The Florida Institute of Consulting Engineers is recognizing a massive effort to evaluate the incidence of dangerous scour among more than 1,500 Florida bridges with “unknown foundations” – ones whose foundation construction documentation is lacking – by awarding the project a 2017 Grand Award for Engineering Excellence.

Ayres Associates and GCI Inc, in partnership with Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc. and STV Incorporated, meticulously analyzed bridges susceptible to scour – the engineering term for the erosion of soil surrounding a bridge foundation – thereby helping the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) to decide which bridges are candidates for repair, replacement, or protection from scour.

The team also developed innovative and rational methods that advance the state of practice in assessing bridges with unknown foundations. Lead practitioners for the project say the important contributions made by the team will ensure safer structures and lead to new standards for bridge evaluations. The team leaders have presented their methods and findings regionally, nationally, and internationally to others in the industry, governmental agencies, and academic institutions. Ayres Associates’ FDOT scour evaluation efforts have been led by Hisham Sunna, PhD, PE.

The firms assembled multidisciplinary teams to complete risk assessment, field investigations and reviews, surveys, non-destructive testing, scour analysis, geo-structural evaluations, and development of plans of action for scour countermeasures. Methodologies developed during their efforts add significant value to the engineering profession and decidedly advance the state of practice, team leaders say. Innovations included a pioneering method for pile embedment estimation, as well as the first known approach to rationally include consideration of the substructure in bridge load ratings. Bridge load ratings are typically assigned based solely on evaluation of the superstructure, which consists of the beams and deck directly beneath traffic. Such load rating could cause catastrophic results if the load-carrying capacity of the substructure, which includes abutments and piers, is deficient.

A few of our scour inspection projects are profiled here. FICE’s announcement of the award is available at https://www.fleng.org/fice/images/2017-EEA-WinnersPressRelease.pdf.