Rehabilitation of Metal Water Culverts

French Guiana is a vast region of some 83,500 km2. The heritage of the water culverts over the national road network consists of over 850 constructions in all sizes (width x height ranging from 700 x 500 mm to 4000 x 3000 mm). About 380 of these are circular or steel arch constructions, the remaining are made of concrete. They are basically located in forest areas and in wet territory and were installed during the 70s and 80s. Today these culverts are at the end of their product life cycle. After a collapse of structures in 2004, the Ministry of Equipment &, Transportation decided to secure the most critical ones. One third of the steel constructions (corrugated galvanized steel culverts) and a number of concrete culverts had visible defects. Nearly half of these culverts were in poor condition and required full rehabilitation as soon as possible. The tender issued by the technicians allowed the bidders free choice of techniques and products.