CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1 Introduction
The culverts are small structures or bridges which are used for the crossing channels under the
crossing of the railways, roads, and flyover, also is used where the bearing capacity of the soil is
low. The culvert is always more economical than the bridges. Box culverts are constructed of
reinforced concrete and are either cast-in-place or precast. Most of them are square dimensions;
but if not a square, usually have the span length exceeding the opening height. Box culverts may
have multiple or single cell openings. There are different types of culverts; it depends on its
shape; also, it uses as a small bridge. Culvert spans generally are 6 meters.

A bridge is a man-made structure which is built over some physical obstacle such as a body of
water, valley, or road, and its purpose is to provide crossing over that obstacle. It is built to be
strong enough to safely support its own weight as well as the weight of anything that should pass
over it.
Bridge is the key element in a Transportation System:
• It controls the capacity of the system.
• It is the highest cost per mile of the system.
• If the bridge fails, the system fails.

Sudan, like many other developing countries depends in design on standard design of advanced
countries. For concrete box culverts, there are standard drawings which may not appropriate for
climatically and soil conditions in Sudan. Since a design process is to make the best solution
from the limited resources and under the circumstantial adverse condition, a structural design of
concrete box culverts was developed so that to be suitable for Sudan soil conditions. A computer
program for analysis and design of single, twin and multiple concrete box culverts was
developed in this research work based on the previous researchers work in area of box culvert
Standard drawings for different types of concrete box culverts in Sudan can be deduced by using
this program.
2 Classification of Box Culverts
Culverts are classified as rigid or flexible depending on their structural stiffness and are further
divided by the installation method used. Based on the construction and environmental conditions,
culvert installation may be classified as a trench condition or an embankment condition. The
embankment condition is further subdivided into positive embankment condition and negative
projecting embankment condition (Spangler and Handy, 1982).
A trench condition is defined as an installation in a narrow trench that is dug in undisturbed soil
and then covered with earth backfill, as shown in Figure l a. Many utility pipes are installed using
the trench method. A positive embankment condition is constructed by placing the culvert on the
natural ground and then covering it with an embankment, as shown in Figure l b. Railway and
highway culverts are frequently installed with the positive embankment method. A negative
 projecting embankment is installed in a relatively narrow and shallow trench below the ground
surface and then covered with an embankment that is above the natural ground surface, as shown
in Figure 1c. This is a favourable condition for small highway and railway construction since it
produces a smaller vertical load than the positive embankment condition. The negative
embankment condition can be even more effective with respect to vertical pressures if the backfill
in the trench is filled with a highly compressible material. The imperfect trench condition, also
known as induced trench condition, figure 1 d, is a

Fig 1- Various classes of culvert installation. (a) Trench Condition, (b) Positive projection
embankment condition; (c) Negative projection embankment;(d) Imperfect trench condition
(spangler, 1982)
3 Types of Box Culverts
There are numerous types of culverts in terms of materials and geometric shape. They may be
classified as follows;
Depending on shape:
1. Square or Rectangular box culvert
2. Arch box culvert
3. Trapezoidal box culvert
Depending on materials:
1. Reinforced Concrete culvert (Cast-in-place & Pre-cast)
2. Steel/ Aluminium/ Corrugated metal plate culvert
Depending on chambers:
1. Single chamber
2. Multiple chambers
4 Advantages of Box Culverts
• The box culvert is structurally strong, stable and safe.
• It is easy to construct
• It can be placed at any elevation within the embankment with varying cushion which is not
possible with other types.
• It does not require separate elaborate foundation and can be placed on soft soil by providing
suitable base slab projection to reduce base pressure within the safe bearing capacity of the
foundation soil.
• Bearings are not needed. It can be conveniently extended in future without any problem of
design and/or construction.

5 Problem statement
The purpose of this study was to design and analyze underpass/culvert to ease the Khartoum state
area traffic congestion problem by providing a shortcut circulation of traffic. The reasons why we
focused on this topic is that the population of Khartoum city has been increase due to industry,
University and many big market presences, according to the state institute of statistics. Parallel to
the population growth the traffic congestion is also rising. Especially people who live in Khartoum
are obliged to drive through congested highway roads although these highways roads do not meet
current traffic demand.
6 Significance of Study
Most of the culverts constructed and installed in Sudan particularly in Khartoum State have been
characterized by deteriorating design life which have resulted to high maintenance cost after
construction and installation.
This study will therefore address the problem associated with the decline in design life of single
and triple box culverts along road through accurate and efficient structural analysis and design
using Design codes. This would be extremely beneficial to the host communities through the
following:
1. Increase the design life of the culverts thereby reducing post maintenance cost.
2. Reduce the occurrence of accident as a result of poorly designed culverts.
3. Specify materials for construction of culverts with good hydraulic characteristics.
7 Objectives
i. Investigating the factors affecting design of box culvert tunnel structures.
ii. To design and analyze a single cell box culvert using SAP 2000 software.
iii. To design element of the box culvert as per BS, Eurocodes and AASHTO LFRD, Bridge
Design specifications.
iv. Develop and apply a formulation of the structural design for all types of concrete box
culverts: single cell and twin cell.
8 Scope
Afra underpass/Culvert, the tunnel of Africa Street intersection with Mamoun al beheiri street
(known as Afra underpass) is the most important project for infrastructure development being the
first model for tunnel made as a solution for a traffic in Khartoum as a leading project for
development of roads network the state.

9 Methodology
To meet the stated objectives in this research project, the following tasks were carried out as
follows:
• Literature Survey.
• Analysis and design by SAP 2000 software.
SAP 2000 is a program for calculating the strength of structures, especially high-rise buildings
and bridges. This program is of great interest to all civil engineers because it is very easy to
learn and simple to use. Imagine before the SAP 2000 program, civil engineers often used
structural analysis formulas which took a long time. After the existence of this program can
accelerate the results of the analysis. The performance of SAP 2000 is to create structural
models or building portals. Then given workloads such as live loads, dead loads, earthquake
loads, wind loads and so on. The output of this program is the moment, shear force, and normal
force required for the purposes of designing the reinforcement requirements for structural
elements.