Culverts are essential for many cities and towns across the world, providing an effective way to control the water moving from one place to another. However, choosing the right one for a particular situation isn’t as easy as it may seem. Learn how to choose the right culvert for your city by considering important factors like size, material, installation, and maintenance.
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The first step in choosing the right culvert is to determine where you need it. Municipalities usually use these structures to move water from one place to another, such as under a roadway or between two bodies of water. It’s important to identify where and why you need a culvert to select the best option for your situation.
Culverts may facilitate continuous traffic flow across a bridge over a natural waterway, or they may redirect water that might overflow from a wetland adjacent to a road. They also handle stormwater runoff, and while they may not be able to prevent flooding entirely in extreme situations, they can reduce property and environmental damage when floods occur.
Size is an important factor when it comes to selecting the right culvert for your city or town. The size of the structure depends on its intended use. Generally speaking, the larger the volume of water that you need to move, the larger the culvert should be. It’s also important to consider things like width and depth when selecting the ideal size. Additionally, you must calculate whether or not your city has enough space for the installation of a culvert.
Once you have determined the size of your culvert, the next step is to select a material. The most common materials used for culverts are metal and concrete. While both offer advantages and disadvantages, metal tends to be lighter and more cost-effective than concrete.
Plastic pipes are also an option, as they are lightweight and easy to install, but they are more prone to wear and tear. Depending on the location and design, riprap (gravel or crushed rock) may be necessary to shore up embankments and reinforce the sides of a culvert or bridge. This prevents erosion and other damage caused by water flow.
The type of culvert you choose depends on the terrain, the volume of water likely to flow through, and environmental factors. Arch culverts usually run under bridges over natural waterways, while box versions direct water underneath a road. Box culverts send the water into a storm sewer system or designated retention area.
Finally, consider the inlet and outflow when selecting a culvert. The inlet should be able to handle and control the volume of water flowing into the culvert. Meanwhile, the outflow should ensure that water drains away without damaging the culvert or the surrounding environment.
These culverts control the flow of water by using specific methods, such as weirs, baffles, or aerators. Essentially, the inlet control is where the barrel of the culvert can accommodate more water than the entrance. This is ideal for high-volume water applications and can reduce the risks associated with flooding.
Outflow control culverts slow or stop the flow of water from one area to another. These types are common in areas where flooding is a concern and can manage the risk associated with too much water entering an area. With an outlet control culvert, the barrel can’t allow as much flow as the inlet admits, effectively slowing and reducing the outflow.
Culverts generally have either a natural stream bed or a concrete base that water flows over. Natural stream beds are popular since they are more cost-effective and require less maintenance than concrete bases. Concrete bases provide strength and stability, and they contain water flow to a limited area.
Another important factor is the culvert slope, as it determines how water will flow through it. It’s important to select a structure with the right slope in order to ensure that the water will move efficiently and without any obstructions.
Finally, consider how your culvert will perform during stormy weather or periods of flooding. A properly designed and installed structure should be able to withstand extreme weather conditions without causing damage or disruption. Install a culvert that is large enough to handle the expected volume of water during heavy rain or flooding.
Cost is a major factor in any infrastructure decision. Culvert barrels can be made of metal or plastic, or you can choose some made of more expensive concrete pipe. While steel can be a pricier option upfront, it tends to last much longer than other materials and requires less frequent maintenance.
A culvert’s durability depends largely on quality construction, maintenance, and repair. It’s best to hire an experienced culvert rehabilitation consultant or hydraulic engineer who can calculate the high flow and low flow points within a structure and design one accordingly. They will also be able to identify any potential issues before the problems become too costly or difficult to solve.
Before you decide to build an entirely new culvert, think about whether you can rehabilitate existing structures at a lower cost than a completely new construction or replacement. As culvert rehabilitation consultants, InfraSteel can show your city managers cost-effective slip-line solutions to deteriorating structures that won’t disrupt traffic as they remediate cracks, leaks, or flow issues.
The InfraSteel manufacturing process creates custom culvert linings in steel that are inserted directly inside existing structures. After setting the liner in place and filling the annulus with grout, you can effectively regulate water flow again. Plus, traffic disruption is minimized during this trenchless installation process.
