Culverts are marked so that maintenance personnel can readily locate them. The culverts which are to be marked and recorded are those which transport storm water or natural water from a “normal water course” from one side of a road to the other. They do not include the urban drainage system, such as pipes leading from sumps to collector systems.
Each RCA should develop a culvert numbering system which may be in terms of RAMM road sections. On state highways culverts should be numbered consecutively between reference stations. Additional culverts placed later should be decimalised, eg 6.1, 6.2, etc.
For aesthetic reasons in urban kerbed situations culverts do not require a marker or the number need not be painted on the kerb. Instead the exact location and the number of the culvert should be recorded so that it can be included in the RCA’s culvert inventory in the RAMM system.
Although culverts under those circumstances need not have their number painted on the road, they will have to be numbered in the inventory system. Hence the number of culverts needs to be taken into account to ensure that the correct number is shown on culvert markers beyond the kerbed situations.
Posts should meet the material requirements specified in Specification M14.
Specification M14: edge marker posts
Culvert marker posts need not be painted but when painted or made of plastic a single colour (usually pale green) is preferred. The colour should be chosen to ensure that the culvert marker cannot be mistaken for an edge marker post. Vivid colours should be avoided, and no reflector is to be attached.
Culvert marker posts are placed above each culvert on the “true left” side of the roadway, facing the direction of increasing route distance. In exceptional circumstances, where it is not possible to install or maintain a culvert marker post, an alternative method of marking, such as a green raised pavement marker, may be used if approved by the RCA.
Culvert marker posts should not be closer to the edge of the roadway than edge marker posts and, wherever possible, should be placed at the end of the culvert in such a way to be readily seen from a vehicle.
Where a culvert runs at an acute angle to the centre-line of the roadway an additional culvert marker post may be used on the opposite side of the roadway to indicate the general line of the culvert.
In urban kerbed situations, it is not practical to install and maintain culvert marker posts. In such cases, a culvert may be marked with a 50mm wide 200mm long painted line on the top and face of the kerb.
