Erosion on gravel driveway

Hello. I'm sure this will be easy for most, but I'm looking to get some answers to an issue I have. We've had some hard rain with flash flooding. It looks like it's washed away most of the dirt and the gravel driveway developed some deep trenches (12" or more). What would be the best way to fill and prevent future wash outs? Do I need to lay sand down first, or should I get some large rocks, then top it off with a couple inches of crusher run?

I have some bricks laying around, will this do? I thought PA didn't accept bricks as "clean fill"?

Thanks!

 

I doubt that an inspector will knock on you door to complain about bricks. If you don't want to spend any money, use them. Otherwise buy more gravel #8. Bricking the entire driveway would be the best thing to do.

 

Around here "crusher run" is what's commonly used on driveways. It's a mixture of stone of various sizes from 1 1/2" down to stone dust. The various particle sizes mean it packs down very densely with the smaller bits filling the voids between the larger stones. After it's been driven on a few times the rocks are locked together and resist wash out, rippling and rolling under car tires.

Another thing that will help a lot is some grading. It looks like your driveway is graded so the water runs down the middle. If you can grade it so one side is slightly higher than the other the water will run off to the side without the chance to pick up enough volume and velocity to wash away the stone. You can also build swales are diagonal ditches to get the water off the drive as soon as possible. If the water stays on the driveway it will just keep getting bigger and faster and eventually even large stones and bricks can be washed away.

 

II agree that re grading would be best. You can't stop the water from coming down so you need to do your best to direct where it will go. A small ditch [or swale] on one or both sides should accomplish that.