Here's the area that I need to put the culvert pipe into. I just measured the height of the road from the bottom of the ditch. The ditch is only 32" deep. It is a little bit short of the 36" minimum that I need for a 24" pipe. I will have to dig it out a little bit to get at least a 12" cover over the top of the pipe. I was hoping that I wouldn't have to dig it out. Oh well, at least I have until next summer to dig it deeper. I cannot mess with this now as the water runs into a drinking water resevoir. I do believe as mentioned by Egon that the secret to success is to campact the soil as much as possible around the pipe to shift the load to the banks instead of the pipe. I won't be using this road for at least a year after it is done. I want it to settle fully before driving over it. I do have the proper permission from the Con Com, DCR and Highway Dept. to install this pipe.
Burying plastic culvert pipe
- Thread starter JimR
- Start date
Not sure if waiting for it to settle will help. I installed my 18" steel culvert in a 2.5' deep ditch, with regular dirt. Compacted it by dumping about 4" each time then driving over it a lot w/ tractor. Stopped after 12" of cover, then a few inches of rock on top just to keep from getting stuck. About a week later semi's and two 10 yard concrete trucks were driving over it. I was told the 10 yard concrete trucks weighed about 79,000 lbs. Never had a problem.
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JimR said:
The ADS site is very clear on exactly how to do this. I am in the process of replacing several hundred feet of 15" N12 in our community. I reviewed the coverage pretty thoroughly and am still confident that with the occasional truck and 20,000 lb backhoe driving over the pipe I will be OK. I installed some 24" N12 a couple years back and did not bother to look at the ADS recommended fill/compaction information. I filled to about 2/3 of the pipe height with pea gravel and then DG (decomposed granite) over that. I have yet to see any appreciable depression in the road even after many trips over it by very heavy trucks. The N12 pipe is very tough and durable, much more then the equivalent in steel.
tallyho8
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In our area the bottom of the pipe has to be level with the bottom of the ditch. If it is lower, it will retain stagnant water for mosquitoes to breed in or just fill in with sediment making the pipe's volume less than required by the code.
dmccarty
Super Star Member
Jim,
Is a 24 inch pipe large enough? I have either an 18 or 24 inch pipe. Can't remember which since I got it for free. When I installed the culvert 6 years ago I read up on how to install them as well as size the culvert base on the amount of water that would flow throught the water shed. I'm lucky in that the culvert is withing 30-50 feet of the crest of a hil so very little water flows through the piple. Also a larger pipe was easier to clean out if required compared to a smaller pipe.
My origional plan to install the culvert was to dig down abit with the backhoe to place the pipe. Reality hit and I did not have time so I just laid the culvert on grade following the natural water flow. This has worked out fine. It may have caused problems if I had high flow rates. I also put in rip rap to stabilize the road bed.
Later,
Dan
Is a 24 inch pipe large enough? I have either an 18 or 24 inch pipe. Can't remember which since I got it for free. When I installed the culvert 6 years ago I read up on how to install them as well as size the culvert base on the amount of water that would flow throught the water shed. I'm lucky in that the culvert is withing 30-50 feet of the crest of a hil so very little water flows through the piple. Also a larger pipe was easier to clean out if required compared to a smaller pipe.
My origional plan to install the culvert was to dig down abit with the backhoe to place the pipe. Reality hit and I did not have time so I just laid the culvert on grade following the natural water flow. This has worked out fine. It may have caused problems if I had high flow rates. I also put in rip rap to stabilize the road bed.
Later,
Dan
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dmccarty said:
Dan, the ADS site, you can go to a sizing calculator to help determine how large your pipe should be based on things like acerage of watershed.
Agriculture Drainage Calculator
Egon
Epic Contributor
Dig out the culvert area about a foot below the finished culvert level. Fill this area in with crushed stone and pack it well to for a pad for the culvert to sit on. The pad should be about 4 to 6 feet wide for the two foot culvert.
This pad gives you a firm foundation to work from for the rest of the backfill and compaction.
If you can size a culvert for the drainage conditions you would not be asking non certified people like me questions.
This pad gives you a firm foundation to work from for the rest of the backfill and compaction.
If you can size a culvert for the drainage conditions you would not be asking non certified people like me questions.
LBrown59
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If the water constantly flows along the ditch it will not become stagnant even in in a low spot.tallyho8 said:
LBrown59
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tallyho8 said:
Bad idea with ditches that are to deep.