Design Return Period

As per IRC: 5 – 2015 (Standard Specifications and Code of Practice for Road Bridges,
Section – 1, General Features of Design), bridges are designed for a return period of not
less than 100 years. A flood of this specified return period should pass easily through the
structure, while an extraordinary and rare flood may pass without doing excessive damage
to the structure or the road.
Design rainfall for drains in urban sections will be 25 years and for rural sections as 10 years
as per codal provisions of IRC: SP 42- 2014.
Rainfall intensity forecast based on the collected past records and the recent rainfall
occurrences in the years 2018 and 2019. Based on these incidents 25 years return period,
50 years return period and 100 years return period rainfall intensities have been estimated
using statistical tool (Gumbel’s Method).
Referring relevant IRC codes and CWC manual, the hydrology and hydraulic analysis of
Bridge structures have been carried out based on 100 years return period discharge, the
design of culverts have been carried out based on 50 years return period discharge and the
design of longitudinal side drains have been carried out based on 25 years return period
discharge.

Fixation of Design Discharge

The recommended rule (Clause 6.2 of IRC: SP: 13-2004 for Fixing Design Discharge of
small bridges) is that the flood discharges should be estimated at least by three different
ways and the highest values obtained should be adopted as the design discharge Qd,
provided it does not exceed the next highest discharge by more than 50%. If it does, restrict
it to that limit (i.e., Qd = 1.5 times of the second largest computed discharge). The same
methodology has been followed to fix the design discharge of each cross-drainage structure
of the project road.

Design Return Period

The design return period considered for following hydraulic parameters is described below:
For Waterway As per Cl. 106.3.1 of IRC-5: 2015, the design discharge for which the
waterway of the bridge is to be provided, shall be based on maximum flood discharge of
return period of 100 years. Therefore, 100 years return period design discharge has been
adopted for fixing the waterway of the bridge structures on the project road.

For HFL
High Flood Levels (HFLs) has been estimated on the basis of 100 years frequency flood with
backwater and has been compared with HFL value collected from local enquiry, if found
authentic. Higher of these two values has been adopted in design of the cross-drainage
structures.

For scour calculation

The stipulations of IRC-5:1998 and IRC-78: 2000 ha been adopted for estimating the scour
depth at the bridge pier and abutment locations. To provide for adequate margin of safety,
generally the foundation is designed for a larger discharge than the design discharge (IRC:
78- 2000, clause 703.1). The foundation shall be designed on the basis of 100 years return
period design discharge multiplied by a suitable factor based on size of the catchment area
as given below:
• For catchment area (CA) up to 3,000 sq.km. - 30 %
• For CA 3,000 to 10,000 sq.km. - 30 to 20 %
• For CA 10,000 to 40,000 sq.km. - 20 to 10 %
• For CA more than 40,000 sq.km. - 10 %
The provision of upstream and downstream protections/ cut off walls have been made for
box type bridges/ culverts to take care of scour and undermining.