Bridge Project (he only comes here when he wants something)

[TomPenny]

Hey folks, long time. Harv saw you the other day in downtown Royse City. I can spot that truck a mile a way.

Anyways I am struggling a little bit with a customer's property. He has a creek/run off in back of his property and his bridge pretty much washed out.

I think part of the problem is the culverts are too short. Infact only one may needed but longer.

A better option may be to build concrete sides around the culverts and top off with dirt/gravel.

I know a bunch of you guys have been there done that. So what do you think? Of course budget is an issue but not so much that I can't fix it the right way.

[TomPenny]

i guess something like this is in order.

[firemanpat2910]

How much weight must it hold up? your solution would be fine but I prefer the look of a bridge. as short a span as you have there a flatbed trailer would work great

[cjcocn]

Those culverts seem full enough in the pics that I would stick with two and not go down to only one. Keeping two culverts should cut down on the water level at the culverts, which in turn should cut down on the beating that the banks take, and cause less erosion.

The creek seems to have a bit of an angle heading into the culvert on the upstream side, which means that the force of the water's flow will bounce off the coincident bank somewhat (first pic, across the creek on the right side of the culvert). Concrete would be good on the right side of the culverts as it would better absorb the force of the water and reduce (if not eliminate) erosion.

If it were me and I was mindful of a budget, I would:
- buy two collars and two more sections of culvert (or one section and half it);
- dig up the current culvert;
- attach additional length of culvert to each culvert (using the collars);
- re-center the culvert to the road;
- re-build the road a bit wider with a gentler grade;
- pour concrete on the upstream side to help reduce erosion; and
- pour concrete on the downstream side as funds permit.

It's like my buddy John told me when we were discussing how much topsoil to replace in my yard, "People who can't afford to do it right the first time, can always afford to do it right the second time." Loosely translated, "It's cheaper to do it right the first time."

HTH

[TomPenny]

nothing but mowers really will ever cross it

[cjcocn]

Originally Posted by TomPenny

nothing but mowers really will ever cross it

If it can stay narrow, then cleaning up the edges for a concrete pour may do the trick. The example pic that you posted looks pretty good, but I am not sure how much of a base one really needs to support the concrete? I.E. building your concrete form so that a good portion sits on the ground (ground that stands little or no chance of eroding away) and helps support the weight of the concrete.

That part is waaayy out of my experience so I will humbly await input from those more experienced than I.

[mikim]

nothing but mowers really will ever cross it
That's a setup for "famous last words" .... I'd go with the above ideas -- make 'em 20' long and reset 'em...pour concrete and redo base. Did someone make the ones in the picture by cutting a 20 footer in half? If so - that was mistake #1... as said previous -- do it right the first time. or -- you'll do it right AGAIN.

[Tororider]

I think Eddie and others used concrete bags to create a collar without having to buy one. Hopefully one of them will chime in. I believe they took bags of concrete and formed a collar around the culvert and then let the water mix them and cement them in place. Probably way cheaper than buying a collar.

I would get longer ones as well. You never know what you will want to get across there in the future and it would be better to build it too big now than trying to repair it in the future.

[cjcocn]

I am in a different location, but bought my collar for either $30 or $50. For that price I'd rather buy a collar than try my hand at forming a tight seal around a culvert (but then again my concrete experience is quite limited ).

[RonMar]

Yep, you will need something to funnel the water into the culvert and keep it from swirling and eroding the banks. You can see they did this with the concrete in the second pic you posted. What probably killed the original installation though was the use of 2 culverts instead of one. Water has great mass, and the water flowing down the middle of the creek is held there by gravity and the water flowing along on either side. When it hits those two culverts, the water that is in the middle is forced into the triangular opening below the center formed by putting 2 round pipes together. Since it is moving it has stored energy and flows into and builds pressure in that space. This flushes out the material there, kind of like stuffing a garden hose into a gopher hole...

If you do this again, use one larger culvert with inlet wingwalls/funnels, or if using two, space the culverts a little ways apart and do something similar with concrete between the culverts. If this is not possible, then a plate should be added that joins the two circular passages together all the way to the creekbottom, with a sill plate at the bottom that extends a ways upstream and will keep water from flowing between the pipes or under/behind that plate.

This link is for box culverts, but the wingwall diagrams apply the same for round culverts.
New Focus for Highway Safety, September/October 2005 Public Roads