Ī culvert under the Vistula river levee and a street in Warsaw.Ĭonstruction or installation at a culvert site generally results in disturbance of the site's soil, stream banks, or stream bed, and can result in the occurrence of unwanted problems such as scour holes or slumping of banks adjacent to the culvert structure. In the UK, the practice is also known as deculverting. The process of removing culverts to restore an open-air watercourse is known as daylighting. The culvert type and shape selection is based on a number of factors including requirements for hydraulic performance, limitations on upstream water surface elevation, and roadway embankment height. A culvert may also be a bridge-like structure designed to allow vehicle or pedestrian traffic to cross over the waterway while allowing adequate passage for the water.Ĭulverts come in many sizes and shapes including round, elliptical, flat-bottomed, open-bottomed, pear-shaped, and box-like constructions. When they are found beneath roads, they are frequently empty. Ĭulverts are commonly used both as cross-drains to relieve drainage of ditches at the roadside, and to pass water under a road at natural drainage and stream crossings. In the United Kingdom, the word can also be used for a longer artificially buried watercourse. Typically embedded so as to be surrounded by soil, a culvert may be made from a pipe, reinforced concrete or other material. River Monterroso culvertĪ culvert is a structure that channels water past an obstacle or to channel a subterranean Waterway.