Replacing culvert at a crossing that's never dry

[dave1949]

Boondox,

I think you are between a rock and wet spot. :laughing:

Any possibility of just making a rock ford? Big rocks that the water would move through but allow you to drive across them? 6"-10" no fines?

 

[Boondox]

Boondox,

I think you are between a rock and wet spot. :laughing:

Any possibility of just making a rock ford? Big rocks that the water would move through but allow you to drive across them? 6"-10" no fines?

I thought about that, but we get a LOT of snow and come spring all that water has to go somewhere. What I was thinking was installing the culvert, making the crossing level by putting four feet of fill over it, and making a rock ford on one end of that fill to handle overflow in a particularly wet year. Even so, I think every few years I'll have to rebuild the crossing. We're in the lee of Mt Mansfield, and the storms can be wicked strong! Back in 98 a storm cell stalled right over us and we got 8.25 inches of rain in two hours. That storm rearranged much of our hill.

 

[SPIKER]

At this point I think then I would leave the existing tile in, take some of the bigger broken concrete fill and place them with a lot of area in between the rocks. Use some broken concrete sidewalk (large flat chucks) on top and pour some concrete on a plywood base set on top of the chunks. Basically form a bridge with a bunch of the loose concrete as the base. It could be a FORD across it if it rains a LOT and there should be enough weight to keep it from moving.


Mark

 

[Boondox]

At this point I think then I would leave the existing tile in, take some of the bigger broken concrete fill and place them with a lot of area in between the rocks. Use some broken concrete sidewalk (large flat chucks) on top and pour some concrete on a plywood base set on top of the chunks. Basically form a bridge with a bunch of the loose concrete as the base. It could be a FORD across it if it rains a LOT and there should be enough weight to keep it from moving.
Mark

Sidewalks. Hmmm, I think they have some of those a few towns over.

 

[dave1949]

I thought about that, but we get a LOT of snow and come spring all that water has to go somewhere. What I was thinking was installing the culvert, making the crossing level by putting four feet of fill over it, and making a rock ford on one end of that fill to handle overflow in a particularly wet year. Even so, I think every few years I'll have to rebuild the crossing. We're in the lee of Mt Mansfield, and the storms can be wicked strong! Back in 98 a storm cell stalled right over us and we got 8.25 inches of rain in two hours. That storm rearranged much of our hill.

That sounds about as good as anything. The rock ford would take some of the pressure off of the culvert during high flows, maybe enough that it doesn't wash out (with luck).

Concrete is good stuff, but with access issues it would difficult to pour in place. Probably weird on my part, but to me busted up concrete looks unnatural and out of place somewhere like that.

 

[Boondox]

It occurred to me as I packed down the tenth layer of fill, that I really should have taken some pix of this project. Picked up the culvert this morning and found a source of 3/4" crushed stone for free. Just the very top of the culvert is still visible. I'll continue bringing buckets of fill and build it up/compact it in layers. Looking pretty good so far!

 

[Boondox]

Well, I only have about six inches of fill over the top of the culvert at this point. Not enough to drive across, but thanks to the advice on this forum what is down is well and truly compacted. Torrential rains this afternoon and the work held with no damage whatsoever.

I need to wait till the meadow dries out a bit before continuing, but the install is clearly a solid, functional job that will allow me to reach my woodlot.

Thanks, guys!

 

[s219]

Let's see some pics of the culvert man! (I love the Stowe area, so that will be a bonus).

 

[Boondox]

Let's see some pics of the culvert man! (I love the Stowe area, so that will be a bonus).

Okay, a photo. We had some pretty significant rain so I had to stop to let the meadow dry out before bringing in more fill. The L3240 was tearing up the field pretty badly.

 

[dave1949]

A picture!

Looks good. I would probably add lots more rocks to the inlet side, let them take the water wear and tear rather than the fill around the culvert mouth.

For the high flow ford area, a well-rocked spillway over geotextile will take a real beating.

My pond is filled from rain and run off. After two blown-out culverts from big rains, I switched to a rock spillway and have had zero problems since. Rock spillways don't have ice heaving problems like culverts either, which is an issue for a pond.

 

[Boondox]

Thanks, Dave. What you can't see in the photo is a nice pile of stones about the size of truck tires or larger. Those will be placed on the inlet side. Some larger stones will flank the traveled portion to hold the additional fill I'll bring in as soon as the meadow dries out a bit more. On the far side will be a stone spillway to handle overflow.

 

[atgreene]

Looks good. Keep the ends of the culvert above the pool of water on both end so that silt doesn't flow through. You should never have debris (rock/gravel/sand) going through the culvert, if you do, make a bigger pool to accommidate then you will never have issues with it plugging up. Doesn't take much with a 4" downpour or a Irene and you're culvert will be a dam.