Partial street replacement and hydrology
The city is in the process of replacing part of our street. They are tearing up and repairing one side of C/L at a time so we have some access.
The old concrete was 8″ on top of clay. The new is 8″ on a 1 ft bed of crushed concrete perhaps 1″ pieces. That will let the plentiful water flow better – we often have water coming out of the cracks even when the lawn is dry. There must be small channels eroded in the clay under the concrete to let it flow.
Unfortunately, they are not doing a total replacement. They have marked to replace the section on both sides of C/L in front of my driveway but not the next slabs downhill. This is going to leave a clay dam for the water that is trying to flow down the hill in the gravel for half a block with a fall of several feet.
When that freezes, will it raise the pavement?
Fortunately, the level run I did some years ago shows that the bottom of my sump pit is about 2 ft above the top of the gravel at the “dam”, but the underground flow may be unpredictable and that’s a lot of possible head on the water from the top of the hill.
When they get done, I’m going to be mightily tempted to drill a hole through their new concrete at the lowest corner.
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