My Bridge/ Culvert Project. (Pics)

   / My Bridge/ Culvert Project. (Pics) #1  

cartod

Platinum Member
Joined
Aug 28, 2008
Messages
870
Location
Northern, West Virginia
Tractor
JD 4066, 1023
I needed an access road to my 5 acre plot. I had to go over a small creek. Used 42" 16 ga. Galvanized steel pipe. Feel free to give me pointers on maintaining the road and the bridge. This was my first attempt at this project and I'm hoping the pipe is big enough so the bridge won't wash out.

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   / My Bridge/ Culvert Project. (Pics) #2  
Very nice job, we have to put down a good base of 2" crushed rock to prevent ours from washing out, depending on the slope, you may need more or less. You may also want to put something around the ends of your culverts; others on here have more experience than I and can give you more specifics.
 
   / My Bridge/ Culvert Project. (Pics) #3  
great job, might want to crown it thow so the water will run off to the sides of the road
 
   / My Bridge/ Culvert Project. (Pics)
  • Thread Starter
#4  
Can you explain what crowning is?
 
   / My Bridge/ Culvert Project. (Pics) #6  
Very nice job. One thought though. If you are going to run anything heavy over your culvert very often I would consider more material on top. A rule of thumb for heavy usage is to cover it with material to a dept of 1/2 the culvert diameter. It is probably fine the way it is for your tractor. I have seen some with no dirt on top, but they usually get crushed pretty quick.
If you have a county extension service or forestry office you can probably pick up a free booklet on Best Management Practices (BMP) for loggers. It will have a lot of info on methods for building and maintaining woods roads to minimize water damage and erosion.
 
   / My Bridge/ Culvert Project. (Pics) #7  
Yeah, you need to deal with the water that will come down your new road. If you put some good ditches on each side of the new road and "crown" the road, that is make the (rain) water that falls on your road make it's way to yur new (side) ditches by "crowning" or grading the road so that the center is 4" or so higher than the sides. On that slope, the more (crown) the better, in your pic looking down hill, it looks pretty steep. Mother nature will tell what you need to do, but until you get it handled, you will be dragging your road back up hill with your box blade after each heavy rain. You may end up needing to grade in some "water bars" for some severe rains. As for your nice new pipe, it looks nice! I've used bags of ready mix concrete stacked around the inlet side of the pipe for a head wall. Stack them up to form a nice inlet shape and so that the moving water will not erode around your pipe, make sure that you get some under it where the water enters, then drive some 1/2" rebar down through them in several areas (the more the better) to "tie" the whole thing together. The concrete bags will harden on there own and the bags will dissolve in a few months and it will protect your pipe in the event of a "gully washer" that will eventually come. Nice job.:thumbsup:
 
   / My Bridge/ Culvert Project. (Pics) #8  
Like rustyiron said, if you crown it you will need some very good ditches on the sides of the road to protect it. That's a pretty steep hill and the water will pick up lots of speed going down it which could cause major erosion every time it rains. You might think about ways to divert the water away from the road maybe every 8 ft or so to keep the water from building up into a small river at the bottom of the hill during a deluge.

The only other thing I would suggest is use riprap to cover the sides of the "dam" you made. Heavy rains could pool up on the upstream side making eddies that will scowl away the sides of the dam as it tries to get through the 42" pipe.

Good job though!!!
 
   / My Bridge/ Culvert Project. (Pics)
  • Thread Starter
#9  
You guys are great! Thanks. I will ad some pics of the crown, and the rip rap.
 
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