Need some engineering help

[Cat_Driver]

Liability. Do everything by the book. Don't get advice here get it from a licensed Engineer.

 

[otlski]

I would try to couple the top slabs to the pipe with pourable grout. It looks like there is considerable space between the two and as mentioned above, is a likely place to see point loads. Use a foam sheet to preserve the expansion joint.

 

[Big Barn]

Liability. Do everything by the book. Don't get advice here get it from a licensed Engineer.

That would be my opinion also. Smaller trucks wouldn’t make much difference as bridge loads depend on the number of axles in addition to total weight.

 

[BoylermanCT]

Do you have fire hydrants near you? If not, if you have a fire, the fire dept will show up with a 50,000lb water tanker. Would be good to know if your bridge can support the weight. My fire dept just assisted the next town over with a house fire this weekend and a total of 27 tanker loads were delivered to fight the fire.

 

[4570Man]

Liability. Do everything by the book. Don't get advice here get it from a licensed Engineer.

How would am engineer go about a problem like this? There isn’t enough known about the structure to draw a valid conclusion.

 

[Big Barn]

How would am engineer go about a problem like this? There isn’t enough known about the structure to draw a valid conclusion.

He would say rip it out of course.

 

[4570Man]

That probably exactly what they would say.

 

[Tractor Seabee]

Do you have fire hydrants near you? If not, if you have a fire, the fire dept will show up with a 50,000lb water tanker. Would be good to know if your bridge can support the weight. My fire dept just assisted the next town over with a house fire this weekend and a total of 27 tanker loads were delivered to fight the fire.

Fire departments around here are requiring engineer load data on obvious owner non-permitted bridges or visually defective bridges. No Data no fire service, they will not cross the bridge.

Ron

 

[Tractor Seabee]

That probably exactly what they would say.

I agree, those round culverts, like has been said, are designed to be buried under engineered fill. Hard to tell from the picture but it appears the slab is in contact with the culvert. Probably no reinforcing in the slab to make it self supporting of the loads implied to be applied. If the slabs have no obvious faults you may be OK. If i has been there this long surely truck loads have been applied in the past. get your gravel in the smallest dump trucks they have not over 10 ton. Then again the truck driver is in the drivers seat. He has a liability issue staring at him.

Ron

 

[dodge man]

I will start and say I am not an engineer but a land surveyor, but I work for an engineering company. Pipe have to be stronger when shallow because as already mentioned point loads from trucks. As you get deeper they can be weaker because the cover spreads the load out, then as the get deeper yet they get stronger again because of the weight of the dirt. The problem I do not know how you can tell the difference looking at the pipe. So it might be the strongest or the weakest.

Let me just say I would be concerned driving fully loaded trucks over it.