J. For. Sci., 2025, 71(3):113-123 | DOI: 10.17221/95/2024-JFS

Hydraulic sizing of forest road pipe culvertsOriginal Paper

Karel Zlatuška ORCID...1, Petr Kupec ORCID...2, Martin Duchan ORCID...1, Alena Tichá ORCID...1, Jan Deutscher ORCID...2
1 Department of Forestry Technologies and Construction, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
2 Department of Landscape Management, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology, Mendel University in Brno, Brno, Czech Republic

This article presents guidelines for assessing the optimal dimensions of forest road pipe culverts, based on input of actual and experimental data to standard engineering techniques. In doing so, we assess the need for (i) changes in the parametrisation of inputs (i.e. culvert micro-catchment dimensions, rainfall and resultant culvert flow, and culvert flow rates during culvert hydraulic dimensioning), and (ii) the need to redesign culvert outlets in relation to flow speed. Our results demonstrate that values for most inputs presently used under current technical practice for forest road pipe culvert sizing are significantly higher than those achieved under experimental conditions. The data on outlet flow velocities strongly suggests that strengthening of culvert outlet aprons will be crucial for their future operation.

Keywords: culvert dimension precipitation parameters; culvert flow velocity; forest culvert catchment area; outflow strengthening

Received: November 18, 2024; Revised: December 4, 2024; Accepted: December 16, 2024; Prepublished online: March 18, 2025; Published: March 28, 2025  Show citation

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Zlatuška K, Kupec P, Duchan M, Tichá A, Deutscher J. Hydraulic sizing of forest road pipe culverts. J. For. Sci. 2025;71(3):113-123. doi: 10.17221/95/2024-JFS.
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