A NEW APPROACH TO HIGHWAY DRAINAGE DESIGN

Interviews conducted with county and township highway superintendents in New York State disclosed the need for an approach to the design of road drainage facilities (culverts and ditches) that is less complicated and less time-consuming than present methods. Because of a lack of time and trained personnel, detailed design procedures are seldom used for secondary road systems. Although the field interviews identified a few cases where culverts were undersized, it appeared that oversizing was far more common. This practice is wasteful and especially uneconomical when it occurs on low-volume secondary roads. Development of a drainage design manual for New York State used a new approach to drainage design. Three sets of tables were prepared to facilitate runoff estimation, culvert size selection, and ditch size selection. This paper details the technical considerations on which the manual is based. A review of present mehtods of runoff estimation and culvert design was made, and those methods that offered the greatest accuracy were chosen for use in the manual. Although the runoff estimation method in the manual was specifically tailored for New York State, the remainder of the manual, including the information on ditch design and culvert design, is equally valid for other locations. Work is now is progress to generalize the runoff estimation method to make it applicable to other geographic areas.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/0360859X
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Proceedings of a work shop held June 16-19, 1975, in Boise, Idaho by the Transportation Research Board.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board (TRB)

  Washington, DC   
• Authors:
  • Irwin, Lynne H
  • Nieber, John L
• Publication Date: 1975

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 92-104
• Monograph Title: Low-volume roads: proceedings of a workshop held June 16-19, 1975, in Boise, Idaho
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Board Special Report
  • Issue Number: 160
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0360-859X

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Culverts; Design methods; Ditches; Runoff; Surface drainage; Weather forecasting
• Old TRIS Terms: Highway drainage
• Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Design; Highways; Hydraulics and Hydrology;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00142697
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 1 1977 12:00AM