NCSPA Project Spotlight: Corrugated Steel Used for Culvert Rehabilitation Project

Article provided by the National Corrugated Steel Pipe Association

Lonoke County, Arkansas is a rural county located in Central Arkansas having a geography that ranges from steep rolling hills in the northern parts of the county to large Arkansas River flood plains in the southern portion.  Because of this diverse topography, land use in the county varies from recreational use and timber production in the hillier northern areas to intensive agricultural practices in the southern lying flood plain areas.

Managing infrastructure on such a wide range of lands has been a challenge for county highway department officials who manage approximately 750 miles of roads within the county.

Project Location: Lonoke County, Arkansas (Central Arkansas)

Project Background

County road officials were tasked with the responsibility of finding a culvert material that would be able to handle the high abrasion loads present in the rocky rolling hills, meet the increasingly heavier equipment loads being placed on the roads from ag and forestry equipment, as well as withstanding corrosion from increasing agricultural runoff containing high fertilizer, pesticide, and insecticide concentrations.

While county officials and decision makers understood and appreciated the strength of galvanized steel culverts, extremely harsh environmental conditions in the county created situations where galvanized CMP products were reaching 10-12 years of service life-well below their desired levels.

Jared Davis, Superintendent of Roads for the Lonoke County Highway Department, became a leading proponent for converting the county’s pipe usage over to polymer coated CMP as it was a steel product he was familiar installing, it had the strength he knew would be required, and it would be able to resolve their service life issues.

In Mr. Davis’s words:

“Switching to polymer coated pipes was the best decision I have made with regards to culverts in this county and I’m confident when we install a pipe, I won’t have to deal with it again on my watch (unless something catastrophic happens).” 

Corrugated Metal Pipe used for the project.

Construction Phase

In an effort to continuously provide its customers with the best products available, Metal Culverts Inc was eager to obtain coil coated with the gray polymer film.

Metal Culverts Inc. ran the 16 gauge gray polymer coated coil into 18”; 24”; & 30” diameters of pipe for the county in various run lengths.

The pipe ran perfectly in both helical and annular riveted pipe production with no manufacturing differences noted from the black polymer coil.  Jared Davis with Lonoke County was impressed with the pipe’s aesthetics and specifically noted the pipes similar appearance to the traditional galvanized coated cmp.

Final Project Outcome

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