Cleaning out a blocked culvert...how?

[IslandTractor]

In my neighborhood we have a half acre pond on conservation land that originally drained through a culvert under a road then into some local ditches and eventually to the sea. At some point in the past the culvert got blocked, the ditches filled in and now when the pond overflows it follows and destroys a dirt road annually on a more direct path to the ocean. Obviously the old drainage system needs to be reestablished. Re digging the ditch is pretty straightforward. The culvert is about 2 feet in diameter and about 25 feet long. It is corrugated metal. It's blocked at both ends with soil pretty much completely. What is the best way to clear it?

I've thought of using a pressure washer or a hose with a long copper pipe to try to flush out a small channel from one end to the other large enough to pass a lead line then chain. If I can do that I'd think of putting a small metal disc on the end of the chain and then use the tractor to pull that back through to open up at least a 6-10 inch tunnel. Would that be enough so that once water flow started again it would self clean? I should mention that at the moment the pond is bone dry so it is easy to access both sides of the culvert but that will change in the next month or so with winter rains.

Any secrets to clearing mud/dirt filled culverts?

 

[meadowlarkponds]

I've had that problem several times and have always been able to unblock it with a small back-hoe attachment. The blockage is usually right at the front entrance to the culvert and by digging all that out, the next good rain just flushes out the remaining stuff that is inside the culvert. In my case, there usually isn't much actually inside and it is mostly just outside the entrance. If I didn't have access to the back-hoe, a shovel and some hard work would accomplish the same thing....but this works because the debris is mostly outside the culvert and once you get a flow going the water will clean it out better than anything.

 

[IslandTractor]

I haven't actually explored the culvert so that is a possibility. I noted however that both sides were blocked so I kinda assumed the middle was also involved. I'll get out a shovel and try. I have a BH but the culvert is too small to get at with machinery.

 

[ToadHill]

When the culvert across my road gets blocked it is almost always blocked at both ends but open in the middle. The little that is in the middle comes out when you open the ends, just make sure you dig the downstream end deep enough to take care of an junk that may wash out of the tube.

 

[BTDT]

I had to dig mine out (concrete culverts, 5' long). I couldn't understand why water wasn't draining. Culvert was about 1/2 visible on each side of drive, but water standing on one side wouldn't drain. I pushed a piece of fence toprail all the way in as far as I could get it to go. Dug/cleaned out opening with shovel (from each side of road), water still wouldn't drain. Wifes uncle borrowed a neighbors john deere with a front end loader, and I started digging. Come to find out, (now get this), there were two rows of culverts ,three five footers in first row, 3 five footers in second row, I had been cleaning out one end of 1st row, then when I swapped sides of road, I was cleaning out end of 2nd row. After we got them dug out and hauled off, we put a single piece of 12" galvenized culvert back in the hole and covered back up. Drains good now. Hope you have better luck.

 

[elad]

I wonder if the high pressure from a volunteer fire department pumper
truck would be of help to clean a culvert. Might cost small donation, but
might be worth it. elad

 

[Soundguy]

I work for a GC.. While we now use a water jetter to clear culverts.. inthe old day we had 'the long shovel'

As the name implies it was a spade shovel head welded to a 15' or 20' pipe.

It was grueling.. and took a few ment to run.. but DID work.

in your case.. a 15' one will do. and work it from both sides.

Get a stout pipe.. weld a shovel head on, and then if you like.. hang a counter ballance on the open end. once you get some o fthe obstruction cleared.. if you have access to any high pressure water.. even a pressure washer .. you can start jetting some o fthe debri through.

for tougher areas I've seen more drastic thing go.. like taking a big diameter steel pipe.. say.. 1' diameter, and 2' long and welding one end closed, and then welding a chain across the front of it and then link to that chain, another longer chain.

A long thin pole is used to push a string / clothesline rope thru the blocked culvert.. that string is used to pull the chain thru to one side.. wher ethe chain is then hooke dto something big.. like a bulldozer.. which then creeps off.. pulling a 'dirt piston' out with it...

the closer the metal pipe size is to the culvert size, the better.

You can also have a chain welded on the rear of the closed end, and leave it trailing out the rear of the pipe in case of massive blockage that simple won't let you pull any more forward, then you can pull your metal bucket back out and empty it and got at it again.. etc..

Soundguy

In my neighborhood we have a half acre pond on conservation land that originally drained through a culvert under a road then into some local ditches and eventually to the sea. At some point in the past the culvert got blocked, the ditches filled in and now when the pond overflows it follows and destroys a dirt road annually on a more direct path to the ocean. Obviously the old drainage system needs to be reestablished. Re digging the ditch is pretty straightforward. The culvert is about 2 feet in diameter and about 25 feet long. It is corrugated metal. It's blocked at both ends with soil pretty much completely. What is the best way to clear it?

I've thought of using a pressure washer or a hose with a long copper pipe to try to flush out a small channel from one end to the other large enough to pass a lead line then chain. If I can do that I'd think of putting a small metal disc on the end of the chain and then use the tractor to pull that back through to open up at least a 6-10 inch tunnel. Would that be enough so that once water flow started again it would self clean? I should mention that at the moment the pond is bone dry so it is easy to access both sides of the culvert but that will change in the next month or so with winter rains.

Any secrets to clearing mud/dirt filled culverts?

 

[IslandTractor]

Thanks guys, I will try the simple solutions first and hope I don't need to get Soundguy's bulldozer involved.

 

[MarkV]

I sort of wonder with this being a conservation pond with a culvert under a public road that is clogged and washing out a public access road why not call the local road people. Sounds like something the city/county would be responsible for.

