HIGHWAY CULVERTS, THEIR DESIGN AND OPERATION

ENGINEERING CULVERT DESIGN EVOLVED FROM SELECTION OF ALL AVAILABLE ALTERNATES TO PASS A DESIGN DISCHARGE IN AN ACCEPTABLE MANNER IS PRESENTED. THE BASIC CULVERT MATERIALS ARE CONCRETE AND ZINC COATED STEEL, WITH ALUMINUM AND WOODEN CULVERTS OCCASIONALLY APPEARING. IN ANALYZING POTENTIAL CULVERT LOCATION, IT IS NECESSARY TO DETERMINE HOW MUCH WATER SHALL BE DESIGNED FOR, AND WHAT STRUCTURE WILL BE REQUIRED. THE BASIS FOR THE ESTIMATION OF A DESIGN DISCHARGE SHOULD FIRST BE THE DETERMINATION OF A DESIGN RECURRENCE INTERVAL. THE RECOMMENDED METHOD OF ESTIMATING THE DESIGN FLOOD IS TO EVALUATE THE AVAILABLE DISCHARGE RECORDS THAT ARE COLLECTED AND DISTRIBUTED BY THE U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. RESULTS OF FULL-SIZE CULVERT CAPACITY TESTS ARE PRESENTED IN A NOMOGRAPH BY THE BUREAU OF PUBLIC ROADS AND THE NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS. THE SHAPE AND GEOMETRY OF INLET AND OUTLET CONTROLS ARE DISCUSSED. THE IMPORTANT DIFFERENCES BETWEEN INLET AND OUTLET CONTROL IS THAT FOR INLET CONTROL THE CAPACITY IS A FUNCTION OF SIZE, SHAPE, INLET GEOMETRY, AND HEADWATER DEPTH. THE OUTLET CONTROL CAPACITY IS A FUNCTION OF SIZE, SHAPE, INLET GEOMETRY, HEADWATER DEPTH PLUS BARREL ROUGHNESS, BARREL LENGTH, AND THE DEPTH OF THE POOL AT THE OUTLET /TAILWATER/.

• Corporate Authors:

  University of Nevada, Las Vegas

  Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
  4505 Maryland Parkway, P.O. Box 454015
  Las Vegas, NV  United States  89154-4015

  Nevada Department of Highways

  1263 South Stewart Street
  Carson City, NV  United States  89701
• Authors:
  • Gregory, H W
• Publication Date: 1967-3

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Coatings; Concrete; Culvert inlets; Culverts; Design; Geometric configurations and shapes; Highways; Nomographs; Steel; Structural materials; Zinc
• Uncontrolled Terms: Capacity; Design criteria; Inlets; Outlets
• Old TRIS Terms: Culvert materials; Discharge rate; Geometric shapes; Tail water
• Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Design; Geotechnology; Highways; Materials;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00216175
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: pp V 1-v 17
• Files: TRIS, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Sep 5 1994 12:00AM