Inspection and Risk Assessment of Concrete Culverts under Ohio’s Highways
Publication: Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 21, Issue 3
Abstract
In 2003 the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) implemented a new culvert management program. Simultaneously, a team of researchers from the Ohio Research Institute for Transportation and the Environment (ORITE) and engineers from a private consulting firm conducted a joint study to evaluate the effectiveness of field culvert inspection and rating procedures proposed by the ODOT’s new program and describe the best remedial measures currently available for highway culverts. This paper focuses on the first component and addresses it relative to concrete culverts. The new inspection procedure for concrete culverts was applied at 25 sites. Inspection data were examined to detect common problems existing at concrete culvert sites in Ohio. The field data were also analyzed using statistical software to identify factors that contribute to the degradation of concrete culverts. Despite the limited amount of data, the results indicated that the ODOT approach was basically sound. The final segment of the paper presents a risk assessment method developed by the ORITE researchers. The proposed risk assessment method computes the overall structural health rating for any inspected culvert and recommends a course of action.
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Acknowledgments
The ORITE researchers are grateful to the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) for sponsoring the research project described in this paper.
References
Cahoon, J. E., Baker, D., and Carson, J. (2002). “Factors for rating conditions of culverts for repair or replacement needs.” Transportation Research Record. 1814, Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C., 197–202.
Masada, T., Sargand, S. M., Tarawneh, B., Mitchell, G., and Gruver, D. (2006). “New inspection and risk assessment methods for highway metal culverts in Ohio.” Proc., 86th TRB Annual Meeting (CD-ROM), Washington, D.C., Paper No. 06-1064.
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Mitchell, G. F., Masada, T., Sargand, S. M., Tarawneh, B., and Jobes Henderson Associates (2005). “Risk assessment and update of inspect ion procedures for culverts.” Rep. No. FHWA/OH-2005/002, Final Report to Ohio Department of Transportation and U.S. Department of Transportation, Ohio Univ., Athens, Ohio, www.dot.state.oh.us/research/Hydraulics.htm .
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Ohio Dept. of Transportation (ODOT). (2003). Culvert management manual, Columbus, Ohio, www.dot.state.oh.us/se/hy/Culvert.htm .
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 21 • Issue 3 • June 2007
Pages: 225 - 233
Copyright
© 2007 ASCE.
History
Received: Sep 13, 2005
Accepted: Oct 31, 2005
Published online: Jun 1, 2007
Published in print: Jun 2007
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