RailRoad Lateral Surcharge 1

[LakeNormanTiger]

Friends,

I am trying to determine all of the loads on a underground strucutre (5 Diameter) Atleast 9' deep. The structure is 22' away from a rail road line. Do I need to worry about a lateral surcharge from the railroad.

Thanks

LNT

 

[tincan]

We normally apply a surcharge when the applied load is within the depth of the structure. For 9' of bury for a 5'OD pipe (total 14") at a distance of 22', there would be little or no loading.

 

[VAD]

While Tincan's answer may be reasonable, I would like to look at this another way, but before I go further, I would like to know if you are trying to do this exercise because you intend to install this pipe at the particular location next to an existing track. If, on the other hand, the underground pipe is in place then there must be some issue with the pipe that requires this exercise. If the former is the case then I presume that your method of construction would be one that the railroad would be concerned about. Anyhow I may be stretching my imagination too far and would like to hear some more about your reasons.