Fall Project Number 1 - The Solution (Continued)

Yesterday I shared the saga of a flooded driveway.  Something that we have been being kicked with for the past couple of years.  We may never get another flooding rain.  But, this last one truly devastated our driveway and our pocketbook.  The first picture below shows rock and gravel that washed away from a culvert that goes under the highway in front of our house. 

The picture below shows how the flood waters wreaked havoc on our son's culvert.  It washed huge rocks out away from their culvert and washed away the sides of the creek bank.

Those huge rocks below were lining the edge of the bank and up against the concrete culvert that you can barely see at the left edge of the photo and are now laying in the bed of the creek.

Leaves, limbs, roots, and debris got hung up at a tree and the pile up against the tree trunk is as tall as me - well over five and a half feet.

We knew that adding more rock to cover our culvert was only more like putting a band aide on a cut artery.  So, we got a local concrete crew to come in and make a permanent crossing for our driveway.

I was amazed that they came in with such minimal equipment and wondered a bit about how permanent their work might turn out to be. 

I watched out the window while I was working that day and could see the progress being made right before my eyes.

The gravel that we had just added was scraped back away to either side of the creek.  They used the only piece of equipment that they brought to dig out the gravel and move it aside. They dug down below the concrete sides that were poured last year. The crew are guys who grew up in this community and Mike has known them all of his life.  They are like extended family to him.  One of the guys is a familiar face to me because our sons played baseball together when they were boys.

They worked for almost an entire day moving gravel and digging out and setting up boards as forms for the concrete.  Then, a couple of days later, they were back and were followed by a concrete mixer truck.

Load after load of concrete was emptied.  I think I counted three truckloads delivered.  The truck would pull in.  Concrete would be pushed from the truck down that long trough onto the driveway. Then, those guys would go to work pushing and smoothing and raking and leveling. Back-breaking work and time sensitive. They needed to get it spread and leveled and smoothed before it started to 'set up' and become hard.

First they worked with tools that had long handles and used a board to smooth and shift the mud-thick concrete. They used manpower to move the concrete around to make it set right where they wanted it.  

Then, they used tolls with an extended handle and a lighter touch to float the air pockets out and smooth out the surface.  

Next they spent some time smoothing it out and making certain it was level.

The finesse they used truly made it look easy but I cannot imagine how much their legs and backs must hurt at the end of the day!

The last touch of the day was with a broom like tool with an extended handle that was used to add texture to the surface. Hard work, concentration, and a fine touch but never did you see them when there wasn't a smile on their faces.

And it turned out just as smooth and level and perfect as can be!  It was amazing to watch them and to see the results of their work.

At the end of the day, there were ramps running down alongside the concrete that was already there that would direct the water off the surface and down into the creek.  There is a gentle slop from the center out toward the edges to encourage the water to run off instead of stand on the surface. There are grid patterns to allow for freezing and thawing of the ground during winter.

We really wish we could add this surface all the way from the highway to the house.  However, at this point, our driveway has cost almost the same as the first house I ever bought!  Yet, we feel like we have a permanent solution in case of flooding.  I cannot say that we weren't tempted to drive out the driveway last night in the middle of the night when the rain was falling rather hard. Even though we knew it wasn't raining hard enough to flood, we still had that anxiety in our gut!  Mike is so confident, however, that this is the last time we will have to have work on this part of our driveway that the other day I overheard him tell a friend, "If this washes away, I'm leaving this place!"