20151208 Ver 1_Bridge to Culvert Justifaction 670060_20151118

Orange County Br# 670060
SR 1002
Saint Mary’s Road
Buckwater Creek

The project consists of replacing 19 foot long Functionally Obsolete Bridge that has a Sufficiency Rating
of 38 in Orange County. The current structure was constructed primarily with timbers in 1953. Timber
structures typically have a life span of 50 years and this structure is 62 years old and has reached the
end of its life cycle.
The proposed structure consists of a precast single span of 17 feet by 8.25 feet high bottomless culvert.
This structure meets the hydrological requirements of the drainage area without significantly altering
the FEMA Flood studies. The use of this type of precast structure will reduce the construction time from
120 days to 90 days as compared to that of a bridge. Precast culverts have lower construction and
maintenance cost over the life cycle of the structure as compared to a bridge. When site conditions
allow a bottomless culvert is the preferred structure of choice due to the lower overall cost and
minimum construction time while still maintaining the integrity of the stream bed. Current budget
constraints require us to take the most economical option that meets environmental and safety
concerns.
Typically the length of a bridge will be much longer than that of a culvert. Increasing the bridge length
creates several issues that must be overcome. If a bridge is utilized there must be at least four feet of
clearance under the bridge to allow access for maintenance workers at the abutment. In areas where
culverts are recommended this requires us to raise the roadway grade which also increases the impacts
due to the increased fill slopes. Raising the roadway grade also affects the FEMA Flood Plain Mapping.
In turn we cannot meet the requirements of the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with FEMA. If the
new bridge cannot be sized to meet the requirements of an MOA then map revisions need to be
performed for FEMA. First through a CLOMR (Conditional Letter of Map Revision) then a LOMR (Letter
Of Map Revision). NCDOT works very hard to make sure the replacement structure meets the
requirements of the MOA. Smaller streams in the Piedmont area are often best suited for culverts to
minimize raising the roadway grade.

Justification for bridge to culvert:

The basin drainage area and estimated discharges are compatible with a culvert structure. And

as mentioned, typically prefer culverts due to longer service life and reduced maintenance vs a
bridge.

The proposed 17' wide culvert and 19' long bridge (with vertical concrete abutments) have

similar hydraulic type openings and properties. Hydraulic function including backwater, outlet
velocities, etc will remain similar.

The inlet and outlet channels look stable. So we would anticipate the same with culvert.