US 5,622,448 AGranted

Panel ditch check for temporary erosion and sediment control

AssigneePanel Products, Inc.

InventorsMichael R. Baum, Leo R. Baum

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Abstract

A ditch check for controlling erosion or sediment run-off in a ditch or swale is configured as a generally planar panel. The panel has suitable water-conducting passages to permit and is given holes to insert anchor stakes to anchor the panel to the ground. The panel is preferably made substantially of a polymer or resinous moldable material. The panel is given such formed side edges that adjacent panels can overlap or enmesh one another where they meet to close a gap therebetween. It is optional that the panel be stackable with other like panels, for greater convenience during non-use periods, as while being transported and/or during storage. Given the foregoing, the panel is meant to replace straw bales as ditch checks because the panel is very much lighter, is non-absorbent and inexpensive, and is indefinitely reusable.

Claims17

Dependent claims

A panel ditch check for temporary installation in a ditch or swale that occasionally carries stormwater run-off, the panel comprising:

a body substantially of a polymer or resinous moldable material;
the body, when oriented in a given upright position, having upper and lower edges extending between spaced left and right edges, as well as having a generally planar front surface to orient to face an upstream direction of the ditch or swale, and a rear surface spaced from the front surface;
wherein the body is formed with a series of water-conducting passages which extend through the front and rear surfaces thereof, and which are arranged to permit water to pass-through the panel at various elevations between the upper and lower edges;
said passages being sized and configured to regulate the pass-through of storm water run-off such that, when the panel is temporarily installed in the ditch or swale as generally oriented in the given upright position, the panel partly dams up and slackens the rate of the stormwater run-off in the ditch or swale, and thereby promotes the accumulation of sediment before the front surface thereof, and thus provides temporary erosion and sediment control;
wherein the panel body is further configured to include a brace portion on the rear surface thereof, to stabilize the panel body on a bottom of the ditch or swale in the given upright position;
and
wherein the panel body is further configured with means for achieving anchoring the panel body into a bottom of the ditch or swale via an anchor stake.

4 more elements

A modular panel system for temporary installation in a ditch or swale that occasionally carries stormwater run-off, comprising:

a plurality of panels, each panel comprising a body which, when oriented in a given upright position, has upper and lower edges extending between spaced left and right edges, a generally planar front surface to orient to face an upstream direction of the ditch or swale, and a rear surface spaced from the front surface;
and,
each body being formed with a series of water-conducting passages which extend through the front and rear surfaces thereof, and which are arranged to permit water to pass-through at various elevations between the upper and lower edges;
wherein, the plurality of panels can be installed transversely across a width of the ditch or swale in such a manner that a left edge of a given panel, one of laps and meshes with a right edge of an adjacent panel;
said passages of the plurality of panels collectively being sized and configured to regulate the pass-through of storm water run-off such that, when installed, the plurality of panels partly dam up and slacken the rate of the stormwater run-off in the ditch or swale, and thereby promote the accumulation of sediment before the collective front surfaces thereof, and thus provide temporary erosion and sediment control;
wherein each panel body is further configured to include a brace portion on the rear surface thereof, to stabilize the panel body on a bottom of the ditch or swale in the given upright position;
and
wherein each panel body is further configured with means for achieving anchoring of the panel body into a bottom of the ditch or swale via an anchor stake.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.