Ok, I'm looking for someone who has lived with colverts and had them as part of your driveway. We cross a creek with 3 colverts buried in rock and when we have the heavy rains all 3 colverts fill almost to the top, but have not given in to the creek yet. When the rain is over the water level goes down and there is only a small amount of water that goes through the colverts. My concern is and I have not seen it happen is the colvert come flying out of the ground because of the water pressure. I suppose this can happen but I hope it does not. These colvert are plastic, black in color and are smooth inside. Does this make a difference? ???????
colverts
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RonMar
Elite Member
mechanic said:
Don't quite understand what you mean by "come flying out of the ground" but the only problem I have ever seen with culverts used in an earthen/gravel bridge as you describe is when debris carried down by the stream cloggs the culvert and restricts waterflow. Then the earthen bridge becomes a dam and the water rises over the top and starts flowing across the top. This washes away the top material and eventually cuts a ditch across the roadway to handle the flow. Since the flow is concentrated, this can quickly wash out the roadway and even carry away the culverts if the rock around them is removed by the overflowing water. As mentioned, if they are corrigated, the weight of the gravel grips into the corrigations and holds them in place. Even if they weren't corrigated, it would still take a lot of force to dislodge one from a packed earthen/gravel bridge.
tommu56
Elite Member
mechanic
If they are burried to the proper depth and pitched correctly?
The fill should hold them in.
How big are they it sorta sounds that they are under sized, or are they a retension basen designed to hold back the water to keep down steram from flooding.
post a picture they are good got about 100 replys
tom
If they are burried to the proper depth and pitched correctly?
The fill should hold them in.
How big are they it sorta sounds that they are under sized, or are they a retension basen designed to hold back the water to keep down steram from flooding.
post a picture they are good got about 100 replys
tom
RobS
Super Member
In addition to what Ron described with the water flowing over the roadway, it can also find it's way along the outside of the culvert between the plastic and the surrounding fill. That could eventually lead to errosion of the fill and collapse of the roadway above. That happened to the culvert where I grew up. Solution in that case was to install an upstream funnel thing (technical term?) to guide the flowing water into the pipe. If your fill is properly packed around the tubes, you shouldn't have a problem.
jinman
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I think what mechanic is talking about is the air space caused by the sealed smooth surface on the inside and the corrugations on the outside. I suppose if the culverts were placed in a pond, they might float, but I don't think they are buoyant enough to come out of the ground if installed properly.
I have heard of buried plastic tanks coming out of the ground when there is a soaking rain and water fills the void around the tank. I think this has also happened with buried fuel tanks at a few gas stations after floods.
I have heard of buried plastic tanks coming out of the ground when there is a soaking rain and water fills the void around the tank. I think this has also happened with buried fuel tanks at a few gas stations after floods.
Ronmar describes the biggest threat, when the overflow cuts the culvert out. I have a drive with a culvert, and I avoid this by creating an emergency overflow area up or down the drive from the culvert. If you keep the drive area above the culvert high and allow the overflow to happen up or down the drive, then worst case will be an area of drive cut out and not your culvert. 2 inches of overflow will saturate and cut a good drive fairly fast. Once it starts it cuts in no time.
RonMar
Elite Member
I just had a mudslide clog a culvert on a road at a remote site that I maintain. We got lucky in that the overflow water was not all that great and it flowed down one of the ruts in the road for about 1/4 mile. It was starting to make a pretty good ditch of that rut though when we discovered it, but the underlying rock kept it from washing it out too bad. Took me about 2 hours with a backhoe to dig out the pit around the culvert. I also got lucky in that the mud/gravel slide only flowed about a foot or so into the mouth of the culvert and was easilly pulled back out with a shovel.
Jinman, I have heard of empty septic tanks pushing their way out of the ground. I agree that a submerged smooth lined corrigated culvert would probably not have enough bouyancy to push up thru a packed roadbed.
Jinman, I have heard of empty septic tanks pushing their way out of the ground. I agree that a submerged smooth lined corrigated culvert would probably not have enough bouyancy to push up thru a packed roadbed.
Racer71
Silver Member
mechanic said:
Lets take another look at this.
You state that the colverts fill almost to the top during a heavy rain. Are you saying they fill with water or mud?
I read this as they are filling with water. If this is so then they are undersized. I don't think they will wash out but when you do get a super heavy rain the water will run over the drive and give you something to repair.
Thank for the replies. I looked at the colvert today and they are as clean as a whistle inside even though all the water that has run through them. I guess worse case the water would go over the top and make a mess of my drive.
