The lot our new old house sits on has about 100' of direct road frontage along our street. Nothing fancy - just a lightly used two lane street, no shoulder, no curbs. In the year we've owned the house, however, we've had our mailbox taken out by a hit-and-run driver, and a few months ago, found deep tire tracks running clear through our front yard as though someone lost control and just continued on through.

I have insurance for the house, but what we need to protect and can't replace is a huge ornamental japanese maple that must be at least 70 years old (assuming it was planted when the original house was built). It's one of the reasons Mrs.BurtonRW fell in love with the house.

Anyway... we've considered various forms of fence-like barriers (guardrail/I-beam posts, decorative bollards, etc.), but due to setback requirements and utility easements, we've shifted our thoughts to rocks or small boulders. We don't want to build a wall with them and we're only interested in stopping drunk or careless drivers from entering our yard at likely shallow angles.

We have local stone yards to purchase and place the rocks, but I'm not sure how many we really want. Given the geometry of the situation, how far apart would you space them for reasonable effectiveness without going overboard?

-Rob

If you are looking to prevent vehicles, I’d say every ten feet for the gaps car won’t get between them at an angle but you can drive a yard mower or tractor thru head on.

Much like the vehicle barriers around federal buildings.

Trees generally win the battle with cars...

i would get a couple of big ones. Otherwise maybe five or six if you want to do a landscape type deal. I like the idea of a couple of big ones though.

was the yard incursion from snow or ice?

or just stupidity ?

I pass a house almost daily that has a nice flat rock columns with iron or metal fence between them,

it sits back of the road a bit, but there have been several accidents (road is a 2 lane main road, speed limit is 45+ most folks drive it at 55+) that took out at least one column, and several sections of fencing,

another house not too far away has a wall of slate,

think standard flat pieces of slate stacked up like a wall, basically shaped like a comma on each side of his driveway,

straight section of road, busy side street, and it was rebuilt several times due to drivers running off the road before the new owner of the house said fukit and took it up,


my point,, some places are like magnets to idjits who cannot drive

We had a thread here about 10 or 15 years ago that quoted prices of $1 a pound. Doesn't sound bad until the rocks get big enough to stop a car. Well, that and you need to cover different approaches to the tree.... Remember, once it falls off the truck, it stays were it fell unless you have a loader on call. A big loader.

A while back a drunk chick decided she'd target a neighbors Cherokee. She popped the rear axle shaft from its flange. Then she aimed at my chain link. Took out about 30' of that, carrying it along to my hedge. She stopped just short of my porch. The local said he thinks she's a working girl. I replaced my now crumpled posts with a couple of "axles" out of one of our printing plants. Couple of tons of paper supports. Then I removed the entire fence.

Fences are a pain to fix. Rocks can just be moved back to where you want them, if you have enough power. Small ones just move out of the way as the car hits it. Bedrock is also a problem with fence posts. If its not down enough, the car will just snap or bend it. Sure the car ends up totaled, but so does your fence. And fence isn't cheap. On the other hand, nothing is more satisfying than the thump a ton boulder makes as it slides off the dump truck to its final resting place. Over in the picture thread, there's a loose gravel thread.

*Hmph* We had the same problem. So we went to a local stone yard and picked up five or six very large rocks. Rocks just at the limit of what we could move ourselves. Put 'em out near the edge of our lawn at the roadside.

First winter to come along the snow plow eventually buried them. Then, on one pass, failed to properly estimate the road/lawn line and ran into one of them--tearing up the lawn and destroying a sprinkler head.

On another occasion the wife next door, who had a bad habit of tearing out of their driveway at way too fast a speed, in reverse, smacked into one of them.

We took the rocks away.

You have to be careful. If you purposely place a hazard next to the road and somebody is killed or injured in colliding with it, you may find yourself the target of a lawsuit.

My family’s property ends in a large gully that is directly across from a local park and it’s adjoining parking lot. When I was young, teenagers used to like to come and do donuts with their cars in our gully property and tear up the lawn that my dad had carefully cultivated. The city also seemed to think it was their property, and did damage leaving heavy machinery there. We have finally put boulders about 3’ high and wide about 6’ back from the road at ~6’ intervals. It has stopped everything except the folks that walk in bringing their empty bottles to start plinking with their 22’s, the damn Geiger counter folks searching for treasure and digging up lawn, and the raspberry pickers that sneak on the property to pick berries. Yes, we also put up private property signs, which are promptly torn down. Good luck protecting your tree. Those maples are absolutely stunning.

Reflectors do a nice job of marking the end of your yard. They are about ten dollars each. They help with the accidental driving. You can also put a reflector on the Japanese Maple.

Former Highway Engineer here, just stay outside of the Roadside Clear Zone and put your big old rocks where ever you like. It’s your property. Clear Zone is based on a few factors, traffic volume, design speed, and if the road is considered rural or urban. Get your county or city engineer to tell you what it is in writing. That way if you are ever sued you can drag their butt into court.

Looks like you are in Maryland, Maryland DOT, Section 5.7.4 Roadside Grading. Still get the local Govt to tell you the number. It can get a little tricky depending on their interpretation of AASHTO guidance.

Stay out of the right-of-way too! It no fun telling someone to rip the front porch off their house because it’s in the R/W. Been there, done it.

Many years ago lived on a corner lot. Local teen idiot got a new Camero and decided to cut across the corner to demonstrate his driving prowess one Saturday night, actually early morning. Thought about it awhile, and went to the job site and picked up 6 creosote railroad ties. Next Saturday after dark I placed them diagonally across the corner. Sure enough he came back again early in the morning. Did not see the ties in the dark, and hung his Camero up. Could not get it off. Gave the sheriff time to get someone to my place. Sheriff called for a wrecker and had the Camero impounded. Wrecker hauled the car off with the frontend raised, as the front axle was messed up! Railroad ties I could handle myself, boulders were unavailable and beyond my means anyhow.

My neighbor down the street had a kid "avoid" a deer and hit his house. Kid was speeding and drunk , but daddy was someone "special". He had 3 large boulders (12'x8') dropped in his front yard relative to the street and 3 months later a car that was piloted by a drunk had a sudden stop in his yard.

I've always like the look of gabion walls. I know you don't want to build a wall, but you could space shorter sections just like you'd planned with the boulders, maybe do them yourself more cheaply than a boulder placing outfit. Boulder placement is very common around here & I always thought it was pricey.

Maybe two feet high by two feet wide by three to four feet long spaced with six to eight foot openings.

Gabion wall:

^^^^^^^^^^^^
That is attractive. Before I built something that nice I would make extra sure it was OFF the right of way.

We had a road that went down a slight hill and then had a small jog to the left. For some reason the homeowner constantly had cars unable to make the jog and they kept ending up in his yard. His solution was to plant telephone poles 3 feet deep and 3 high. Suddenly everybody could avoid them! When we moved we had a similar problem. Our HOA put telephone poles out and made sure they were on our land. That was fine until a guy missed the poles but took out two sections of fence. The police were called and then his wife showed up. Turns out the woman that was with was him in the car was a girlfriend that wife didn’t know about. It was epic.

A local farmer has rocks as yard decorations. He lives on a highway. Rocks are well off the right of way. One day, a half ton truck hauling trash high centered on one of those two to three foot diameter rocks. Kept it from going through the living room where Mr. and Mrs. Banks were watching tv.

And the boulders will provide good cover when the day comes... unfortunately I can't find a rock bigger than a grain of sand here in coastal Florida

quote:

Originally posted by HayesGreener:
And the boulders will provide good cover when the day comes...

I like the way you think.