A cost efficient culvert could possibly be made using 2-3 salvaged fuel tanks placed side-by-side with about 2 feet of space between each one. You cut the ends out of the tanks leaving about 4 inches of the end wall all the way around the outer diameter. If the tanks have alot of fuel residue in them, then pressure wash inside the tanks good before placement. Backfill around the tanks with sand and top off with about 6-8 inches of crushed stone or concrete. Good top cover over culverts is very important. Lots of farmers here in North Carolina have used salvaged fuel tanks removed from gas stations for culverts.
after probably 25 years of trying different things to cross our creek I finally got it right. We first had a small creek that you could jump across and now due to more homes, more roads, a shoping mall and just good ole' mother nature we have a 20' wide crossing. We had a bridge at one point built out of free telephone poles and 2x12's, worked great until we had a crazy flood, the bridge turned into a raft. I placed a "dead man" on one corner and chained it down so the raft didint get far. We now have 3 concrete culverts with set up like this __O___O___O__, i placed large rocks between them, covered the rocks and culverts with flat sandstone and concrete. The most important thing was to put rocks out into the creek to direct the water into the culverts. You will also need to protect the bank on both sides with rocks or gabion box's to slow down erosion. Cutting down the bank to acess the crossing will also cause erosion, I curently have my ramps packed with clay and that has been very efective.
the only thing we ever paid for in this process was bags of redi mix, the culverts were all free due to cracks, broken flanges, or cut down left overs. Large rocks were the key, when you have a flood the forces that are on a crossing are extreme and unpredictable. good luck
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