Culvert Replacement in Springfield, MO
Springfield Culvert Company replaces failed driveway culverts across Greene County, Missouri. We also install new entrances, repair and clean sound pipe, build farm and field entrances, grade approaches, set crossings, and armor outlets. Our customers own acreages, farms, and rural homes around Springfield, Willard, Fair Grove, Marshfield, and Bolivar.
We replace in Aluminized Type 2 corrugated metal pipe where the soil and water are hard on plain galvanizing, and in reinforced concrete pipe where the entrance carries weight or the county calls for it. Both go on shaped granular bedding with structural backfill placed in even lifts. Greene County does not permit plastic pipe in its right-of-way, so an entrance off a county road gets steel or concrete regardless of what came out of the trench.
When a Pipe Is Done
Galvanized metal rusts from the bottom up, because water and sediment sit in the invert. That is why a failing pipe looks healthy from the end and has no floor left in the middle. Crushed and flattened pipe is the second cause, and it usually traces back to cover that was never deep enough. Separated joints are the third: the pipe has pulled apart along its length and soil is running into the gap. Once soil moves through a pipe, the ground above it starts going somewhere too.
Upsizing While It Is Open
A pipe that was undersized on day one has been overtopping your driveway for years. Replacement is the only time the diameter is cheap to change, because the trench is already open and the approach already has to be rebuilt. We measure the ditch and the ground draining to it, then take the size to the road authority.
The Day the Old Pipe Comes Out
Removal takes the entrance with it. That is normal and it is priced in. The machine pulls the pipe, the trench bottom gets recut to the ditch flow line so the new invert matches the ditch instead of sitting above it, and bedding goes down. Backfill comes up both sides together. The old pipe leaves on our truck.
Ends and Outlet
New pipe gets new ends. Flared end sections widen each opening and hold the fill off the barrel. On a deep ditch or a steep approach a poured headwall does more. Rock goes down where the outlet water lands, because a new pipe with a bare dirt outlet starts undermining itself the first time it runs full.
Timing
A pipe that needs replacing before winter has a real deadline, because frozen ground stops trenching and stops compaction. We quote and permit in the cold months and dig once the ditch is low. (417) 555-0173.
How do I know my culvert needs replacing instead of repairing?
Look at the bottom of the pipe, not the ends. Metal pipe rusts from the invert up, so the end can look solid while the floor of the barrel is gone. If you can see daylight through holes in the bottom, or soil washing into the pipe from underneath, the pipe is finished. Same answer if it has gone flat, if the joints have pulled apart, or if the ground over it is sinking. A pipe that is simply plugged is a cleaning job and we will tell you so.
How long does a culvert replacement take?
A normal residential entrance is one day. The old pipe comes out in the morning, the trench gets cut to the flow line and bedded, the new pipe goes in, backfill and cover go on, and the entrance takes traffic by evening. A long pipe under a wide entrance, a poured headwall, or hard rock in the trench can push it into a second day. We tell you which one you are looking at when we quote.
Can I use my driveway while the culvert is replaced?
Not while the trench is open, which is most of one working day. Park on the road side that morning or use a second entrance if the property has one. Tell us in advance if somebody has to leave for work or an appointment and we will stage the day around it. On farms we routinely keep one entrance usable while another is closed.
Can you put in a bigger pipe than the one I have?
Often that is the whole reason for the job. Plenty of entrances were built with a pipe sized to a price rather than to the ditch, and upsizing is the fix. The road authority has the final say on diameter and length, and on a Greene County road the inspector sets that size on site. We measure the ditch, tell you what we think it wants, and build to what the permit approves.