Driveways are an important part of our infrastructure. I hope that yours is protected from high water events since the city changed your runoff direction.
Several years ago there was a large group that had arrived at Lollyland on Friday night, anticipating a good weekend of fellowship and learning the land. I had only owned the place for a couple of years at that point, so we were still learning the layout of what is there. The drive was located at the very north edge of the property, but wasn't up to snuff (I'd gotten bogged down in mud more than once). I had ordered another 10 tons of gravel, and we spent all day Saturday spreading and packing down, to make the entry from the road more user friendly. Saturday evening we sat around the campfire and talked about how soon to order more gravel and what prep work would need to be done before hand.
Late that night, the sky opened up and dumped several inches of rain on top of us. When I got up Sunday morning, everything was wet, no wood dry enough to start a new fire and brew coffee, so I jumped in the truck to run to the general store a few miles away. I followed the drive path out of the wooded camping area, around the bottom of the woods, then headed north to get out onto the road. Imagine my surprise when I found the field closest to the road under water!
You see, the hill on the property slopes down into that field, and about 5 acres of hillside all run directly down that slope into the basin, which has a high water table and several underground springs. Later that year I talked with one of the farmers that used to own the land and he suggested moving the driveway closer to the ditch, because the land was more compact there and has a slightly higher elevation. I started the process of learning ... where to buy culverts, which company offered the best price for aggregate, how the Romans built their roads ...
This photo is from that timeframe and shows the driveway after we added new stone. Note the standing water to the right (south) that is a combination of runoff from my hill and the farmer's field to the north, combined with a high water table.
Well, I can't afford to hire a legion to put down seven layers of various sized stone, so my relocated drive probably won't stand up for 2000 years like the Roman roads did, but we haven't been flooded in since. This year I would like to be able to slow down that water on that west facing hillside with some intentional contouring as we remove mature pines to give more sunlight through the canopy. And since the field is lower than much of the property, it seems to be a good spot for one of those ponds I hope to get excavated soon.