Drainage is easy to overlook when planning a driveway, but it's one of the biggest factors in whether the driveway holds up over time.
What poor drainage does to a driveway
Water that sits on or flows across a driveway surface erodes gravel, undermines the base, and softens the ground underneath — all of which lead to ruts, potholes and washouts. In rural settings, a driveway crossing a natural drainage path without a culvert can wash out entirely during a heavy rain.
Building drainage in from the start
A properly built driveway is crowned or sloped so water sheds off the surface rather than pooling on it, and any point where the driveway crosses a natural low spot or drainage path gets a culvert sized for the water it will actually see. This is far cheaper to build in from the start than to retrofit after a driveway has already failed.
See our Driveway Construction and Culvert Installation pages for more on how we approach this.