When we bought our property here in Wheelock, where there is no zoning, the only permit we had to apply for was for our driveway to see if we needed to put in a culvert; we did not. Until that point in time, I had no interest or idea what a culvert was. Now, my husband has installed many due the work he does and I am much more aware of not only their uses but of how beautiful they can be.
Culverts are drains or pipes that allow water to flow under a road or something like that, like a railroad or trail. Many times they are put side-by-side as this one had been to extend the length - you can see this one has separated over time. Culverts come in different shapes and sizes; they can be round, elliptical, flat-bottomed, pear-shaped or box. They are made of concrete, like the one in my shot, or made of galvanized steel, aluminum, or plastic, which is usually high density polyethylene.
Because culverts move water, they also impact local biology. This culvert has a plunge pool below and there were small fish swimming in it. Imagine the impact when mud, sand, gravel comes rushing down into that pool because the soil around this culvert washes away at each heavy rain. This crossing is no longer in use so it is not under the regulations of inspections or maintenance.
In the United States, structures with total spans of under 20 feet are culverts; longer than 20 feet are considered bridges. If boxes or pipes are places side-by-side to create a span longer than 20 feet, the culvert is defined as a bridge and is required to be inspected as a bridge and must meet the standards of federal bridge inspection so the culvert gets inspected on a regular basis. Photo taken on back road in Concord. Thank you, Wikipedia, for supplementing my info.
@steeler these cause roads to collapse all the time. the soil erodes from around them, sticks and mud pile up in them - all this during medium rains. then heavy rain happens and bam, flooding happens. this is why we had to apply for a driveway permit - so our road crew wouldn't have to deal with run off if our driveway was too steep and then have the town ditch all messed up. right now, many towns in vermont are putting in new ditches because of damages caused by the hurricane we had last year. that is what malcolm is working on.
Love this pov ... we have a very large one near us. And I think that it's beautiful sometimes. Photographed it some time back, but it's still one of my favorite photos.
@dmortega thank you, Dorrena, on this one i only had to crop and add the border. it was so beautiful i didn't have to do anything to it. i had to do a lot of thinking on sunday about my project; had these shots i wanted to use -and this was one of them that i thought fit with the 'b&w shapes week'- glad we are allowed subjectivity.
@claireuk they can be - we were so happy that we did not need to have one at the end of our driveway because if we did, we would have had to have someone come and blast away a huge ledge that goes all the way across the road. that is why we didn't need one. too much trouble for the town - they were afraid of what that ledge being blasted might do to their road so it is still there - malcolm covered it up with fill so we didn't have a big bump when we come into the yard.
@karenann loved how this one had a pond under it filled with little, tiny fish. some boy will come along and catch them for fishing bait, i am sure, or a bird will. it was under a broken down railroad bed - tomorrow's shot.
so here are three circles that are black. i've got to hand it to you, camille, that is a very clever interpretation of the challenge. and i think it is much harder to pull off. clever, i say!
so here are three circles that are black. i've got to hand it to you, camille, that is a very clever interpretation of the challenge. and i think it is much harder to pull off. clever, i say!