Road structure – process – or apparatus – Drain or gutter
Reexamination Certificate
2001-10-12
2003-07-01
Will, Thomas B. (Department: 3671)
Road structure, process, or apparatus
Drain or gutter
C404S036000, C405S043000, C405S046000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06585449
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an environment protecting gutter duct structure for a concrete roadway and particularly a gutter duct structure for channeling water on the concrete roadway top surface to prevent water from accumulating on the roadway top surface and to recycle rainfall in the earth to better meet environmental protection requirements.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventional concrete roadways are usually constructed by pouring concrete on a prepared ground, leveling the roadway, and paving a top surface layer on the leveled roadway. As the gaps between various layers are filled with concrete, and since concrete has poor water permeability, water or rainfall on the top surface layer tends to be trapped and accumulated without seeping underground to the earth and soil beneath the roadway. As a result, ground water is not sufficiently replenished and could cause harmful effect to the environments. To remedy this shortcoming, some roadways have included a water seeping layer. However the water seeping layer laid below the concrete top layer has litte effect due to water impermeability of the concrete top layer. To make the water seeping layer effective, it must be exposed to the top layer. In general, the water seeping layer is vertically laid. Hence openings have to be reserved during pouring the concrete, when the water seeping layers are filled into the openings. Such kind of construction takes lot of time. Moreover, the strength and appearance of the top surface layer will suffer accordingly. It is not a desirable method or technique.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of aforesaid disadvantages, it is a primary object of the invention to provide a gutter duct structure for a concrete roadway that has duct elements coupled with removable seal elements to channel water to a water seeping layer laying horizontally on the bottom layer of the roadway to achieve better draining.
Another object of the invention is to provide a gutter duct structure for a concrete roadway that has prefabricated and integrated duct elements and removable seal elements to cover the opening of the duct elements for speeding up construction of the roadway and to prevent concrete or other external objects from entering into the duct elements during the construction processes. The duct elements may be freed from clogging and the seal elements may be removed rapidly to allow water to flow to the bottom ends of the duct elements disposing of the water in the water seeping layer below the concrete top surface layer. Thus water and rainfall will be channeled from the top openings of the duct elements into the soil to recycle rainfall without being trapped on the top surface layer of the roadway. The invention offers excellent water permeability to the top surface layer.
A further object of the invention is to provide a gutter duct structure for water seeping concrete roadway that has unit brackets with top rims leveled with the top openings of the duct elements.
To attain the foregoing objects, the gutter duct structure of the invention mainly includes a plurality of duct elements coupled with seal elements. The duct elements are hollow struts. Each seal element engages with an opening formed at one end of the duct element and may be removed to expose the opening after construction of the roadway top surface layer is finished. The bottom end of the duct element is buried in the water seeping layer. The seal elements may be removed rapidly to channel water from the top surface layer to the water seeping layer. Thus construction of the roadway is simpler, faster and has water draining effect, and has a lower cost and greater practicality.
The foregoing, as well as additional objects, features and advantages of the invention will be more readily apparent from the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.
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patent: 4621942 (1986-11-01), Hill
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patent: 5449246 (1995-09-01), Housley
patent: 5848856 (1998-12-01), Bohnhoff
patent: 6095720 (2000-08-01), Stark
patent: 6206607 (2001-03-01), Medico et al.
patent: 6230468 (2001-05-01), Klaus
Addis Raymond W
Dennison, Schultz & Dougherty
Will Thomas B.
LandOfFree
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