MarkV

 

[bjcsc]

I wonder if the high pressure from a volunteer fire department pumper
truck would be of help to clean a culvert. Might cost small donation, but
might be worth it. elad

Funny, that was my first thought as well...

 

[KeithC]

Call the local volunteer Fire department. Tell them you will make a tax deductable donation (a bigger one then last year, because I know we all support our local volunteers) to the fire department if they will presure wash the pipe clean.
Our local county uses this same method, while 5 guys lean on shovels.

 

[mobilus]

KeithC, those 5 guys are the "support team"...necessary in all road work, it appears.

 

[3RRL]

Call the local volunteer Fire department. Tell them you will make a tax deductable donation (a bigger one then last year, because I know we all support our local volunteers) to the fire department if they will presure wash the pipe clean.
Our local county uses this same method, while 5 guys lean on shovels.

I had a thread about two years ago asking this very same question. Got a bunch of great responses, one of which was get the fire department to clear it.

Well, I started by having my wife dig the ends out with a shovel (she volunteered). I had no water around so we used some 3/4" pipe and pushed it through the middle by hand, since the middle was not as plugged for some reason. Then tied a rope to the pipe and drug it through the hole. Then attached a chain to the rope and drug it through with the Blazer. I attached a piece of metal to the chain about the size of a soft ball and drug it through with the tractor. Now I had a hole all the way through but still no water.

So a month ago I invited the Fire Marshall up to the property to check out the clearing we'd done for the log home. Also asked him where he wanted to have us place the fire hydrant and showed him the 5,000 gallon tank we got to meet code. He was very appreciative that we were making such a big effort to comply so his job might be easier in case of fire. Well, that's when I asked him if he thought he might squirt some water into my plugged culvert and he obliged. He got his hose out and squirted it through.

I asked if I could make a donation and he said no. So I offered to have him join us for a steak bar-b-que and he accepted. It was a great way to meet him, have him get familiar with my place, and got the culvert cleared too.

 

[2manyrocks]

So let's ask the next logical question after he gets it cleaned out....

What should he do to keep it from clogging up again? Put down filter fabric and rock?

 

[IslandTractor]

I will talk to the volunteer fire dept when I am next on the island. I'll also grab some photos.

One of the challenges is "territorial". The culvert is over a private road that is owned by an association and the association is surrounded by conservation land which includes the pond that the culvert drains. The water damage is mostly to a public dirt road nearby. The neighbors all get along pretty well and until very recently all these problems were non issues as the prior owner of the land just had the work done to benefit everyone. Since the last time the culvert had maintenance the land was donated to a couple of conservancy groups and that is were the confusion started. There is general agreement amongst the neighbors that this culvert maintenance needs to be done but no one knows exactly who has the authority to do it. The Town DPW begged off due to the unclear ownership issues even though they need to repair the road each spring and even though no one had complained (quite the opposite, we tried to get them to do it). Oddly, the DPW guys are also in the VFD.

As there seemed to be an impass and as no one seems to object, I just decided to do it myself and will simply plead well intentioned ignorance if there are any complaints. I plan to use Soundguy's first suggestion initially to explore whether there is a lot of debris inside the culvert or whether it is only the ends that are plugged. If that doesn't work I had planned to do something along the lines of what 3RRL described and use the tractor to pull a plug through. If that fails I'll get the VFD involved.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

A friend of mine is a vice-president of a telcom construction company. They just opened a new division that cleans highway culverts for the railroads and state and local entities.

They use the directional boring units they have on hand for placing cable and conduit. The traditional method of doing this is high pressure washer based. The advantage of the directional rig is the blocking material is pulled completely out of the drainage system. The farmers love it, good topsoil.

 

[2manyrocks]

If its a conservancy group that owns it and is now neglecting to clean the culvert, it just sounds like no one is sure how to get to the right person to get anything done. You might could ask your property tax assessor to look up the contact name and address for that property and write them a letter explaining what the problem is.

I'd be careful about going onto private property to clean this thing up without their consent.

 

[Onthesauk]

My last house had a private road access and a couple of culverts that use to get plugged with gravel every Winter. Same issues, no one wanted responsibility. Neighbor and I took a 2 inch chunk of black ABS pipe and stepped up to a 4 inch piece on the end. Whole thing was about 10 feet long, 4 inch portion about 2 feet of that. With the end cut at an angle we were able to shove it in from each end and pull a plug of stuff out. And hour or so each year use to keep if clean for another year. Eventuall the county replaced the culvert with something larger and rip rapped the ends so it never plugged again.

 

[IslandTractor]

If its a conservancy group that owns it and is now neglecting to clean the culvert, it just sounds like no one is sure how to get to the right person to get anything done.

That is the case. However, virtually all the neighbors, including myself, are members of the conservancy group so it is not as though we are trying to deal with some organization based in Boulder Colorado or anything like that. It is really a matter of confusion rather than refusal to take responsibility. There is even supposed to be funding set aside to do this sort of work but the lines get blurred and memories fail about how it was done in the past. The gentleman who owned the land before the conservancy took over just had someone clean it out periodically but those were days on the island before people worried much about liability and lot lines. I still think the best solution is to "just do it" and see if anyone notices. The neighbors whose land is most directly affected were the ones who specifically asked me to help so I'm not really risking much of a confrontation here.

 

[LBrown59]

I wonder if the high pressure from a volunteer fire department pumper
truck would be of help to clean a culvert. Might cost small donation, but
might be worth it. elad

The state had me put in double wall smoth bore plastic culvert so if it clogs up they can use their machine to clean it out.