Developing Guidelines for Evaluating Pressure on Existing Culverts under New Embankments with Buried Lightweight Materials when Highway Widening

Existing culverts are often left in place and extended when highways are widened. Many existing reinforced concrete box culverts (RCBCs) were built using stepped construction, with slab thickness decreasing as the embankment height decreases along the culvert. On widening projects, lightweight fill is often used above thinner culvert sections to avoid increasing the net load on culverts. This type of construction has been used with stepped-down culverts on I-75 and I-64 widening projects. The current method of calculating culvert pressures assumes a vertical column of material and has been found through field instrumentation to be conservative for geofoam and non-conservative for foam concrete.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Completed
• Funding: $275000
• Contract Numbers:

  SPR 22-625

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Kentucky Transportation Cabinet

  200 Mero Street
  Frankfort, KY  United States  40622
• Performing Organizations:

  University of Kentucky, Lexington

  Kentucky Transportation Center College of Engineering, 176 Raymond Building
  Lexington, KY  United States  40506-0281
• Principal Investigators:

  Sun, Charlie

• Start Date: 20210701
• Expected Completion Date: 20230630
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Culverts; Design; Embankments; Guidelines; Lightweight materials; Pavement widening; Pressure
• Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Construction; Design; Highways; Materials;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01781432
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: University of Kentucky, Lexington
• Contract Numbers: SPR 22-625
• Files: RIP, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Sep 8 2021 11:04AM