Plastic or metal Culvert

dogghr

dogghr

Well-Known Member
I'm replacing the culvert on my access road this spring. Currently it is a 3-4 ft diameter oil tank with its ends cut out that the farmer had originally. I'm getting less trustful of it and since flood washed out part of bank this year, and I need to rework access anyways, I'm replacing it.
Is there a preference of plastic over metal piping? Small creek. Need to handle 20 ton stone or log trucks as the old one has. And no I don't want low water crossing. Opinions?
 
I put a 40' long 24" metal culvert in my pond dam as an overflow (beavers stopped up smaller pipe). A friend of mine works for a large construction company that does major road projects, he hooked me up with his supplier, so I didn't buy the culvert from an unknown source. The culvert rusted through the bottom in about 10 years, now I have to get a trackhoe in to take the old metal culvert out and replace it with plastic.......it was bad enough to pay for it once!!!

Bottom line, I'd go plastic or concrete!!
 
PLASTIC!!!!!

We had a MAJOR issue with metal pipe rusting and the plastic is much easier to work with. This wasn't exactly "my" problem, but the metal culvert pipe that crossed the road that allowed access to the house rusted out in the bottom and a large storm eroded away the underside and created a nice "moat" of about 8 to 10 feet across and another 8 feet deep or so to the top of the pipe.
pipe.jpg
 
Thanks guys that's how I was feeling but thot I'd ask my expert friends. Already priced them out today. Jbird I remember that washout of yours. What a mess. Hard to believe the power of water.
My creek I've never seen more than a foot of water in it but a 5 inch cloudburst put 6 feet of water in it. Worse part is it washed down my plot screen along the adjacent access road. Thanks again.
 
Use Aluminized Steel. Not the common galvanized stuff. In live streams it'll last about 15 years. Aluminized will last longer than you will. Plastic that size will egg out on you over time.
 
I only have experience with twelve and fifteen inch diameter plastic. They hold the filled logging trucks no problem with the amount of gravel that we put over them. It shows how to install on the internet including how much gravel to have around it and fill above it. It takes the correct amounts to give it strength. The best info would come from your town road supervisor. He or she will know what size you need and whether plastic of the recommended size will work for you in your situation, ie; just because there was a 3 to 4 ft. "pipe" there doesn't mean one that large was needed or vice versa that it was even large enough. The road supervisors generally know the drainages in their town so they are a great resource.

Now on pricing Our road supervisor provided his pipe source and the price the town was paying. After checking many sources including that one, all were within twenty-five dollars of each other. Then I checked a source, one county away and the difference in price was over $100 and cheaper than even the price the town was buying them at which was supposedly at a special high volume deal. Four twenty ft. lengths were needed so I bought one and showed the road super and he said it was definitely the exact same quality as he was getting so I then went back and bought the rest of what I needed so it saved me a few hundred dollars overall. So it can pay to check around for pricing.
 
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Concrete was actually way cheaper than metal for me, i know a guy that owns a large road construction company and he gets reject culverts pretty cheap, chipped end and some are slightly shorter than should be ect. Fit together real nice and holds up to my 50tons of farm equipment just fine so far. I searched a long time for metal/plastic and most were rediculous priced. Just throwing it out there
 
THE LLC said:
Use Aluminized Steel. Not the common galvanized stuff. In live streams it'll last about 15 years. Aluminized will last longer than you will. Plastic that size will egg out on you over time.
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Chainsaw said:
I only have experience with twelve and fifteen inch diameter plastic. They hold the filled logging trucks no problem with the amount of gravel that we put over them. It shows how to install on the internet including how much gravel to have around it and fill above it. It takes the correct amounts to give it strength. The best info would come from your town road supervisor. He or she will know what size you need and whether plastic of the recommended size will work for you in your situation, ie; just because there was a 3 to 4 ft. "pipe" there doesn't mean one that large was needed or vice versa that it was even large enough. The road supervisors generally know the drainages in their town so they are a great resource.

Now on pricing Our road supervisor provided his pipe source and the price the town was paying. After checking many sources including that one, all were within twenty-five dollars of each other. Then I checked a source, one county away and the difference in price was over $100 and cheaper than even the price the town was buying them at which was supposedly at a special high volume deal. Four twenty ft. lengths were needed so I bought one and showed the road super and he said it was definitely the exact same quality as he was getting so I then went back and bought the rest of what I needed so it saved me a few hundred dollars overall. So it can pay to check around for pricing.
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I am checking on the Aluminized, LLC. Thanks
Chainsaw I will probably go smaller but same diameter of pipe which goes under the main highway. And yes as with the current one, 1-2 ft of dirt and stone arched over the culvert is key to handling heavy loads. Friend is probably going to get me plastic leftover pipe from his work. And he's going to give me a hand along with 2 others in this project. Def be waiting for better weather. Thanks.
 
dogghr said:
I am checking on the Aluminized, LLC. Thanks
Chainsaw I will probably go smaller but same diameter of pipe which goes under the main highway. And yes as with the current one, 1-2 ft of dirt and stone arched over the culvert is key to handling heavy loads. Friend is probably going to get me plastic leftover pipe from his work. And he's going to give me a hand along with 2 others in this project. Def be waiting for better weather. Thanks.
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Dogghr...you will have issues or cause issues for the highway department going smaller diameter pipe. Even though the Highway Department can't make you put the same size pipe as the highway size, it would be in traveling public safety to do this. Smaller equals water backing up onto the R/W. ADS Plastic pipe is your best bet, if your going plastic. It can handle more weight without as little as one foot fill on top.
 
I agree Deerpatch, I don't intend to go smaller, just using theirs for size choice although I'm well upstream of the watershed their drainage is handling. Good point on the ADS and I'm sure that is what my friend has since they are used for coal mine haul roads. Thanks.
 
Dogghr...I missed read your earlier post. I thought you were down sizing the diameter of pipe but you were shortening the length. My bad.
 
Nebraskaz71 said:
Concrete was actually way cheaper than metal for me, i know a guy that owns a large road construction company and he gets reject culverts pretty cheap, chipped end and some are slightly shorter than should be ect. Fit together real nice and holds up to my 50tons of farm equipment just fine so far. I searched a long time for metal/plastic and most were rediculous priced. Just throwing it out there
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That's a deal not many have though. Chipped ends will allow infiltration which will cause failure. Installation costs are a big deal with concrete (to get it right). I've installed them all in my career, and even though upfront costs may be slightly more, overall cost and ease of installation on aluminized steel makes it hands-down my preferred choice. Of course, if it's a live stream and you get a good install, concrete is hard to beat. Reinforced concrete that is, not the old, cheap, non-reinforced.
 
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