Inspection

The main crossing over Silver Creek is supported by a couple of ancient steel culverts that some farmer placed in the present location sometime forever ago.  

Who knows how long ago.  

A couple of decades ago I had a conversation with the Door County Soil and Water guy about what the rules might be if I ever had to replace them.

At the time of this conversation I was presented with a couple of choices - replace the culverts with a single larger culvert designed to handle a 100 year flood event.  Which is a big damn culvert.  Large enough to almost stand upright within.  

Or, replace the culverts with a concrete apron over which the water would flow and a vehicle could cross.  Both would allow for improved hydrology (water flow).  

That said, he observed that the steel culverts are 'grandfathered' and counseled to leave them alone for two reasons.  

1.  Any changes would give someone either upstream or downstream to blame me for a persistently pre-existing wet or dry condition as a consequence of any changes made.  In other words a convenient excuse for a lazy nuisance lawsuit. 

2.  The creek is classified as a navigable stream and any crossing would have to be permitted by the US Army Corps of Engineers.  Which is an exceedingly complicated process.

We took a peek the other today to inspect the culverts for any obstructions.  

The bottoms are corroded and gone yet the remaining hulls appear to be structurally sound with no evidence of imminent collapse.

We're not screwing with them.....