Date: 2/15/13 Page 1 of 2

Revised: 10/8/15
LRFD BOX CULVERTS
PROCEDURES TO DEVELOP DRAWINGS
1. GENERAL INFORMATION
• Box culvert designs are based on AASHTO LRFD Bridge Design Specifications, 5th Edition
(2010) with 2010 Interim Revisions.
• All completed drawings shall be half-size (11” x 17”).
• All four (4) “General Details of R.C. Box Culverts” sheets shall be included in a job regardless
of whether a single or multi-barrel culvert is designed.

2. APPLICABILITY
a. The embedded spreadsheets will produce designs for the following:

• Barrel Size: See Attachment A for available barrel sizes

• Barrel Skew: Any skew 45º or less in 5º increments
• No. of Barrels: 1 to 6 inclusive
• Fill Height: 0’ to 40’ inclusive
• Wingwall Skew: Default skews for wingwalls are measured 30º from a perpendicular to
the roadway centerline, but are limited to a range from 0º to 60º. Wingwalls may also be
parallel to the barrel.
b. Special designs are required for box culverts that do not meet the above limitations.

3. PROCEDURE FOR GENERAL DETAIL SHEETS

a. Add Job Number at top of sheet and PE Stamp

4. PROCEDURE FOR TABULAR DATA SHEETS

a. Select the appropriate Microstation drawing for the number of barrels in the culvert.
b. Enter data into Input Fields for “Job No.”, “Tabular Data By:” and culvert “Station”.
c. Place Preliminary or Final PE Stamp as appropriate.
d. Enter data and Answer Questions, as appropriate, in the Yellow Highlighted Cells of all
Embedded Spreadsheets (Enable macros after embedded spreadsheets are opened).

Skewed End Section Tables:

• If box is not skewed, no input is required.
• Input skew, slope, maximum fill depth of entire box, clear span and clear height.
• The embedded spreadsheet will internally calculate the design fill depth for the skewed
end section based on the input. The user will determine whether both the slope section
and mid-section tables are required or only the mid-section table by comparing the
skewed end section fill depth with the maximum fill depth of the entire box.

Slope Section Tables:

Input minimum and maximum fill depths as described below, clear span, clear height, skew,
slope and answer questions as appropriate.

a) For fill depths 10 feet or less:

• The Slope Section Tables are not required unless the box is square.
• Input design fill depth (2’, 5’ or 10’) for both minimum and maximum fill depths to
obtain headwall quantities.
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LRFD BOX CULVERTS – PROCEDURES TO DEVELOP DRAWINGS

b) For fill depths greater than 10 feet:

• And the Skewed End Section Table is not required, the minimum fill depth shall be
10 feet and the maximum fill depth shall be the maximum fill depth of the entire box
less 5 feet.
• And the Skewed End Section Table is required, the minimum fill depth shall be the
calculated design fill depth shown in the Skewed End Section plus 5 feet and the
maximum fill depth shall be the maximum fill depth of the entire box less 5 feet.
c) For wider culverts with large skews and greater fill depths, it may be possible to
eliminate the Slope Sections and only have a Skewed End Section and Mid-Section.
d) See Attachment B for details showing how the embedded spreadsheet calculates section
length.

Mid-Section Table:
• The Mid-Section fill depth shall be the design fill depth rounded up to the nearest 5 feet.
Input 2 feet if the fill depth is ≤ 2 feet. Input 5 feet if the fill depth is > 2 feet and ≤ 5
feet.
• Section Length = Total Box length – Sum of all Section Lengths (SL and LL) for both the
inlet and outlet.

Wingwall Tables:
• Input “OW”, “H” and “C” from whichever section (Skewed, Sloped or Mid) abuts the
wingwalls.
• When wingwalls are parallel to barrel, input positive and negative values of the skew for
the appropriate Wing A or Wing B angle.

5. FILE NAMING CONVENTION

a. Drawing Files shall be named as follows and stored on the EDM:
bJobNo_culvert Box Culvert General Detail Sheets
bJobNo_c1 Tabular Data for Box Culvert @ Sta. ___+__
bJobNo_c2 Tabular Data for Box Culvert @ Sta. ___+__
bJobNo_c3 Tabular Data for Box Culvert @ Sta. ___+__