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    • Bayberry Road Drainage
  • Click for original culvert elevations
    • General Description
    The ditches along both sides of this road feed into the Kent Ave ditch. Water in the south ditch flows through a culvert under the extension of Bayberry Road, where it joins with water from the north ditch. This water continues northward, and crosses under Kent Ave at a point roughly halfway between Short and Bayberry Roads. It eventually finds its way to the Assawoman Canal, then into the Inland Bays.

    (right) A volleyball that was found wedged in a driveway culvert near the west end of Bayberry Road. It was successfully removed in 2005 using a 10' bamboo pole.

    Needless to say, things like this block the flow of water.
    Upcoming Major Work (2010)
    North side- MBA tree that came down in November, 2009 storm pulled up one of the culvert sections at 13 Bayberry. In March, 2010, the existing ditch on this side of the street was surveyed from Kent Ave up to this culvert. All culverts from #1 thru #13 will replaced this spring, and the ditch elevation adjusted. There are some number of trees in this ditch that are in the way. In addition, a substantial number of trees are located on MBA property between the road and ditch.

    Upcoming Maintenance (2010)
    The portion of the south ditch from the Kent Ave fence to the first driveway culvert (4 Bayberry) will be cleaned out and possibly lowered this spring. This SHOULD allow the rest of the ditch to drain better.

    May 27, 2010 update
    This past week, after visits from various utilities to mark the approximate location of buried utilities, we removed approximately 50 trees from along Bayberry Road. Note that this uses a fairly broad definition of "tree"-this included spindly things less than 1" in diameter. Tree work was primarily done along the north side of the road from the Kent Ave fence to #13. Trees were also removed from the south side of the road from the Kent Ave fence to the first driveway, at #4. Additionally, all brush was removed from adjacent both ditches on the west side of the Kent Ave fence.
    Tree removal criteria were:
  • If it was in the middle of the ditch, it was in the way of drainage work, and it's gone.
  • If it was on community property between the ditch and the street, and was still fairly small (and thus easy to remove), it's gone.
  • If it looked like its root structure would be significantly affected by drainage work, and thus the health of the tree (not to mention its ability to remain upright) would be suspect, it's gone.


    • After the tree removal work was completed, some of the critical underground utilities were precisely located by hand digging, and additional surveying was done. This confirmed that:
  • the level of the standing water along the south side of the road was about 9" higher than that in the Kent Ave ditch
  • the underground sewer lines at #1 and #2 were low enough that they did not affect desired ditch elevations.

    The short ditch sections on the west side of the Kent Ave fence were dug down by hand to the Kent Ave water level (2.5' elevation). Our contractor (Scott Lednum of Coastline Excavating) then dug an almost perfectly level ditch along the north side from the fence to just short of the driveway at #1. Six 20' sections of 12" diameter PVC pipe were placed in the ditch, with a T for a surface drain in the middle (an additional drain will be located just west of #1's driveway). Some backfill was done to hold the pipe in place, but much of what will get buried will be leftover chunks of asphalt and paver stones from last autumn's gateway work.

    Since we did not want to start ripping up driveways right before Memorial Day, we did site cleanup, then shut down for the holiday.

    • Post Memorial Day 2010 work:
  • Old culverts were removed and replaced with new PVC ones at proper elevations along north side under driveways from #1 to #13, and the elevation of connecting ditch sections was adjusted as necessary.
  • Along the south side between the Kent Ave. fence and the driveway at #4, the ditch was lowered. This should allow much of the standing water that collects further upstream in this ditch to get to Kent Ave., but is something that will need to be monitored before detailed planning for the south side of Bayberry Rd is undertaken.

    • 2011 Autumn Work:

    As part of the fall 2011 work in the Coastal Highway Median, MBA received about 35 truckloads of free dirt. Since the ditch between #4 and Kent Ave had been adjusted to the proper elevation in 2010, pipe (some already on hand, some newly ordered) was placed in the bottom of this ditch. A surface drain was installed just west of #4's driveway, and the ditch was backfilled free of charge. The backfilling needs to be continued a bit further west, and some minor adjustment needs to be made to the surface once all the fill has settled. 2012 Major Work:

    The driveway culverts at #4, #6 and #8 were replaced at new elevations. The ditch between #4 and #8 was raised about 5". Between #4's driveway and the utility pole, pipe was installed at homeowner expense and buried. Also, the cuvert at #13 had settled unevenly and was adjusted as necessary.

    Before the major work, Sposato Landscaping removed some of the existing vegetation between the ditch and the roadway.
    Future Work
    North side: survey #13 upwards.
    South side: raise culverts from #8 to existing buried pipe at #16; use existing fill to raise ditch.

    Page by David A. Wiecking
    This Page: http://www.middlesexbeach.org/cfc/drainage/bayberry.htm.
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