We got a culvert pipe installed across our driveway onto our road. I had no idea it was so involved!

As you can see, the final pass left a deep ditch across the drive even after the road contractor sloped the drive approach. Since we get a lot of essential deliveries by truck (propane and water, primarily) and use the drive for our vehicles, this arrangement was not desirable. So I stopped the grader operator who turned out to be the contractor and discussed getting a culvert installed. All it took was money!

I've tried to make the captions explain the various steps: assessing the need, trenching, placing the pipe, coupling the pipes, positioning the assembly, backfilling the ditch, and smoothing the surface.

This is a long Tabblo and if you aren't into this kind of work, possibly boring! The picture colors don't match because the sun kept going behind clouds over the 6 hours this took.

The picture above is of the layers of rock at the south end of the ditch. It isn't often we get a chance to see the underlying rock on our land.

The reddish layer under the dark surface dirt is the overlying syenite lava rock which rests on the bedrock Pikes Peak granite. This granite comes in three colors on our ridge: white, black, and red (the "normal" color). These colors are formed as the magma slowly solidified from the liquid phase, causing a separation of dissolved intrusive minerals.

All these colors of granite were found in this trench.

I have no idea why he started the backfill in the middle. I never got a chance to ask but I'm SURE there was good explanation.

The tamping took a while of his driving the tractor back and forth across the ditch.

Unfortunately, he didn't bother tamping the fill in the swamp hole. It is very mucky when it gets wet! I'm hoping the rocks in it help firm it up as we drive on it.

This final ditching completed the job but leaves our culvert lower than the rest of the barrow ditch! During heavy rain, water will collect here before running on down the hill! Good thing we don't get much rain.