Performance Evaluation of Reinforced Concrete Box Culverts

Status: Active
Project Start Date: 10/24/2022

Summary:

The main objectives of this project are to: (1) Collect data from field testing of up to 10 reinforced concrete box culverts to evaluate their performance under a known truck load. (2) Evaluate live load performance, culvert capacity, and load rating using refined methods of numerical analysis validated with field test data. (3) Calculate a refined load rating for approximately 20-30 additional culverts based on the field data and numerical analysis results to assess the impact of different culvert attributes using statistical analysis. This will allow for extrapolation of the performance trends to the larger inventory of in-service culverts. (4) Develop a load rating decision matrix based on culvert size, soil fill depth, and other pertinent attributes to guide implementation of load rating calculations for MnDOT’s reinforced concrete box culvert inventory.

Final Deliverables:

Related Materials:

Related Research:

Project Personnel:

Principal Investigator: Lauren Linderman
Co-Principal Investigator: Brock Hedegaard, Ben Dymond
Technical Liaison: Yihong Gao
Project Coordinator: Marcus Bekele
Panel Members:
    Andrew Andrusko - Freight & Commcl Veh Ops
    Andrew Foden - National Practice Consultant - Structures
    David Conkel - Bridges
    Joe Campbell - FHWA
    John Hackett - Transportation System Management
    Joseph Black - Bridges
    Joshua Kuhn - Transportation System Management
    Nickolas Haltvick - Bridges
    Sarah Sondag - Bridges