Flooding Impacts on the Bridges- An Overview

SYED ALI SHAHBAZ SHAH

UET TAXILA.
 Introduction

 Flood is ruinous hazard that is increasing as a results of temperature change and

warming day by day. Bridges are main course of movement over the rivers and
floods in rivers affect the bridges.
 The impacts of flooding have been aggravated in recent years by increase in
population which implies increase of water tight surfaces, unplanned land use
flooding vulnerable areas and temperature change. Rain events that cause
flooding have become a lot of frequent and intense because of overall
urbanization. Because of this development, floods and scour due to floods are
the most vital cause of bridge failures (>50% of all failures).
 Research Motivation

 Riverine flooding causes gigantic losses in the world (approximately 314 Million
Dollars per year). For instance, in the New York City, Schoharie Creek Bridge in the
year of 1987, in Tennessee the Hatchie Bridge in the month of April 1989, and the
Hintze Ribeiro Bridge in Portugal was destroyed in 2001. Reason behind the
destruction of these bridges was floods.
 Pakistan faces Flood almost every year which results in life losses, agricultural
damages, infrastructure loss, and other properties like livestock. In the year 2010,
Pakistan faced a century worst flood which was triggered by 4-day raining spell from
27-30 July in the north western province of Pakistan. As a result, more than 1900
people lost their lives while the economy faced loss of billions US dollars. Table
coming next shows some damages in the some areas of District Muzaffargarh.
Table 1- Estimated Damages in local canal bridges of Pakistan [4]
 Causes Of River Flooding

 Floods may occur due to many reasons. Snow melts in summer in the areas of higher
altitude which causes flood. Some other noticeable causes for riverine flooding are:
 Floods are mostly caused by weather effects but sometimes may occur due to
malfunction of hydraulic structures too.
 Underground surface state like presence of water amount also plays important role to
trigger floods by causing more precipitation.
 It is true that most of the times, raining, snow melting, excessive rainfall on moisture
land and raining in snowy areas are key to flood generating causes but floods can
occur due to unseen events like dam over turn, Glacier jam and rise in water level
due to hindrance in flow by any means.
 Causes Of River Flooding [Contd.]

 It is true that there are many factors which may contribute towards riverine flooding
but mostly it happens due to excessive rain fall. For example in the year of 2010,
Pakistan faced gigantic flood in its history due to 4 day continuous raining in the
upper part of the country. Figure 1 shows intensity of rain in different areas of NWFP
province of Pakistan.

Figure 1: Intensity of rain in NWFP Province [4]

 Effects Of flooding on Bridge Piers

 Flooding causes boost of scouring due to removal of particles from the piers of
bridges. Due to scouring around piers, back water causes damage to the bridge due to
its forces combined with flow pressure. When water flows with higher velocity due
to flood, pressure also increases. So due to this increased pressure, water when
moves along the piers of bridge, pressure is distributed along the overall height of
the pier.
 When destructive floods occur, water channel feels larger velocity and flow depth.
This high velocity cause to create new process like removal of bed material from
flow channel. This process causes to make abutments of bridge weaker hence
endangering the overall stability of bridge. Figure in the next slide shows that how
removal of particles from bridge piers cause the destruction of the bridge.
Effects Of flooding on Bridge Piers [Contd.]

Figure 2- Effect of scouring around pier and bridge

collapse [5]
 Mitigation Of Bridge Collapse

 To control bridge collapse, piers must be protected from scouring. Studies have shown that without
protection, scouring appears all around the pier. To protect the pier, protection collars around piers can
be used. These collars are in the form of circle to protect piers from all sides. These collars are shown
below in the figure 3.

Figure 3- Installation of Collar around pier [6]

 Mitigation Of Bridge Collapse [Contd.]

 Collars maybe of different shapes like either rectangular or circular. But as far as
performance is concerned, rectangular collars proved better performance in
controlling the scour and its’ causes.
 As far as design on bridges in concerned, when soil underneath the foundation of
bridges is eroded due to scoring, threat increases for bridge collapse. So
Foundation height must be kept in mind so that erosion affects the foundation
from above but not underneath it.
 As for as climate change issue in concerned, people must be aware of flood
triggering caused by modern technologies and they must have open idea about
the devastation of flooding caused by pollution. Due to atmospheric changes,
flooding phenomenon in coming era is expected to be aggressive and can cause
greater depths of scour around bridge piers
 Conclusions

 Researches have shown that due to increasing flooding in the world either by
nature or atmospheric changes by humans itself, capacity of bridges must be
enough to withstand flooding impacts. Today’s empirical methods for guessing
flood impact help to design bridges in flood hazard areas. Backwater effect due
to floods have catastrophic effects on bridge piers and piers must be designed to
bear the flood load. Scouring shows seismic behavior on the bridge. Due to
scouring, seismic forces cause bridge piers to be displaced resulting in
destruction of the bridge.
 Due to atmospheric changes, floods are increasing day by day hence increasing
scour at bridge piers. So piers must be designed in order to mitigate the scouring
effect. So as discussed, data gathered from the flood events all over the world
provides better idea about the flood occurrence and scouring caused by it on
bridges. So bridges can be designed much better to withstand scouring.
 Recommendations

In the note of all discussion, The Author would like to recommend a few things for
prevention the risks of floods and bridges in consequences.
 Every single person must know about global warming threats which may lead
towards melting of glaciers hence causing floods.
 Hydraulic structures like dams must be prime priority to mitigate the flooding
risks.
 Design of bridges must be accurate to cop the flooding threats.
 Acknowledgment

 The author would like to thank Dr. Majid Ali, Doctor Usman and Engr. Hammad
Raza who helped me in my research work. The deliberative reviews and
appropriate suggestions from anonymous reviewers are highly acknowledged.
 Any Questions?

Shahbaz.shah77@yahoo.com
 References

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 References

 [6] S. Wang, K. Wei, Z. Shen, and Q. Xiang, "Experimental investigation of local

scour protection for cylindrical bridge piers using anti-scour collars," Water, vol.
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Poster