Woodlands County Council discussed a proposed five-year plan for culvert replacement and maintenance during a Sept. 18 meeting of the governance and priorities committee.
The county has 3,542 inventoried culverts, and 648 — almost 20 per cent — are in poor or critical condition, capital assets manager Kara Kennedy said. That number includes 213 culverts in critical condition and 435 culverts in poor condition.
“These culvert issues are impacting the ditches and how they are functioning and our roads,” Kennedy said.
Heavy vegetation has overgrown and crushed culverts, and there has been damage to culvert ends which impedes water flow. There are obstructions that block culvert openings in some locations; damaged ends combined with vegetation in others.
The county has plotted the locations of all of the critical- and poor-condition culverts on a map and developed a five-year replacement and maintenance plan.
Critical culvert replacements are planned for 2025, while poor-condition culverts will be addressed in 2026, along with culverts that require critical maintenance.
The plan projects from 2027-29, poor-condition culverts will have maintenance completed. Field crews are addressing critical-condition culverts now and completing maintenance.
Related damages shown in the presentation were road surface holes, damaged beaver gates, heaved or lifted ground around culverts, and pooling.
The conditions of the culverts were evaluated on deformation, obstructions, hanging culverts, heaved or lifted culverts, and pooling, all of which affect the efficiencies of the culvert.
The proposed budget for this five-year plan is estimated in two ways, with one option for the majority of spending in 2025 and 2026 or an equal distribution of approximately $3.5 million.
Coun. Jeremy Wilhelm shared his appreciation for the opportunity to review information at the start of the assessment process, and council moved to accept the information.
The governance and priorities committee meeting is an opportunity for council members to evaluate and gain understanding of important issues. Councillors work with the administration team on topics affecting council business.
