01550166

Component

Extreme weather events are occurring at an increasing frequency as experienced by devastating floods in recent years on the East Coast. Critical transportation infrastructure assets are under a continuous risk of flood hazards and subject to significant damage, such as washing away of pavements and bridges. Damaged infrastructure and disruption in transportation services lead to economic losses. Furthermore, inundation with floodwater as well as floodwater velocity can threaten the structural integrity of roads, bridges and other infrastructure assets. This paper describes a numerical flood model and flood inundation simulation effects on transportation infrastructure assets in a rural area of study in the Southeastern United States. For this purpose, three candidate study sites were identified in Mississippi. The Sardis site in the Northwest Mississippi is used for the pilot study. Initial flood simulation was conducted using the ground resolution of 10 m spatial accuracy and a two-dimensional numerical flood simulation model. The elevation accuracy is 4.7 ft (1.55 m). Flood propagation, flood inundation depth, floodwater velocity and flood arrival times were calculated at locations of bridges, and other selected transportation and building infrastructure assets. The first flood simulation results considering bare ground indicate that a total area of 31 sq miles (80 km2) was completely inundated with floodwater. Geospatial mapping of simulated flooded area shows that 12.4 miles (20 km) of flood inundation affected two major highways and bridges over the river, a rail line and a bridge over the river, two minor highways and 21 other bridges, most buildings, and an airfield. These infrastructure assets were inundated by 19–39 ft (6–12 m) of floodwater above the ground level. The floodwater overflowed by 13–16 ft (4–5 m) above the top of major highways, rail and bridges. These results are important for assessing the structural integrity of bridges and highway embankments subjected to the extreme flood inundation.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ABE40 Critical Transportation Infrastructure Protection.

01550057

15-1606

English

20p

2015

Transportation Research Board 94th Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Figures (6) ; Maps; Photos; References (18) ; Tables (2)

Bridges; Digital simulation; Floods; Infrastructure; Structural health monitoring; Weather conditions

Geospatial analysis

Sardis (Mississippi)

Environment; Highways; Maintenance and Preservation; Security and Emergencies; I15: Environment; I21: Planning of Transport Infrastructure; I61: Equipment and Maintenance Methods

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2015 Paper #15-1606

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Dec 30 2014 12:36PM