[Tom Vaught]

I have a single car width drain pipe in the drain dish.

Looking to have the driveway extended to a "2 truck wide"
Driveway width.

Any knowledge on this upgrade on a piece of property?

Tom V.

[Jay S]

It depends some on the type of culvert that is already in-place. Some steel Culvert’s you can buy extensions and make it wider. Others, like some PVC culverts, the entire culvert may need to be replaced with a wider one.

In town or close too roadways call the diggers hotline and make sure there are no underground lines to cause trouble.

["QUICK-SILVER"]

Was checking on adding a wide driveway here at the house. First thing was to call the "call before you dig" number to get underground utillities marked.

Long story short... The ditch was on the 'right of way' to the road. So road department did it for cost of materials. That's drain tiles and gravel.

The whole thing was less than I could buy drain tiles for from the local hardware store.

Clay

[sdbob]

Ck local codes. You may need inspections. Anymore you cant just do repairs. Big business has helped this with small municipalities. So govts 'protect' themselves. $$$$ Time. I just heard local small garage addition at out church. Plans, engineering ,local inspections,plans sent to state. Ugh.

[Shiny]

Our driveway crosses an irrigation tailwater ditch and the 30" galvanized culvert pipe rusted out and collapsed. It was less than 20 yrs old.

We had it replaced with a wider HDPE pipe after comparing the expected life.

Advice:

- Check with your homeowner's insurance. We lucked out and had a buried service line rider that actually covered the cost. This was huge, as the cost was not for the faint of heart.

- Shop around for the pipe. It was crazy expensive and scarce at the time. Contractors around here sometimes have extra/leftover laying around from other jobs and may be willing to sell it for less than the suppliers.

- Hire a good excavator that understands the bed and backfill compaction and has the equipment to do it right.

Galvanized pipe costs less, but we have salty soil that greatly reduces the expected life. I found this data online that may help you make an informed decision about the material:

https://ncspa.org/wp-content/uploads...rvlifeeval.pdf

Here's another reference I found useful. It describes trenching and backfill, both of which are important:

https://plasticpipe.org/common/Uploa...Procedures.pdf

Below you can see the rotted pipe they pulled out and the plastic pipe they installed.

Good luck!

[Tom Vaught]

I checked with the state inspector for the county.
He said that I could go with a 20 foot under driveway section and a pipe that extends an additional
2 feet of open air pipe on each side.

Going to have a 44 foot truss Morton Barn put up on the property and the existing driveway is
not going to cut it for the Morton Truck & Trailer to make the turn.

If it is not one thing, it is something else eating up the $$$$$.

Tom V.

[necdb3]

I did this exact thing at my house in Florida. Had to pull permits. Here, they required that the culvert go 5' beyond the paved area on both sides and capped with concrete. (your local codes could vary). The county was mainly concerned with not stopping the flow of runoff. I replaced a 12' driveway at the street to a 24' plus 5' of flare.

[Half-Inch Stud]

We have 2- metal corrugated pipes under the driveway, and 1 slightly bigger dia Ribbed black plastic pipe . Well both Galv'd metal pipes have rusted open at the 6:30, while the Black plastic is good-n-round.

All installed circa 1999-2001.

[Stuart]

Can the Morton truck be unloaded at the street? I imagine it's easier for them if they can just slide the trusses off the back of their trailer onto the ground, but it should also be possible to pick them up with a telehandler and carry them to the building site. They'll probably already have one on site for use during construction. It may cost a little extra, but probably not as much as widening the driveway entry.

[Mr Anonymous]

If they deliver like Cleary did for me, the semi tractor has an extra set of framerails that they put forklift forks into, used for unloading the barn items from the trailer after unhooking. They dont unload by just rolling off the back like is common when just doing trusses.

The truck that brought my barn (poles, lumber, trusses, roofing) had enough material on it for three entire buildings and unload with the "semi tractor forklift forks"

When I had our house built in 1997, I had a 40ft wide, 24" double walled plastic culvert installed. Everyone told me I was wasting my money by making the driveway extra wide. Here I am years later, knowing it was one of the best decisions. Bringing in semis and backing in my 32ft enclosed is zero problem.

[turbo69bird]

Easy job, Rent an excavator and do it yourself if the town will allow it. There isn’t and easier job out there Up here you need to be bonded for many projects but other places are much more forgiving. We aren’t allowed to do a lot here here these days as homeowners ( I was a builder home and comercial buildings ) like garage drains are illegal and a culvert has to be “approved “ and go through hydraulic engineering for surrounding areas etc. It’s a pita. But the job itself is easy as easy gets . Use. A plate compactor and do the back fill in lifts 6 inch to 1 foot and if you have water available run water over it to help settle everything. Can save a lot of money doing it yourself but I have my own excavators so I just fire it up and go to town on it. It’s really a one person job so no real need for help. Can have someone help so you dint need to get out of the excavator that’s always nice but not necessity.

[sdbob]

Use to be what the govt doesnt know can not hurt you. Now I'm not sure. Sooo.

[Tom Vaught]

I have a commercial company a mile from the house that has done lots of work for me in the past.
I will not do it myself. They have the experience to do it right and know all of the inspectors.

Thanks for the information.

Tom V.

[71GP76TA]

Probably best to hire someone. That way its done right and the A-hole city/county inspectors can justify their 120k+ a year job.

[Tom Vaught]

The people who would do the job said there was a 30 ft culvert pipe in great shape and we just needed to add some fill to the road bed to get that wider. Simple job for them apparently and not expensive at all. Morton Building will be installed at the end of February/ early March. Little building 52 x 55.

Thanks for the info members.

Tom V.

[Skip Fix]

Good luck on the building. It will be nice when done!

When I out mine in I had bought a culvert but let the county guys use their own and they filled over it to be sure it was what they wanted. Shop just turned 8 last week! Had to get a building permit but they never inspected the shop.

[beemergary]

Been a few years when doing some house building in Mi. you went thru the road commision for driveway permits/culverts.

[TAKerry]

This brings up fond memories, I had the contract with the county quite a few years ago installing these. We could do 4 -6 driveways a day, Ah the good ole days