Ultimately, choosing the right culvert for your city or town requires careful consideration of several factors, such as size, materials, and installation costs. By taking all these factors into account, you can ensure that the structure you select is suitable for your needs and will provide years of reliable service.
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Culverts are highly efficient structures that move water and people underneath a road. However, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all culvert type that meets all design considerations.
To that end, let’s explore the different types of culverts that can be considered for a site:
This is almost always the cheapest type of culvert. They consist of sheet metal rolled into corrugated pieces and fastened together through a lockseam. They can be ordered as one whole piece or as multiple pieces that can be installed on site with a coupler. Galvanized coatings can help resist corrosion, or in extreme cases a polymer coating can be used. Because of the lightweight nature of the sheet metal the structural strength of the culvert is in the backfill, therefore the backfill must be meticulously controlled. For bridge sized culverts we would recommend density testing during compaction.
If you can use CSP there is usually no other reason to investigate anything else. But if any of the following situations are present you might need to try something else:
Structural plate Corrugated Steel Pipe is similar to CSP except it is built in pieces and bolted together. Clearly this is more expensive than building a single piece of pipe, and thus you would not normally use structural plate unless there is a compelling reason to do so. As described above, the reasons for using structural plate are:
The ASTM specification which most plants adhere to (ASTM A761) specifies the following parameters:
The field bolting that must be performed to connect the pieces together is generally a very tricky proposition, thus if a contractor is chosen that is not familiar with how to do it a significant increase in time and cost could be experienced. The structure must be kept perfectly round during the bolting operation (it tends to sag into an oval shape), either by tying the sidewalls of the structure together with a rope at certain intervals or by building a small wooden structure that holds the pipe in its round position. Failure to keep the pipe round will make it difficult to complete the bolting of the full pipe circumference.
Structural plate CSP can be made virtually any size and shape, and the shape options are virtually limitless:
When environmental or site conditions dictate, an open bottom corrugated steel pipe could be the answer. These structures are like structural plate CSP but they don’t have an invert, that is, only the top half of the culvert is present. They need to be supported on a foundation such as cast-in-place concrete, precast concrete, or steel. The foundation should be below the streambed level to ensure it doesn’t get exposed to erosion and scour. Rock riprap or other erosion control should be considered a high priority.
The foundation is built first. Cast in place concrete footings are built with bolted connections built in to the concrete which can attach to the corrugated plate structure. Precast or steel footings are built with the connections in place. Once the foundations are constructed the corrugated steel plate is bolted to the foundation. One “ring” is built first, to stabilize the structure, then the others are built adjacent to it.
The open bottom CSP is still a “flexible” structure, that is, its strength comes from its backfill. For that reason the compaction is a top concern during construction. However, most manufacturers can design I-shaped “ribs” on each corrugation which serve to convert the structure from flexible to rigid. Alternatively a concrete slab can be poured above the structure which achieves the same outcome. Both of these options come with a price but result in open bottom CSP’s being a viable alternative to a bridge at almost any site.
Open bottom CSP’s can be very aesthetic. The headwall can be any type of retaining wall, and the most basic corrugated steel headwall is quite aesthetic.
Concrete pipe is not a flexible structure, meaning that it must provide the full structural strength of the culvert within the pipe walls, without the assistance of the surrounding backfill.
Concrete pipes are significantly more expensive than corrugated steel (about 50% premium) but they will have about 50% more life (75 years instead of 50 years).
This type of culvert is generally used most for sewers in the city, because it’s expensive and disruptive to excavate it therefore the longest possible life span is the biggest consideration.
Box shapes normally match to the stream shape better than round culverts. Hence, they have better hydraulic characteristics which can be important when streamflow velocities are high or erosion control methods can be avoided.
Precast box culverts, like precast round culverts, are built in the plant therefore they have higher strength than cast-in-place concrete. This is because the strength of concrete is inversely proportional to its viscosity (flowability). That is, if it is strong it is difficult to work with – it must be vibrated in the field. In the plant the forms can be vibrated and the concrete is easily accessible for vibrating.
Polymer pipe is generally used in smaller sewer pipe applications (less than about 6 feet diameter) because it doesn’t have the strength of steel or concrete. However, it has the added benefit of longevity in that it doesn’t corrode. The price is similar to corrugated steel but it can last 100 years instead of 50 years.
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