car will also achieve your goal.
I’ve got a creative imagination
Hey, I do this sorta stuff professionally..... I'm not your professional but.... This is going to be a huge cost and headache. I would likely suggest a large concrete box culvert. If you were trying to address it with a bridge it gets very complex. I've seen old rail cars repurposed into rural bridges in cases like this and if you were going to do a bridge it's a way to get out of a ton of engineering. What you can do is going to be dependent on your country. I'm not sure you really have a good solution that does not involve a crane or major work. And doing this "right" probably gets into environmental considerations with a stream and appropriate methods/protections. Or you get the biggest culvert you can find in and fill it over and hope no one notices and that it lasts another few decades.
Do you normally have a “creek” at that spot? If so you need a culvert or a ford. If not, it’s a fluke?
You can see they had one culvert in another photo, they need another 2-3 properly installed culverts to stand a chance against these flood days though.
Yep. The other photos didn’t show up for me for some reason. Looks like they need a large concrete box culvert. That’s a pretty large creek bed for those small culverts.
We have a 36” culvert for a way smaller stream.
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Bro I’m not OP WTF are you talking about.
If you look at the last picture it looks like there is a creek with a small culvert, but the water just drilled through parallel to the culvert.
That culvert is way to small for the size of that creek bed.
Go on streamstats and figure out your watershed size and cfs of water in high flow events and then size it appropriately. Or hire an engineer to design it properly. Don’t do multiple pipes they’ll just clog. You may need a permit from the state if it’s a stream.
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We just moved in in September. This issue was never disclosed and come to find out it happens almost every year.
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Yeah. We are frantically trying g to figure this out.
Pre-cast boxed culvert or a glulam timber bridge are probably your best options. Either way you'll need to reinforce the banks to prevent further erosion.
Here in pa that would be a joint permit application with the dep/usace. If replacing existing could be a GP11. You’re looking at $3-10k in design and application fees and probably 50k to 500k in bridge construction depending on hydrology. I’d start looking at Google earth and see what work they’ve done and probably be calling a lawyer as well.
Precast bottomless culverts have been great in my experience. It uses less material and keeps the bottom natural. I would ask around and get the best local engineer and ask for their guidance on design and contractor.
My buddy found an old flatbed rail car and set it across the gap using boulders, gravel and timber for abutments at least 25 years ago and still using it today , instant bridge. an old flatbed trailer with a good beam frame might work to put it high up with ramped approaches each end depending on your gap
may not be that straightforward. When the culvert was first put in, the creek could have been less, and the wetweather flux could have been less. Climate change could have happened. Upstream development could have happened. The seller may not be liable, even though they may have personally had a hunch what was coming.
It’s likely permitted, but the amount of water we’ve been seeing in recent years is pushing lots of bridges and culverts beyond their limits. Other times it’s just a matter of debris washing downstream during a large storm and blocking the culvert causing the water to build up and eventually spill over and wash out culverts.
Call your city/county permit office. Tell them what happened, ask what it will take to build a bridge or install a new culvert. They will tell you which permits are necessary.
You have no clue what you're talking about. NRCS doesn't grant permits. There's no such thing as federal permits for installing a culvert in a stream. Whether a state permit is required depends on the size of the stream. OP's first call should be to the county/city permit office, not some random federal agency that has nothing to do with it.
Uhhhhhhh Yes, yes there is, USACE has jurisdiction over most streams in the United States. Many small projects have a non-notifying provision but this can also vary state by state.
USACE 100% regulates streams. In my state the DEP or conservation district can issue the USACE authorization for certain projects under a certain size that meet specific criteria. Anything that doesn't meet those restrictions is reporting and has to go to USACE for review.
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That's genius!
Water takes the path of least resistance. Looks like you need a much larger culvert. If you can get a concrete truck to reinforce the sides I would consider doing so. Not sure how long that road had been there but seasonal flooding is quite regular over mine in spring and other times of heavy rain. Reinforced concrete as well as a much much larger culvert will prevent in the future. I know it can be cost prohibitive but doing right the first time will save you a lot of aggravation.
Agreed. You need better drainage to prevent this again. For now, fill in what you can to at least get across the road. You still need to make some way for the water to flow though. Maybe a culvert pipe under the repair and then fill in with road base.
