Precast box culverts blaze trail of recreational opportunity
CHARLESTON, Ill. (December 21, 2005) – Normally, builders and engineers bury their precast concrete construction products and forget about them. But municipal projects are casting box culverts in a whole new light.
County Materials of Charleston, Ill., supplied more than 400 linear feet of box culverts for a recreational trail in Madison County, in southwestern Illinois. Crews from Killian Construction in Mascoutah, Ill., finished this pedestrians-and-pedals pathway in November. The Schoolhouse Connector, a product of federal efforts to breathe life into abandoned railroad beds, will connect six recreational trails and provide for a 30-mile loop. It took a year to complete and includes box-culvert sections of 92, 92, 102 and 120 feet.
“Municipalities are starting to realize the value of box culverts for more than just water management,” said Mike Erickson, General Manager of the Illinois pipe division of County Materials. “They also can serve as a way to keep health-conscious residents safe from having to cross areas with busy traffic.”
Designers and contractors found it easier to install the box culverts at road grade than, for instance, building bridges over the roadways. In some cases, they didn’t even have to disturb the road surface. The project called for just a 30-day window in which roads could be closed. Pour-in-place would have mandated twice that, according to one project engineer.
County Materials, founded in 1946, operates 30 locations serving the Midwest. The family-owned, American-based company is an industry leader in the manufacture and distribution of concrete block, brick, ready-mix, hollowcore, pipe, pavers, retaining walls and Aggregate finish products for residential, commercial and municipal construction and landscaping.