A practical method to assess risks from large wood debris accumulations at bridge piers
Panici, D; Kripakaran, P; Djordjevic, S; et al.Dentith, K
Date: 20 April 2020
Journal
Science of the Total Environment
Publisher
Elsevier
Publisher DOI
Abstract
Accumulations of large woody debris can worsen scour at a bridge pier
and thereby lead to structural damage. Accumulations can also increase the
flood risk in adjacent areas. These consequences can cause disruption to
local communities and even pose a risk to human life. Current methodologies acknowledge the existence of these effects ...
Accumulations of large woody debris can worsen scour at a bridge pier
and thereby lead to structural damage. Accumulations can also increase the
flood risk in adjacent areas. These consequences can cause disruption to
local communities and even pose a risk to human life. Current methodologies acknowledge the existence of these effects of debris but do not provide a
practical method, usable by engineers and practitioners, to assess the potential for debris accumulation at a bridge structure based on readily available
data. This work aims to address this practical need by proposing a methodology based on direct and indirect observations. Using this methodology, a
desk-based analysis can be performed to assess whether a bridge is prone to
the formation of debris accumulations. Direct observations may include information from inspection reports, satellite imagery and tree removal works,
while indirect observations may use information related to the geographical
location of the bridge such as on other structures that share the watercourse
or the presence of forested areas in its proximity. This methodology has been
applied to local authority-owned bridges in Devon, UK. Results show that
a large number of the structures (100 out of over 3000 bridges) are liable
to debris accumulations. Direct observations served as primary evidence for
over 80% of the bridges liable to debris accumulations. For many cases,
direct observations existed to corroborate indirect observations suggesting
that indirect observations can also be relied upon. The proposed methodology has also been applied to the prioritisation of bridge inspections for
scour assessment. Results showed that many of the bridges prone to debris
accumulations would need to be prioritised for scour inspections over other
bridges in the aftermath of floods due to their significantly higher risk to scour in the presence of debris.
Engineering
Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's licence is described as © 2020. Open access under a Creative Commons license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/