CMM 5.

50 Pipe Culverts

Construction and Materials Manual

Chapter 5 Section 50 Structures Pipe Culverts

Wisconsin Department of Transportation

5.50.1 CULVERT PIPE LIST

Standard spec 520.3.1 provides that, unless otherwise authorized by the engineer in writing, the contractor must not order and deliver the pipe culverts required for the project until a corrected list of sizes and lengths is furnished by the engineer. This provides the engineer an opportunity for checking the designated plan length in the field, making any necessary adjustment in length, and ordering the correct length of culvert pipe required at a designated location to satisfy field conditions. At the earliest opportunity the engineer should prepare and furnish to the contractor the corrected list of sizes and lengths of culvert pipe so the contractor may place the order with the supplier at an early date, avoiding a late delivery and delay in the progress of the work. This list should be in writing and a duplicate copy should be retained in the engineer's files. The ordered length of a culvert should be in agreement with the length staked in the field and should be in accordance with the provisions below. If the staking of culverts is not completed before the start of construction operations, the furnishing of the pipe lists should coincide with the contractor's plan of operations. Should the contractor have the pipe delivered at intervals, it will provide a more favorable opportunity to WisDOT for determining and furnishing the lists of required lengths. However, it is important the list be furnished as soon as practicable. CMM 7.35 describes in detail the conditions necessary for restoration or construction of private entrances and the standards to which entrances must be restored or constructed. The sizes and lengths of culvert pipes required for private entrances, as determined in accordance with CMM 7.35, will be compiled by WisDOT and included with the corrected list of sizes and lengths of culvert pipe to be furnished to the contractor. The list of culvert pipe for private entrances will not include culvert pipe to be furnished and placed by the owner for those permitted entrances to be constructed at the owner's expense.

5.50.2 ORDERED LENGTHS OF CULVERT PIPE 5.50.2.1 Corrugated Steel and Aluminum
It is normal industry practice to manufacture corrugated steel culvert pipe and corrugated aluminum culvert pipe in lengths of two-foot multiples, generally fabricated in individual lengths from 16' to 30'. The maximum fabricated length normally shipped is 30'. Generally, the supplier will furnish the pipe for a culvert in a minimum number of fabricated lengths. In this respect, culverts from 32' to 60' total length would be furnished in 2 fabricated lengths and culverts from 62' to 90' total length would be furnished in 3 lengths. However, this is not a fixed criterion and suppliers may often furnish pipe for culverts in more than the minimum number of fabricated lengths.

5.50.2.2 Reinforced Concrete

The general practice of most of the suppliers of reinforced concrete culvert pipe is to manufacture the pipe of the various sizes in length increments of either 4' and 6'; 6' and 8'; or 4', 6', and 8'. By using a combination of 4' and 6' lengths or 6' and 8' lengths, reinforced concrete pipe may be supplied for culverts of any 2-foot multiple of length. Some concrete pipe manufacturers may manufacture large diameter pipe in 7.5' lengths, or 7' 8" lengths rather than 8' lengths to preclude over-width loads when transporting pipe. The required length of culvert as determined in the field to satisfy conditions at the site should be adjusted, except in the case of pipes with skewed or beveled ends, to the nearest 2-foot multiple of barrel length. In accordance with Standard Detail Drawing 8F1, concrete apron endwalls are manufactured with a part of the endwall in the form of pipe. The pipe-shaped part of the concrete endwall will vary from 19" to 48" in length, as shown for the various sizes. Where concrete apron endwalls are called for, the required length as determined to satisfy site conditions should first be corrected to accommodate any barrel portions of the endwalls. This corrected length is then adjusted to the appropriate 2-foot multiple of length. This adjusted length of culvert will be the ordered length. Adjustment in the required length of a pipe having skewed or beveled ends must take into account the method of measuring the end sections, as described below in this chapter.