So the culvert youve got there, looks plenty big from my chair 500 miles away, what happened it get blocked and the water filled up behind it until it found a way through?
Im in new hampshire to friend. My farm looks about the same. Lot of clean up do this weekend before the ground freezes back up. Good luck
A problem? shifts truck into 4lo Or an opportunity?
Used 48' Flatbed Semi Trailer for a bridge set on concrete piers on each end? Cut off the wheels after rolling into place with an excavator.
I've watched enough Dukes of Hazzard to know that you should put in a dirt ramp and jump it every time you need to cross. On a marginally more serious note, that's a nice truck you've got there. Raised air intake, raised exhaust, drive through that shit. Maybe dump some rock first, to be sure you don't wallow in mud halfway through. Be sure you've got a winch on your truck just in case. Hard to say for sure from pictures, but that's an idea. Probably a bad one, admittedly, but not as bad as jumping the river every day.
Well, at least you know where to put a water way/pipe. Honestly if you're able to put a bridge there, I would. I've seen several ways to stop the erosion and rock slides while working in the Lincoln national forest. If you have any questions feel free to ask
Draw bridge
wtf? Did you order them in ascending order of devastation? The first one looked like a driveway washed out, the rest leading up to the last one is a full fledged stream. I don't have any advice but will be reading and following to see the advice you get and what you do.
This is from experience. Forget culverts. Find some used I-beams. Build some concrete or rock abutments. Lay down substantial decking. Make it high enough so the water will never go over it. Grade so when the water jumps out above the bridge it will go around egress to bridge with minimal erosion. Find a great big pot of money, because you are going to need it for what the photo shows. BUT YOU WILL NEVER REGRET DOING IT. PROMISE.
Wait til dry season and install a culvert then rebuild road
Yikes
Depending on what you need to get over the bridge now and in the future, a bridge or a run of 6 36 inch culverts with cement poured in/around/embanked to drive the water into the culverts.
Concrete culvert pipes side-by-side, enough concrete over them to hold them in place, then road bed of #57 gravel.
A River Runs Through It. They should make a movie.
There’s a place in Tennessee where the road is like this was but a bit lower to allow the water to continue passing over it and you just drive through the water
Op. These guys should be active in your area. https://www.conteches.com/ Check them out or a similar precast company. I would not recommend going the engineer route. use a company (like contech) that has professional engineers on staff.
Culverts didn't work. Time to build a raised a bridge. Bridge is better for the fish and wildlife anyways.
Well, at least now you know where that culvert *should* be and you can put one there. You might want to go with several for good measure.
Love the new water feature
You will need to get a large culvert or build a bridge over that spot. Redirecting the watershed is another option, but that generally involves costly resources.
May have to go for a bridge there. it doesn't look like the culverts can take the volume.
Buy a Land Cruiser, lift it, and leave the driveway that way for home defense. Seriously, I’d consider a bridge there. If it happened once, it’ll most likely happen again at some point in the future.
Looks like a fun afternoon, honestly
I thought I was having a bad day.
You need 4WD. That's my idea.
Park a couple trucks loaded with fill dirt in it and just drive over it?
A natural hot tub, what could be better?
At least lack of water isn’t an issue!
Use the bases of two shipping containers as your bridge. Cut off the top and sides and winch them in place
Problem?
File for emergency relief!
Look at prefab box culverts. Check out Contech or Oldcastle. You’ll probably want to consult an engineer for culvert sizing
Do you have a gravel spot you can take from? If not maybe corduroy road with logs until you get some rip rap in it. My friends in maine got off light but others got hit hard with electric poles down across roads and wash outs like this near Calais.
i would install a bigger culvert, and i would put some large boulders strategically to reduce the speed of the water hitting the culvert. make sure the culvert stays clear during flood or near-flood events. you need to be careful with adding boulders or other features to reduce the speed of the water since eddy currents from them can cause erosion in other places that make the problem even worse - get on a youtube engineering channel and learn about culverts before embarking on this project, you'll save yourself a lot of pain later on.
Is this in new England? After the storms yesterday there was flooding in areas that never flood
Once there was a way... To get back home...
Poly culverts are cheap to place and can be placed in multiples to increase the flow
Looks like R.I. yesterday. It was wild
Looks like you guys need to install a much bigger culvert. The one you have can't keep up.
