WRC Assists Towns with Culvert Inventories
- Details
Inventorying culverts may not sound like a real attention-getter, but it’s an important resource for our towns, the WRC, and the state. Given that by our estimates more than 1,000 culverts were damaged by Tropical Storm Irene in our region alone, it’s time to update the inventories.
The inventory gives the geographic location, header material, amount open, rust status, condition, and size and structure material of each culvert. These inventories are conducted by town road foremen with WRC staff person, Sarah Linn. Using a professional grade GPS, the culvert is located and the Road Foreman assesses the header, condition, size and material. That information is then recorded into the GPS. The data is taken back to the office, put into a database, then uploaded to the Vermont Online Bridge Culvert Inventory Tool (VOBCIT). This helps everyone - the town, region, and state work from the same information.
The end result for the town is a large map (36x48), an 11x17 Road Culvert Atlas and a spreadsheet containing the information collected about each culvert. This information can then be used for many purposes, including the creation of a culvert repair and replacement schedule for capital improvement planning, documentation of culvert condition at a specific point in time ahead of another flood event, and ease of identification of what culverts are damaged during a future flood event for hazard mitigation planning and disaster reimbursement purposes. If your town would like a culvert inventory please contact Jeff Nugent, WRC’s GIS Planner for more Information.