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5.50.3 INSPECTION
Each load of delivered pipe must be accompanied by a loading document. The pipe must be installed only after the documentation is received. Pipe should also be inspected as soon as possible after delivery to the job. The inspection should cover dimensions, soundness, markings, damage incurred during shipment or unloading, or defects overlooked at the plant. Pertinent information concerning any rejected pipe should be recorded by the inspector in field notebooks. Refer to measurement of pipe culverts of this section for needed documentation.

5.50.4 PREPARING FOUNDATION

Success in the construction of pipe culverts against detrimental settlement depends largely upon proper preparation of the foundation for support of the pipe. Embankments are required to be constructed to at least the top of the proposed pipe before excavating the trench and laying the pipe, to provide a firmly and uniformly consolidated support for the superimposed embankment, and to ensure against an overload bearing on the pipe due to settlement of the embankment or its foundation. To ensure uniformity in compaction of the fill above the pipe, embankments should not be built to a height in excess of two feet above the pipe before the pipe is laid. Preparation of the foundation for support of the culvert pipe is performed during the preparation of the embankment foundation. During preparation, inspections should be made to ensure the foundation at the pipe site and for a distance on each side of the pipe of at least the height of the proposed embankment is uniformly and thoroughly consolidated. Any foundation materials of poor supporting value should be removed and replaced with suitable materials. Where flowing water is a problem, it may often be carried in a ditch cut around the culvert site until the pipe is in place, or pumps may be used to maintain a dry foundation. On occasion culvert foundations may be on compressible soils that are so deep that full excavation is impossible or impractical. The use of a modest strength geotextile beneath granular bedding is of considerable benefit in providing a stable base for construction, and to reduce abrupt changes in settlement. Before embankment construction, the contractor should remove detrimental rock materials located near the natural ground surface that may interfere with later culvert foundation preparations. Backfill of these areas should consist of acceptable materials similar to the proposed embankment soils. It is important that trenches for laying of pipe, where the final height of the proposed fill above the top of the pipe will exceed 6 ft, are excavated so the width of the trench below the top of the pipe does not exceed a distance of 3 ft greater than the outside diameter of the pipe. This is to ensure against the occurrence of a greater load upon the pipe than the design load for the pipe. Loads acting upon a pipe increase with the width of the trench as well as with the height of fill above the top of the pipe. Pipe culverts placed under embankments support a greater load under the roadbed than at or near their ends, and will settle more under the greater load. To compensate for this uneven anticipated settlement, a camber, designated by the engineer, is built in the grade line of the culvert. This camber may be from 2" to 6" or more depending upon the height of the proposed embankment. A good design will have the full selected camber at the center and 2/3 camber at each quarter-point. Be sure the flow line elevation at any point is lower than the inlet elevation. A pipe laid under both roadways of a dual lane facility should have the full camber put in between quarter points, and have the camber reduced to zero to the outside quarter lengths.

5.50.5 EXCAVATING AND FORMING BED FOR PIPE

Standard spec 520.3.2.1 specifies excavating and forming the foundation and bed for culvert pipes under public highways. Pipe foundation is the part of the terrain that supports the pipe and the forces of any loads superimposed upon the pipe. Pipe bedding is the portion of the foundation in immediate contact with the pipe. Except in the case of a special bedding or a certain class of bedding, the pipe bedding is a layer of designated material placed on the foundation to be in contact with the lower portion of the pipe. For pipe culverts, the contractor may lay the pipe on a shaped, firm earth bed, if rock is not present. This is shown in Figure 1.

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Figure 1: Bedding Details for Storm Sewers and Pipe Culverts (Earth Support) If rock, hardpan, or fragmented material exists, the trench must be excavated below the pipe a minimum of six inches and backfilled with granular material, as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Bedding Details for Storm Sewers and Pipe Culverts (Granular Support) Major foundation problems should be brought to the attention of the engineer and region soils engineer for resolution. See the drawings in the Plan of Proposed Improvement or consult the FDM Chapter 16, Standard Detail Drawings section, SDD 8F 5-1.

