8" sch 40 steel pipe buried in drive ...

[JerryK]

Anyone have any experience with a 1/4" wall steel pipe [Schd 40], about 8" I.D. buried in a drive with only about 6 to 8" top cover??? I need a couple drainage pipes in my side hill driveway, but don't have enough depth to put a full size culvert with 12" of top cover. Don't really need to drain that much water, either...

 

[lipripper]

More than enuff cover. Just be sure there are no voids under the pipe and you'll be fine.

 

[EddieWalker]

The biggest concern is going to be keeping in clean. A 12 inch pipe is almost impossible to keep clean and the smaller the pipe, the more debris that will get trapped inside of it. Bigger pipes can handle the debris and if there is enough slope, or enough water going through them, they clean themselves.

My guess is that such a small pipe will plug up on you rather quickly, and then you will have a significant rain resulting in the water flowing over your road, causing issues. If you are fine dealing with that possibility, then go for it. Not knowing your location or situation, I would try real hard to figure out how to dig the ditches on both sides of the road deeper so I could put at least a 12 inch plastic ribbed on the outside, smooth on the inside culvert in there. I never regretted spending the time and money to do it the very best I could the first time and never deal with it again.

 

[BHD]

In one of my drive ways I have a 8 inch plastic pipe with Rail road ties on both sides and basically no cover,
and has been there for guessing 15 years now, no breakage,

IF concerned about blockage, one could pour a U shaped trough and either put a steel cover or grate over it and make the covers light enough to remove and to be able to clean it out easily, with a shovel, from time to time,

the thought I had was similar to the Portable Road Spillway picture here, http://www.fs.fed.us/eng/pubs/html/wr_p/98771804/images/Figure04a.jpg

other ideas on the page as well, Cross Drain Update

the open top culvert in the above link looks like an idea as well,

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Or some thing like this picture,https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/A_drain_at_Lothal.jpg but with a steel cover or pipe grate, (3 foot sections, angel iron on the edges to catch and pipe across), over it, so one could drive over it, should not be that hard to lift up and clean under it, if ever needed,

 

[bigtiller]

As long as the traffic over the pipe is cars and pick-ups, you can get away without that much top cover. There is one not far from me that the top of the 12" single-wall plastic culvert is showing. Sun and spinning lawn mower blades have done more damage to it than the light traffic over it.

 

[JerryK]

I am going to have at one concrete truck next year when I pour about a 20' by 10' sloped ramp in front of my barn. Then will be trucking in more gravel and some blacktop later...... putting a blacktop area in front of the barn. Picking up two 21' by 8" pipes tomorrow. The wall size is about .32"... Just prep'd my trailer for the pickup ... I will hump up some more gravel over them if I have to when the bigger loads are coming in....

 

[Egon]

No worries of the pipe breaking down but the gravel cover may/will disappear.

Pour a cement swale that will be wet as it sounds like there is not much water involved and if large volumes arrive it'll be easy to handle them.

 

[Cord]

I have a steel pipe in my drive with maybe 6" of cover and 80k quads haven't fazed it. Also have a abs single wall pipe that's buried shallow and that one has not been damaged by light vehicle traffic. Before that pipe settled in, I did crush it with an excavator track though. Your steel pipe will be fine.

 

[MMagis]

I have an 8 steel pipe under my driveway with only about 4 cover (probably closer to 2"-3" in many areas), been there since about '76. Has had countless dump trucks over it, loaded with gravel. It's fine and will be for the next 100 years.
Don't even bother with the extra gravel for bigger loads, your original plan will be more than adequate.

 

[JerryK]

I have an 8 steel pipe under my driveway with only about 4 cover (probably closer to 2"-3" in many areas), been there since about '76. Has had countless dump trucks over it, loaded with gravel. It's fine and will be for the next 100 years.
Don't even bother with the extra gravel for bigger loads, your original plan will be more than adequate.[/QUOTE

That's my thoughts. I could have maybe got away with a six inch, but an eight should work even better. The wall on the 8" is almost a third of an inch. And the only bouncy thing that goes down my drive super fast is the UPS truck.