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COUNTY COMMENT %u2022 November 2024 17continuedROAD NOTES: WINTER CULVERT INSPECTIONSBy Keith Browning, P.E., KAC Local Road EngineerWinter is coming, and it is the best season to conduct culvert inspections. When not involved in dealing with snow and ice storms or finishing construction projects, crew members are mostly available for culvert inspections. In winter, inspectors can be less concerned with snakes and poison ivy. Dormant vegetation and typically low water levels in winter make thorough inspections easier to conduct. Snow and ice on road embankments can make for treacherous walking on slopes, but typically in winter there are long dry periods conducive to culvert inspections.Before conducting culvert inspections, you must first have a culvert inventory. If you do not have a culvert inventory, this is a good time to develop one. If you are starting from scratch with no culvert inventory records, this may mean driving every mile of road and gathering field information for each crossroad culvert (while useful, it is not so important to have an inventory of entrance culverts). Construction plans can also be used to gather culvert data. Location information for larger culverts might be obtainable from aerial photographs. While not essential, latitude and longitude coordinates can be determined in the field by Global Positioning System (GPS), which would allow the location to be captured in a Geographic Information System (GIS). The location should also be recorded according to your agency%u2019s location conventions (e.g., north and east coordinates, street address, etc.), as this will be a more useful reference for workers in the field. For each crossroad culvert in your inventory, you should compile a file (paper, digital, or both) with as much of the following information as possible:%u2022%u0009 Exact location %u2022%u0009 Structure type %u2022%u0009 Culvert size (span length, height, diameter and culvert length)%u2022%u0009 Physical condition and date last inspected.%u2022%u0009 Photos of culvert, roadway approaches and any related signs%u2022%u0009 Roadway width%u2022%u0009 Construction date%u2022%u0009 Construction plans %u2022%u0009 Design information (structural, hydrology and hydraulics)%u2022%u0009 Maintenance history%u2022%u0009 Weight limit resolutions%u2022%u0009 Pertinent correspondence (e.g., safety concerns, roadway overtopping, etc.)Culvert inventory data should also be entered into a spreadsheet or database. This allows querying to group culverts in various ways (e.g., culverts of the same type, culverts under high traffic roads, older culverts, load posted culverts, etc.).Why inspect culverts?Culverts are valuable assets. While the cost of replacing a culvert is less than replacing a bridge, you might have ten times the number of culverts compared to the number of bridges. Taken together, the asset value of your culverts may be similar to the asset value of your bridges. County taxpayers deserve your careful management of these assets.Age, environmental exposure, scour from large stormwater runoff events, heavy traffic loads, and physical damage all lead to culvert deterioration. Figure 1. A severe case of corrosion in this steel span culvert.