5.50.6 BACKFILLING CULVERT PIPE

Backfill material placed in the area under the lower half of the pipe must be thoroughly compacted. In narrow trenches where access and working conditions may be difficult, there may be a tendency to slight this work. In order that a pipe may successfully support the loading to which it may be subjected without excessive distortion or rupture of the pipe, and to preclude settlement problems, it is essential that adequate lateral support be provided for the pipe by thorough consolidation of the backfill material between the pipe and the walls of the trench. To ensure against disturbance of the pipe alignment, each layer of backfill material must be placed, compacted, and brought up uniformly on each side of the pipe. When granular backfill is not specified, the backfilling
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material should consist only of stable materials and should be free from large lumps, clods, or rocks that might prevent satisfactory compaction. Standard spec 520.3.4.1 requires that any stone or rock larger than a 3" ring, when part of the backfilling material, must be placed and arranged so as not to come in contact with the pipe during compaction operations. The backfill material should have a moisture content suitable for satisfactory consolidation with the compaction tools used. A rough check for suitable moisture content may be made by squeezing the soil in the hand. A firm cast should result without wetting the hand. Emphasis has been placed on compacting material under the lower portion of the pipe. However, it is also essential and required by the specifications that the remaining backfill be thoroughly compacted in 6" maximum layers to the elevation of the top of the pipe. The trench, if any, above the top of the pipe must be backfilled and compacted in layers not exceeding 12" in depth. Backfilling details are shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2. Unless specified differently in plan documents, the backfill material above the top of the pipe should be similar to the adjacent soil materials. This is to minimize differential frost heaves due to non-uniform materials and/or differential compactive efforts.

5.50.7 MEASUREMENT AND PAYMENT OF PIPE CULVERTS

The corrected pipe list that was given to the contractor by the engineer defines the lengths to be paid for, providing that the specified lengths are actually furnished and satisfactorily installed. Standard spec 520.5 provides that measurement will be made by the foot in place, which is interpreted as requiring that measurement for payment will be made only after the culvert pipe is in place and not upon delivery to the job site. Joint ties are required on the last three pipe joints, or the last two joints plus the endwall. The ties are incidental to the culvert pipe item. If additional ties are required by the engineer, they will have to be paid separately. The standard specifications provide that the quantity measured for payment must be determined by multiplying the number of units in the pipe culvert by their commercial laying length. Measured lengths of pipe culverts should not exceed the ordered length. In the event the contractor furnishes less pipe than the ordered length, on the assumption that the gain in joint construction will extend the structure to the ordered length, measurement for payment will be only for the summation of the individual lengths of pipe actually furnished. When the summation of the lengths of section of pipe furnished is in excess of the ordered length, measurement for payment will be the ordered length, not the excess length. The contractor may be required to cut off excess pipe if the excess is considered detrimental to the work. Example 1: 30" CMCP was shown on the plan at 200'.
Later staked in the field and put on pipe list at 202'.
Contractor laid ten 20-foot sections that fit toes of slope as staked. Total gain at 9 connecting
bands is 9 x 2.67" = 2'. Thus, total placed length = 202'. Final pay length = 200', not 202', since only 200' was actually placed. Example 2: 24" CMCP was shown on the plan at 78'.
Later staked in the field and put on pipe list at 78'.
Contractor laid four 20-foot sections. Due to added length of 2', plus gain due to 3 bands of 3 x
2.67" or 8", the pipe ends projected beyond the planned slopes and required slope fattening. Final pay length = 78', not 80', because we will not pay for excess length. In the case of corrugated steel or corrugated aluminum pipe culverts furnished with beveled or skewed ends, measurement for payment will be the summation of the number of units multiplied by their commercial laying length, plus the lengths of the skewed or beveled pipe end sections. The length of each fabricated end section of pipe, which has one end cut on a bevel and/or skew, will be its length measured on the centerline of the structure along the flow line of the section. The sum of the lengths of the two beveled and/or skewed end sections of pipe should be computed to the nearest foot.

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