Abstract Manager

McIntosh Perry was tasked with the Detail Design for the replacement of the MTO’s Little Pashkokogan structural culvert located on Highway 599, 92 km south of the remote community of Pickle Lake Ontario. This culvert presented many unique challenges as the culvert was located in a 12 m thick causeway built of rockfill, the water was 2.0 m deep at the toe of slope and the structure was more than two hours from the nearest ready-mix facility. The presence of rockfill meant that conventional dewatering was not going to be practical as sheet piles can’t be driven through rockfill. This meant the Contractor would have had to install the majority of the culvert in the water but the depth of water made installation of a closed bottom culvert far too challenging as the Contractor would be working in 1.8 m of water. The distance to a ready-mix facility and short in-water window also eliminated the potential of using any cast-in-place structural elements. This paper describes the challenges experienced during the Detail Design and the unique prefabricated concrete culvert design that included skewed prestressed solid slab panels. The paper will also present the carefully engineered construction sequence that was used to complete installation of the culvert in the water. The use of prefabricated components permitted the culvert installation to be completed in less than two (2) months.