"John Bachman" wrote in message
...
If it is a drainage situation, you are not necessarily stuck with it.
It could be replaced by a culvert and covered over level with the
surrounding land, solving your problem and not creating a new one.
Again an engineer can advise.

JMHO

John


Having been a little girl who played with her brother's Tonka toys.......and
then spent about 30 years working heavy construction, a major portion which
was SWM (surface water management). A culvert *could* cause more problems
than you solve. There's usually more to it than tossing a pipe in a ditch
and covering it up. Depending on how much water flows through that ditch and
where it comes from......water flows down hill (repeat this often) and can
come from further away than you realize during rainy season. You'd be better
off to let a winter and spring pass to see just what kind of flow you have
and where it's coming from and flowing to before deciding to cover up or
level things out. Water from quite a distance away can even perk into your
property depending on soil and rock strata. Culverts are notorious for
jamming up with debris and then you can have an even more serious problem.
The size and length of a culvert is directly proportional with headaches
created by the culvert if not properly installed. Get rain gear and good
boots and be ready with potato hoes and anything else you have to clear the
blockage if you are set on an immediate DIY culvert solution. Culverts can
also breed thriving colonies of unwanted insects, reptiles and vermin with
the proper conditions during the seasons. Remember that every house roof,
driveway, patio and paved surface uphill from this ditch (and your property
in general), and that could be further away than the obvious, is going to
just direct that much more water down hill to your ditch and/or drainage
areas.

If you don't have the knowledge or experience or just plain common sense to
direct and manage water flow take the previous advise and either get GOOD
professionals to do the job or get an hydrologic study done before you start
your water management/terra reconstruction. A few hundred dollars spent
wisely can save you thousands later on. Another thing to understand is that
anything you do on your property redirecting water could possibly have an
impact on somebody else's below your grade, even it isn't obvious to you or
within sight line......you then just may have even bigger and more expensive
legal problems on your hands.

Do it right and you'll only have to do it once.

Val