Culverts come in all shapes and sizes, from 2' corrugated metal pipes to 18' boxes.   Culverts are susceptible to the same scour and deterioration factors as bridges.  The necessity of inspecting and adequately maintaining culverts is something that is often overlooked in an era of tight-budgets and no federal/state funds as with NBIS structures.   Some areas incorporate high risk structures onto their regular 2 year inspection cycle, others place the under-20' structures on a 4 or 5 year cycle, and still others have no formal inspection plan.  Culverts in which the diameter or height of the opening is greater than the cover are of particular concern in many states. 

  
Culverts come in all sizes and require regular inspection 

InspectTech was approached by two different entities recently to develop culvert inspection software.  USI Consultants in Indiana and Garrett County Maryland Roads Department both saw the strong need to be able to collect reliable data for reporting, inventorying, and documenting these structures.   Using recommended fields found in the FHWA Culvert Inspection Manual and custom fields that each of the clients requested, InspectTech customized its popular BridgeInspect^TM software to provide a powerful solution for each of these clients.  USI is conducting culvert inspections for several Indiana counties while Garrett County is using the software in-house to better serve its citizens and road users.    

Due to the simplicity of most culverts, the inspections can be performed quicker and less data needs to be collected than on bridges.   The software allows all data to be entered using drop-down select lists, digital pictures/sketches to be entered, and integrates the culvert sufficiency rating formulas to provide analysis of the structure.   InspectTech is making culvert inspections easier, quicker, and of higher quality.   Owners and consultants now have a new tool to inspect and manage an important asset.

Failure of corrugated metal pipe culvert in Canada

Buckling of a metal pipe culvert, with a concrete headwall

Users of the Culvert software can select from drop down lists showing options for all fields

Like the BridgeInspect software the culvert program offers multiple entry screens that allow for all data, ratings, and pictures to be entered.

In addition to our booth we will be hosting a Special Interest Session on Tuesday morning.   The session will have two 1-hour blocks the first, running from 8:30 - 9:30AM, will be on bridge inspection software.  The second, from 10:00-11:00AM will be on bridge management software.   The session will be held in the Liberty Room on the first floor of the hotel.   

A description of the sessions from the IBC Technical Program is below.

Bridge Inspection and Management Software:

8:30AM-9:30AM: Bridge Inspection Software: Learn how inspectors are using computer software to improve report quality and achieve significant time savings in data collection and report generation. The software has been used on several thousand structures ranging from 3000ft. bridges to simple spans to culverts to mass transit supports.

10:00AM-11:00AM: Bridge Management Software: This presentation describes a popular bridge management system that places all bridge information (pictures, sketches, inspection data, etc.) just a click away via a powerful web-accessible interface. Owners and managers can now easily generate standard and custom reports, search across all fields, automatically flag problem areas, and compare data and trends from past inspection years.

InspectTech booth at 2005 
22nd Annual International Bridge Conference

 The BridgeInspect^TM Collector software provides a way for inspectors to generate high quality inspection reports in an efficient manner.

Digital pictures can be directly loaded into the software providing visual documentation of problems

Clear objective information should be collected and presented in an easy to understand manner for bridge mangers.   Poorly written and organized reports lacking in documentation such as pictures and sketches can cause already overburdened bridge managers to make bad decisions or miss critical information.   Further, it is critical for inspectors to accurately report findings.   Time should be taken to ensure that condition ratings are entered properly by studying the coding manual and current structure condition in-depth.  Simply relying on past observations from previous inspection reports can lead to repeating the same problem over and over again. 

The old saying is a "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure".   Bridges that are inspected regularly can have maintenance problems identified and addressed sooner, before they become major issues and expenses.   This better serves both taxpayers by saving money and users by allowing for enhanced structure life and performance.  It is critical for asset owners to establish inspection programs that are of the highest quality.  The data collected in these inspections is one of the primary factors used to determine where millions or tens of millions of capital planning dollars are spent.   A greater focus on high quality inspections can lead to significant savings in total asset management costs.

Poor Inspections can lead to 
some of the  following problems:

Incorrect Postings

Unidentified Issues

Inefficient Use of Resources

 InspectTech's software is used by consultants and owners in multiple states and on structures of all types.