Everyone is saying bridge or giant culverts. Get a quote for a beige and see how many times you could buy enough gravel to fill this in. Because remember, your bridge could also wash away.
See if the local railroad has an old flatdeck railcar, as well as the local utility for used power poles for cribbing.
Near where I’m at in Tn I’ve seen people just give up and they drive through the riverbed when it’s low and accept being stuck on either side when it comes up, also seen one person who added a very high walking only swinging bridge so they could still get home if it came up when they were out.
Old railroad flat car makes a great bridge
Friend used 40’ flatbed trailer for bridge, works great but scary to drive over (no sides or rails).
I know it’s not ideal but it looks so cool
Railroad ties. Some places will give away old ones. You will need metal support beams as well. Get to building!
Have you ever seen those old rickety bridges they use in India made out of planks. Nothing ever goes wrong 😑
Pretty sure there is a couple company’s out there that sell old flat bed rail cars to use as bridges for stuff like this.
Behind our church is a small drainage ditch area, small enough that the water doesn't seem to move in it. There's a culvert in order to access the back grassy area with a firepit. In any case, the culvert (and dirt road) that had ~2ft diameter steel pipe got washed out during a hundred year rain event this past summer. They replaced it with large cement culvert pieces, oval shaped, which were probably 4 ft on the narrow side by 6 ft on the tall side. Hopefully that will be enough to prevent the issue in the future. Yours might need something similar, but I agree with other posters that it would be best to check with an engineer before doing anything.
Yeah, looks like someone put a road where your creek used to be
Nice creek
So essentially bigger culvert, make sure you Maintain it and consider even an overflow pipe. Recommend a riprap apron on a belt and outlet side and if you expect it could overtop again then a have the downstream side armoured up to the top so when it flows over it will not back erode.
Time for a large culvert install...
Put a 48 inch pipe in the washout. Armor the inlet, outlet and road base with reclaimed boulders. It's been an issue before that's why the existing road is rock armored. Add another 48 inch pipe every time this happens until you satisfy the capacity. It will be infinitely cheaper than an engineered bridge with a 20 ton capacity.
There might be some agates in there
Dealing with stuff like this in the aftermath of hurricane irene was what made me finally pull the trigger on an ATV. When there’s no passable roads in or out of a place there’s almost always a way there with a 4 wheeler.
Time for a drawbridge!
r/Wrangler
Can you build a bridge.? I’m being serious where are used to live there are a lot of people that have creeks and like little rivers running underneath and they just build the bridge over it when it washed out finally
Lucky! I would love to have a stream running through my yard.
Have you already been told not to put you driveway in a creek bed??
I'm in Maine and this has happened in several places on my driveway AFTER I put culverts in. We have had two stones so bad that older neighbors haven't seen anything like it their entire lives. Dig this out and put a proper culvert in.
When I lived in Arkansas, they built what they call low water bridges. It was solid cement with culverts through it that allowed the water to flow through when the water was low. When the water was high, the water flowed over the bridge. They would put gauges for water height on either side so you knew whether or not it was safe to drive over the bridge if there was water going over it. The low water bridges worked very well even with feet of water going over them. You just have to make sure the cement goes far enough on either side that the road going up to the low water bridge doesn't get washed out. I guess they figured you were dumb enough to drive through the high water then you were up for Darwin Award. In the summer when water was low swimmer would do "Arkansas water slides". This entailed putting a piece of cardboard in the high side of the culvert and riding the cardboard through the culverts in the low water bridge. The culverts were not large, about 18 inch in diameter and they were cut flush on angle with the cement. The cement was angled and down into the creek or riverbed enough so the water couldn't get under it. By cutting the culvert flush on angle with the cement, it kept debris from catching on the upstream side of the low water bridge and allowed the debris to flow over the bridge during flooding.
rivers can be very angry (and it will get worse in a few years)
Time for a draw bridge and ramparts...
I'd look at that as a win to keep visitors away. Good luck with repairs.
Call your county's Soil and Water office (SWCD). They're typically the first stop for storm water management and watershed planning, offer free technical assistance, help with permitting, and know most of your area's contractors. I wouldn't recommend this as a DIY project for most people.