A Primer on Culverts

Culverts have been in existence since ancient times, used by the Romans for their aqueducts and Egyptians to channel water from the Nile river. Culverts are used by a lot of businesses and residences if they have some water issues and they're used by cities within their drainage systems to minimize the risk of floods. Culverts work by guiding storm water along the culvert pipe onto a natural or manmade reservoir where the water will eventually evaporate and return to the atmosphere.

Modern drainage systems were inspired by the Roman aqueducts, with today's culverts being made from either plastic, metal, concrete or PVC pipes. Most residences use pipes that are of high quality to prevent corrosion due to the cost of replacing them. Steel culverts are generally more suited to handle higher water pressure than those made from plastic or concrete, but these are also quite expensive. A preferred and less costly choice are culverts made from PVC pipes, the only downside to these are that they don't come in large diameters.

The length of culverts is generally short, with open ends on both sides, generally culverts are buried at a depth underground to allow the transport of water with little to no obstructions. The structure of the drainage system is important as it affects the overall road or drainage interface; although the installation does not require a lot of pipes.

Culverts rarely gets blocked and are normally free of any obstructions such as leaves, dirt and other debris but when if they do get blocked, it needs to be cleared immediately as left unattended this can cause the water to backup or cause the culvert to collapse all together. If the water in a culvert starts backing up, it could potentially cause a flood which will damage the surrounding area but when a culvert collapses it has the potential to injure others or worse, but this depends on the location of the culvert.

Article kindly provided by drain247.co.uk