Culverts come in many forms, but serve the same purpose. Here’s just how crucial they are.
Culverts are everywhere, innocuous to the landscape and an everyday engineering sight along and under Maryland roadways. With the state’s many streams and bodies of water, culverts allow people to travel on dry foot, even amid the overflow of streams, stormwater runoff, etc. Below, we shall take a brief look at the purpose and design of culverts and what Jet Blast Inc. does to help them function.
The Purpose of Culverts
As mentioned above, culverts allow transportation despite the presence of streams, stormwater runoff, and other kinds of water flow. In some cases, it is more efficient to build a culvert rather than a bridge. Unlike a bridge, a culvert is a tunnel or pipe set underground or under a road to allow water to pass through it. It keeps water from rising over the roadway. Should that happen, you have a dangerous situation for all motorists and even the road itself. Never underestimate the power of flowing water to carry people and property away. Smart engineering keeps a dangerous scenario like this from happening.
The Design of Culverts
The Federal Highway Administration’s Hydraulic Design of Highway Culverts manual consists of over 300 pages; the full understanding of culvert design cannot make it into one paragraph. Even so, the most basic understanding is that the design of culverts accomplishes two goals: to support the traffic overhead and to keep water from overtopping the road. Meeting these criteria involves complex engineering that boils down to figuring out the most efficient solution in eight categories:
- Headwater depth
- Culvert size
- Culvert shape
- Culvert inlet
- Barrel roughness
- Culvert length
- Culvert slope
- Tailwater depth
Culvert Maintenance Is Important
Culvert maintenance keeps obstacles like dirt, leaves, and other debris out of the culvert’s way. Enough of a stoppage can cause the road to overflow with water and wreak havoc. Jet Blast Inc. performs high-pressure culvert cleaning whenever the need arises; if your municipality or business needs our services in MD, PA, DE, Northern Virginia, or Washington, D.C., contact us!
Contact Jet Blast Inc. Today!
Jet Blast® Industrial Services strives every day in an effort to provide our customers with the best service and equipment possible. Providing a safe and stable workplace has allowed us to keep a team of quality people with most having a tenure of 15 – 25 years with Jet Blast®. With all that experience under one roof, we have been able to provide reliable 24-hour service since 1979. I believe this helps to set us apart from the competition.
Compare us! Let us make your job easier. If you’re located in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Northern Virginia, or Washington, D.C., contact us by email at [email protected], call us at 410-636-0730, or fax us at 410-789-3907, and don’t forget to keep in touch with us on Facebook!