Last year, we located 9 stone arch culverts near Dexter, Cowley County, Kansas, and placed them on our Cowley County bridge page. Recently, we visited the area again, and in so doing found a tiny stone arch culvert that we had overlooked the first time, and also learned more about several of the other stone arch culverts we had previously found.
A New Addition to the Cowley County Bridge Page
The tiny stone arch culvert we discovered is located on 182nd Road, a short way west of 182nd’s intersection with the north-south 291st Road. It has been widened on one side with a concrete pipe, and appears to be in good condition, though it is clear the builder had some difficulties in turning such a tiny arch!
It has been added to our Cowley bridge map and list, number 51.
The Composite Culverts
A close look at several other of the culverts we found last year revealed that three of these structures were, in fact, composite structures. This detail requires a careful investigation to confirm, as many of the true stone arch culverts near Dexter have mortar coating the underside of the arch, due to how they were constructed. However, the mortar coating the arch usually is broken off in places, revealing stone, while looking at the composite culverts shows a subtle transition from stone to concrete. Also, the aggregate can usually be seen where the concrete has deteriorated slightly.
We had previously found one confirmed composite culvert, with stone facing to a concrete arch. This type of construction is somewhat uncommon, but a well-known example of this can be found in the triple-arch Otter Creek Bridge in Greenwood County, Kansas.
As it turned out, we had found a total of four composite culverts near Dexter. A close look inside revealed the concrete arch within the stone arch.
All of the above pictured culverts proved to be composite structures. We have updated our Cowley stone bridge list to mention this. Below is shown the composite culvert we mentioned finding last year.
The other stone arch culverts we mentioned finding in the Dexter area appear to be made completely of stone. Previously, we had thought we had found several stone arch culverts that had collapsed and the arches had been replaced in concrete, but it turned out these were also composite structures, and only the stone arch facing had collapsed. If you drive the roads of the Dexter area you can find a distinct evolution of road culverts. Some are true stone, some are concrete/stone composite structures, some are concrete arches, some are concrete slabs on stone abutments, and, of course, the ubiquitous concrete slab culverts are represented as well.
Stone Arch Bridges 