How to fill in a bit rut in front of my house?

[rationull]

My house is on a major road in a semi-rural area, no sidewalks. On either side of my driveway alongside the highway is just dirt, and there's a fair sized rut, maybe 6-8 inches deep at its deepest, maybe 16-20 inches wide (sloped sides, though). I'm not sure if this rut was intentionally started some years ago or is just the result of water flowing alongside the road (slight downslope) when it rains. Either way, it does act as a de-facto drainage channel.

Problem is the rut is between the road and my mailbox. My mail carrier left me a note today asking if I could fill in the rut with rocks, and I do sympathize with her but I don't want to do anything that screws up the drainage.

We just moved here and I'm very new to this type of issue. Who should I call for advice on this type of thing? Can I just go buy lots of medium sized rocks somewhere and dump them in? I also have some questions about possibly putting a culvert in at the base of my driveway because of the same water flow issues but that's a little further off -- but I figure the same type of contractor would be able to answer those questions.

I can post a picture if necessary but it's not really all that impressive

 

[Bill in Utah]

Just fill it with a rock mix. A cement mix would do fine.

The water will still drain / move and the carrier will be able to walk over the rocks.

 

[crinkles]

post a picture. driveway and mailbox.

next time you have a heavy storm check what kind of flow you are looking at. anything more than 3 gallons a minute i would put a precast culvert in. you could also use PVC pipes filled over at least 1 foot over the crown.

use 5mm to 20mm gravel to fill.

you could even ask your county to do it if it is on public lands.

 

[Pop_Rivit]

Is it actually on public property or on your property?

If it's on your property you can do what you please. If it's on city/county/public property you might need to contact the county/city secondary roads department to correct the problem.

But if it were me I'd simply buy a few bags of rock and be done with it.

 

[Cup of Joe]

Do not go filling it in just yet. As crinkles said a picture or 2 of the area would be great. It sounds like the land was graded to help channel the water away from the house. If you fill it you may end up with a pond near your home. What you discribed sound pretty normal when taking a piece of farm land and converting it to residential use.

Typical you would have the entire plot graded toward the property lines. If it was a community the property line would be the center of your ditch and during heavy rain they would fill and drain further down.

 

[Bill in Utah]

If he fills it with medium rock mix it will drain like it is right now.

Rocks do allow water to move. Look at any ballast near a railroad track.

Bill

 

[Cup of Joe]

Originally Posted By: Bill in Utah
If he fills it with medium rock mix it will drain like it is right now.

Rocks do allow water to move. Look at any ballast near a railroad track.

Bill


Agreed. I'm having some trouble picturing a ditch between a mail box that is not on the street. You also have to consider lawn maintenance, assuming it is in his front yard.

In the spring I am going to reshape my own front ditch to make it easier to mow so I don't have to use a string trimmer or round up. Its pretty steep still at the moment and the county just cleaned them last summer which means deaper.

 

[CourierDriver]

boy o boy,,,I dont miss yard work.....................

 

[Steve S]

Roadbase with fines would work.

 

[PT1]

Put a piece of black PVC drainage pipe in the rut extendng 2 feet past the mailbox in either direction (4-5' piece) then cover with gravel, then dirt on top and plant some grass seed in the dirt. Then add 1/2 qt of MMO and everything should be fine...

 

[sicko]

Originally Posted By: PT1
Put a piece of black PVC drainage pipe in the rut extendng 2 feet past the mailbox in either direction (4-5' piece) then cover with gravel, then dirt on top and plant some grass seed in the dirt. Then add 1/2 qt of MMO and everything should be fine...

HAH, is there anything MMO can't do?

 

[Chris142]

Come fix my rut when your done with yours!

 

[rationull]

Thanks for all the input so far!

Here are some pictures of the area. Sorry, they're not very good but I can't get anymore tonight since it's too dark:

Here's the driveway, you can clearly see where the water goes across it, and the stupid piled up dirt so you don't have to walk/drive through the stream:

And here's the base of the mailbox:

To clarify some details of the situation mentioned above: This is down a hill from my house, and the street is on a mild downslope, so I'm not worried too much about pooling. I just don't want to raise the water level such that it starts moving onto the shoulder of the road.

