Culverts and Soil–Structure Interaction: Fifty Years of Change and a Twenty-Year Projection

TRB's E-Circular 230: Culverts and Soil–Structure Interaction: Fifty Years of Change and a Twenty-Year Projection summarizes the presentations from the TRB 93rd Annual Meeting on January 14, 2014 in Washington, D.C. In the past 40 to 50 years have seen significant changes in the pipe industry in terms of materials used, structure sizes, shapes, and joint capabilities. Design methodologies have become far more sophisticated, primarily through the use of load resistance factor design (LRFD) and computer-aided design such as the finite element method (FEM). The structure of the industry itself has changed as well, with new companies coming into the marketplace, consolidation of companies, and spin-offs by larger companies of specific pipe-producing units. This report explores the development of design and analysis of buried culverts, the history of soil-structure interaction models for buried culverts, the European perspective of culvert and soil-structure interaction, and the growth of thermoplastic pipe use in transportation applications.