In order for the state highway offices to effectively perform culvert inspections, ODOT sponsored a research study through Ohio University to conduct state-wide culvert inspections. Sixty sites including 25 concrete, 25 metal, and 10 plastic culverts were selected throughout the state of Ohio. This research uses the regression analysis to develop relationships of significant parameters with General for concrete, metallic and plastic culverts. Then, the spatial analysis using the ArcGIS9.0 was applied to develop the spatial distributions of the general evaluation to analyze geographic trends of culvert performance.
Based on the analysis conducted in this study, metallic culverts in the northeastern and southwestern areas have better performance than the rest of the Ohio. Concrete culverts in the eastern region of Ohio have better performance than those in the western area.