I think this is probably on my property so I don't really want to bother with the county. Or given the proximity to the road, should I check with them just in case? Part of the problem is I think the mail carrier actually wants to drive on the rocks so she can pull over far enough to drop the mail off without getting out of the truck. I don't know how much rock I'm going to have to buy, especially if the water just washes it away.

Where should I even look to buy bags of rocks this size?

 

[rationull]

Originally Posted By: Chris142
Come fix my rut when your done with yours!


Very nice. I bet that Jeep can handle it though

 

[crinkles]

down here both of those areas would be the responsiblity of the county/council. that's very close to the road and it would be within the road reserve. there are a number of similar spots here where poor drainage has been repaired by council in front of people's rural homes.

i would put a PVC or HDPE pipe at both locations. then fill over with 1/4 to 1 " sized gravel mixed. make sure the gravel is packed well around the base of the pipe.

i would put at least a foot of gravel over each pipe. when you drive over it have someone check that they don't flex too much otherwise you could need more.

maybe use 3x 4" pipes at each spot. it does look like it takes a LOT of flow when it rains heavily which means whatever you do it will have to be maintained on occasion.

by using gravel only, and no pipes, the gravel will eventually foul up with silt and become a blockage particulalry at he mailbox. water will choose the easiest path through the pipes.

 

[Barkleymut]

Easy, buy a few bags of rock from home depot/lowes/walmart and dump them into the groove. Done.

 

[rationull]

crinkles: It takes a fair amount of flow when it rains heavily, but not enough to create a real problem on the driveway as far as I can tell.

I do like the gravel and pipes idea. Presumably when you buy gravel rocks there won't be any sharp enough to do any damage to tires?

I don't think there's enough vertical space to do anything with pipes on the driveway, though, unless I were to dig it out a bit first (through the asphalt). For now I'm going to keep smoothing the dirt out as needed until the dirt is almost gone, at which point I'll figure out if I even need to do anything about it at all.

Maybe I will check with the county first just in case...

 

[crinkles]

never had a problem driving on crushed (angular gravel) on work sites with my camry... but not impossible to suffer some damage. if you keep the gravel below 20mm you should be OK. You can always put a bit of fine gravel say 2 - 5mm on the top maybe 2 inches or so thick if you are worried about tyres.

if the pipe and gravel would be too high on the driveway i would just let it be and maybe check if the county can fix because the whole subgrade would have to be done to bring the level up.

 

[eljefino]

Just make a new wood mailbox holder that extends toward the road a little further.

You should see the elaborate mailbox rigs we have here, attempting to elude whacking by the snowplow.

 

[Cup of Joe]

It appears you have rural carrier service so it would be a drive up delivery. The rut is from the car tires over considerable time. Is the box on the other side of the street or on your side near the drive way? If you check with the post office you will find the box needs to be as far off the road as possible so the postal carrier can get as far off the roadway as possible. Its about safety of the carrier and other drivers since the mail courier has to stop at every box.

Quote:
3.1.4 Clear Approach
Customers must keep the approach to their mailboxes clear of obstructions to allow safe access for delivery. If USPS employees are impeded in reaching a mail receptacle, the postmaster may withdraw delivery service.


Crinkles is quite correct it very well could be a matter for the county. Since my box is on the opposite side of the street from my home the county is responsible for maintaining it as the driver produces ruts in the shoulder. Looking at the rut in front of your box at this point you would need a considerable number of bags. Most any sturdy material would work, crush'n'run, ashaplt or concrete regrinds or oyster/clam shells would all be preferable if you don't want to be doing this again in the future. The biggest issue with any of these options is the amount of material delivered is normally 40 ton unless you get half a truck load. To fill just the rut you need several bags since they really do not go far. From looking at the image of the mail box I would estimate from my personal experience I would use 1000-2000 lbs pretty easily. But that would cover the entire area and not just the rut portion. If you go with the bag option buy at least 10 of whatever gravel type material you like from homedepot or lowes and see how far they go. Moving any of the materials I listed my hand is very hard work.