Maintenance of Highway Edge drains Robert H. Baumgardner PDF
Version (1.2 mb) Maintenance is required to keep pavement
subsurface drainage open so that the pavement structure will
drain. Just about all State highway agencies (SHA's) that have
constructed subsurface drainage systems recognize that
maintenance is a problem. Vegetative growth around the pipe
outlets, rodent's nests, mowing clippings, and sediment
collecting on rodent screens at headwall are common maintenance
problems. Some outlets have been so plugged that water has
gushed from the pipes when they were unplugged. The purpose of
this paper is to identify maintenance problems with edgedrains
and document FHWA attempts at stressing the importance of
maintenance to SHA's. A description of the various maintenance
problems encountered by SHA's follows. An example of vegetative
material removed from an edgedrain is shown in Photo No. 1,
while an edgedrain pipe blocked by a rodent's nest is shown in
Photo No. 2. Photo No. 1 Vegetative Material Removed