Culvert Advice -- Plastic vs. Galvanized ?

[PineRidge]

Here's a bit of information that may be helpful to your application Building forest access roads

 

[CurlyDave]

Listen to the advice your've recieved and get the plastic culverts.

OK, I just called around & found plastic 24" culvert. I got the last two 20' sections they had & a coupler. About 20 miles away.

I paid for it over the phone & they will hold it until I can pick it up on 3-10-06.

They will even cut it in 5' increments and credit me back for any part I don't need. I have to wait until 3-9-06 to get out to make a measurement.

This board is a great resource. Thanks for steering me in the right direction.

Pix next week.

To get a decently wide roadbed you can actually drive down into the ravine meaning the road has a dip. This is beneficial in a few ways. One, you provide an overflow within the same ravine should the culverts plug. Yes it will ruin your road but the water is still in the channel. Two, the roadbed can be wider. And three, you won't have to haul in 40 yards of fill.


I recognize all of the advantages here. I have to keep the roadbed level enough to get the motorhome (a 30 foot Class C) across the ravine.

This limits the dip, but I will work out the geometry and then allow enough dip going into the ravine to keep the motorhome about 6" from dragging its tail.

Again, Thanks to all.

Dave

 

[3RRL]

Dave,
Cutting the road down in the ravine is what my road guy did to avoid all that fill. This particular culvert is 36" diameter in here. You can't see it from this picture but it does show a generous road width easily accessable with an RV and construction trucks have had no problem.

 

[SWinTexas05]

If the road is going to have a dip in it, make sure that the lowest part of the road is not directly on top of the pipe. This will prevent any water running down the surface of the road from washing the pipe out from above.

 

[SnoFalls]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Here's a bit of information that may be helpful to your application Building forest access roads )</font>
very nice link ....

 

[Highbeam]

"If the road is going to have a dip in it, make sure that the lowest part of the road is not directly on top of the pipe."

That won't matter with an appropriate crown. The crown will force any collected water to drain in the four corners.

Rob, love that pic with the toothmarks on the cutslope. Hope it doesn't slide.

 

[LBrown59]

I put in 120 feet of 15 inch double wall smooth bore plastic culvert last summer.

 

[3RRL]

Joe,
That's all granite (DG) and hard! Only about the top 5' to 6' is dirt. It also slopes back at a greater angle the the picture shows. It blew my mind when they cut through that ravine on my property. Actually, that ravine blew my mind! Man I wish he would have put in those smooth inside culverts. I didn't know any better at the time, but if I ever have to install another one, it'll be plastic and smooth inside.

 

[flusher]

My driveway is 20 feet wide, road base gravel 6" thick.
My contractor used a 12" diameter corrugated plastic culvert about 30' long at the end of the driveway.

Had more than a dozen concrete trucks roll over the culvert during house and garage construction with no problem.

The septic tank guy rolled over the culvert with my 1250 gallon concrete tank on his truck. No problem with the culvert.

A plastic culvert is more than enough for your tiny loads.

The only problem I had with the culvert came from the Public Works department. The inspector bitched about the length of the culvert. He said that he "didn't like to see" 12" diameter pipe that long. He was worried about blockage and said 18" would have been better. But we talked about it for a while and he finally signed off on the 12" pipe.

 

[CurlyDave]

Cutting the road down in the ravine is what my road guy did to avoid all that fill.

When I look at your picture, your ravine is closer to the Grand Canyon than it is to my puny little gully. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif