New Deal Accomplishment: Over 1.2 million new culverts


Above: One of the one million+ new culverts that the WPA installed across the United States. This photograph, taken on May 8, 1936, shows a 48-inch corrugated metal culvert installed on the Foxville Farm-to-Market road in Frederick County, Maryland. Photo from the University of Maryland College Park Archives.


Above: Another WPA culvert project in Frederick County, Maryland, this one on the Burkittsville-Petersville Farm-to-Market Road, April 20, 1937. Photo from the University of Maryland College Park Archives.


Above: A WPA-installed culvert on Lake Shore Drive, Cleveland, Ohio, ca. 1936. Photo from the National Archives.


Above: The description for this photograph, taken in Binghamton, New York, between 1935 and 1943, reads, "One of the 2 culverts built by WPA workers in the city. This project is known as the Bayless Ave. Culverts and employed 37 men." Photo from the National Archives.


Above: The description for this photograph, taken on April 24, 1939, reads, "Showing new style WPA-built galvanized culvert with concrete head-wall. Typical of 30 odd such structures in the city of Brewton, Alabama, which have replaced old style wooden structures in the city." Photo from the National Archives.


Above: A rock culvert built by WPA workers, in or near Zion National Park, Utah, 1942. Photo from the Library of Congress.

Above: A CCC-built culvert at Theodore Roosevelt National Park (then called the Roosevelt Recreation Demonstration Area), North Dakota, ca. 1935. Photo by Jerome Orf, provided courtesy of the Theodore Roosevelt Center, Dickinson State University.

Keeping the water flowing

Culverts are often taken for granted because they're usually "out-of-sight, out-of-mind." However, they're vital tools for preventing road damage, flooding, and soil erosion. Between 1935 and 1943, WPA workers installed 1,052,612 new culverts across the U.S. and reconstructed or improved another 126,321 (Final Report on WPA, p. 131). The National Youth Administration (NYA) installed 164,747 new culverts and reconstructed or improved another 39,161 (NYA Final Report, p. 140). 

The Work Division of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) reported 10,651 new large culverts installed and 11,395 existing large culverts improved (Final Report for the Work Division of FERA, p. 41); and in his book Long-Range Public Investment: The Forgotten Legacy of the New Deal, Robert Leighninger, Jr., notes 10,000 large culverts installed by the Civil Works Administration (CWA) (p. 51).

There were many more culverts installed by other New Deal programs, mainly by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the Public Works Administration (PWA), but these totals do not seem to have been widely-reported. 

From the above statistics we can see that the New Deal installed over 1.2 million new culverts, but the exact number could be around 1.5 to 2 million.

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