Winter conditions and winter maintenance of the forest road have destructive impact on pipe culverts, as they reduce their functionality and increase maintenance costs. The purpose of this work is to establish the number and status of pipe culverts and the influence of winter on their function at New Javornik Forest Road, district Otok - Karlovica. To this end, we have drawn uprecord lists and made an inventory of all pipe culverts in a length of 10 kmof the New Javornik forest road. The status was established before first snowfall in autumn, after thaw in spring and one year later. A comparison of first and last records shows a noticeable difference in the status before first snow and after thaw. Before first snow, the clogging of majority of inflow shafts ranged between 11 % and 50 % (50 %), the smallest number of inflow shafts clogged in a range from 81 % to 100 % (10 %). However, last record taken after thaw shows the largest number of inflow shafts clogged from 81 % to 100 % (40 %) and the smallest number of inflow shafts clogged up to 10 % (10 %). Comparable results were established as regards the clogging oftubes in pipe culverts. The first record taken before first snow indicates both 30 % of tubes clogged up to 10 % and tubes clogged from 81 % to 100 %. The last record, however, indicates 50 % of tubes clogged from 81 % to 100 %. The smallest number of tubes indicates clogging up to 10 % (10 %). We have established that winter and precipitations increase the likelihood of clogging of pipe culverts, thus necessitating regular cleaning and maintenance there of in such a manner that drainage of water is taken care of before autumn rainfalls.
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