olllotj
Bronze Member
I'm building a new driveway on my property, and the Excavator suggested 40' of culvert at the road. Is it crazy to go so wide? I do have trailers, have Tractor trailers deliver occasionally..
Driveway Culvert width
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davesl708
Elite Member
I would go at least two feet wider than the driveway on each side. Always better to have the entrance to the drive wider than the drive. Long loads will need the extra room to make the turn without dropping off the road. Nothing more aggravating than a crushed culvert pipe when a large truck drops on the pipe.
If I am not mistaken culvert pipe comes in 20 or 40 ft. lengths. Anything in between would have to be cut to size.
If I am not mistaken culvert pipe comes in 20 or 40 ft. lengths. Anything in between would have to be cut to size.
aczlan
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This is in a ditch on the side of the road? 40' would be a little wide for car traffic, but if you have much semi traffic at all, they will thank you for it.
40' will give you 30-35' of usable driveway (depending on the depth), will let you mow that area much easier and reduce the risk of ending up in a ditch while clearing snow in the winter. ... We had a 20' culvert out back (between fields) and it was mighty narrow when trying to cross with a tractor and wagon (or baler, etc, etc and those track better than a semitrailer). We added another 10' when we tore out some culverts at another location (5' on each side) and it is very easy to cross now.
Aaron Z
vtsnowedin
Elite Member
As stated you need the extra length for the side slopes from the traveled way down to the top of the pipe. If you have a foot and a half of cover and 3 to 1 side slopes that will use up 4.5 feet on each end.
You can set the pipe three or four inches below the grade at the bottom of the ditch to get a little more cover. If you don't get enough cover it will pump it's way up in the spring when the frost is coming out of the ground. One foot of cover is a bare minimum and two feet is much better.
You can set the pipe three or four inches below the grade at the bottom of the ditch to get a little more cover. If you don't get enough cover it will pump it's way up in the spring when the frost is coming out of the ground. One foot of cover is a bare minimum and two feet is much better.
boatpilot1
Member
I drive a semi for a farmer and the semi drivers will thank you for the wider culvert. Better to do it now than when a semi runs off of the end of the culvert and gets stuck.
showcattle
Gold Member
The deeper the fill on the culvert, the longer it needs to be because of the slope of the sides of the fill.
bigtiller
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I have a 40' one under my driveway and a 60' one under the field entrance about 500' away. Both ditches are about 3' deep, and it all looks like someone gave it some thought and made it look like the natural thing to do.
s219
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I started with a 20' pipe for my culvert, with a 12' driveway, and used that all through construction of our home. Later when we were finishing up the driveway, I added an additional 5.5' to each end (scraps from a narrower culvert I made) to make it 31' total, and that gave me more room to have the proper radius as the driveway flares wider to meet the street.
I think my ditch centerline is about 8' from the street, so the flare radius passes over the culvert pipe and the driveway is more like 24-25' wide right in that spot (it's about 36' wide right at the street). Now I have about 3' of shoulder on each side of the gravel driveway where it crosses over the pipe, and that's enough to put down some rip-rap stone to keep things stable. If you have a deeper crossing, you'll want a wider shoulder yet. I think my ditch was only about 2-3' deep. If I needed 31' of pipe for a 2-3' ditch, I can easily see 40' for a deeper ditch.
Don't know about your location, but here I had to follow Virginia DOT specs for the culvert, including bedding, depth, fill type, drive width, and radius/flare at the street. They pretty much set the specs and it's not up to me to decide. In this case, the street is still in the process of being turned over from the private developer to the county/VDOT, so everything has to pass inspection (the developer has failed twice, for stuff as simple as tire ruts on the shoulder from someone who did a U-turn).
I think my ditch centerline is about 8' from the street, so the flare radius passes over the culvert pipe and the driveway is more like 24-25' wide right in that spot (it's about 36' wide right at the street). Now I have about 3' of shoulder on each side of the gravel driveway where it crosses over the pipe, and that's enough to put down some rip-rap stone to keep things stable. If you have a deeper crossing, you'll want a wider shoulder yet. I think my ditch was only about 2-3' deep. If I needed 31' of pipe for a 2-3' ditch, I can easily see 40' for a deeper ditch.
Don't know about your location, but here I had to follow Virginia DOT specs for the culvert, including bedding, depth, fill type, drive width, and radius/flare at the street. They pretty much set the specs and it's not up to me to decide. In this case, the street is still in the process of being turned over from the private developer to the county/VDOT, so everything has to pass inspection (the developer has failed twice, for stuff as simple as tire ruts on the shoulder from someone who did a U-turn).
tractorshopper
Veteran Member
I thought 20' was a lot when I put in my first pipe at my property. I also have 20' at my house, and frankly it just wasn't enough to get my trailer in and out of easily, especially since our road is more of a lane and it's pretty narrow, which makes for a tight last minute adjustment backing out of my driveway. I added 8' at the house and now I can get the trailer in and out easier and all around just works better for us and the FedEx/UPS drivers, etc. I want to add another 20' to my property now and going forward, would never just go with 20' again.