Pipeline Crossing (Gas)- User Guide

The Pipeline Toolbox is home to many tools and calculators. The PLTB User’s Guide presents information, guidelines and procedures for use during design, construction, operations and integrity tasks for field or office applications. Analysis and design of buried pipelines are usually based on classical theories and semi-empirical methods. The confidence in these approaches is very limited and use of them could lead to a very conservative design, which could cause major increases in costs. One of such methods is the American Petroleum Institute API recommended practice 1102 to design pipelines which are to be located under highways and railroad crossings. The Wheel and Track Load Analysis calculations were designed to evaluate the overburden and vehicle loads on buried pipe with a Single Layer System (soil only) or a Double Layer Systems (timbers, pavement and soil).  Spangler computed the load transmitted to the pipe due to surface loading using Boussinesq theory for a surface point load or distributed load based on numerical integration.