Gravel driveway erosion.

Extremely heavy rains this summer have caused the part of my gravel driveway to erode, with some foot wide, 10 inch deep 'gullies'. This is on a small hill coming down from the highway.

I have lived here for 32 years and never had this happen before. Part way through the summer I had a friend dump some gravel to fill the ruts, but it only lasted a few rains.

What would be the best way to tackle this that would actually last?

Photo attached.

 

I feel your pain. I've been in my current house for 15+ years without trouble and last fall and this spring my driveway and forest trails washed out several times. What I did was re-grade to get the water off the driveway. Previously my drive was level side to side as it went up and down the hills. When it rained the water would flow straight down the driveway until there was enough water and velocity to start washing away the gravel.

As a initial, sorta failed experiment I installed swales on my forest trails. Swales are built up ridges at an angle that act like mini dams to direct water off the gravel trails. They did work at moving the water off but it concentrated the water in front of the swale causing localized erosion. And, the swales were hell to drive over. That failed experiment led me to sloping the entire trail/drive side to side to remove the water.

I re-graded putting a side slope on the drive. One side of my drive is now about 4" higher than the other along it's full length. So, now when it rains the water flows toward the edge even on the downhill areas. That way the water can only go a limited distance before it's off the drive and water can't accumulate on the drive to damaging amounts.

 

That's what I've done with my driveway. Since I live on a mountain and can't really have a ditch along the driveway, I have it pitched to the inside. That forces the water to concentrate on the inside edge. After doing that the tractor work on my driveway is only a fraction of what it once was.