Best Management Practices for Stormwater Runoff Facilities: Detention vs. Retention
April showers bring more than May flowers. Snow melt and springtime rains also bring stormwater runoff pains. Why is stormwater runoff a problem? Stormwater runoff impacts two areas: water quantity and water quality. When vegetative surface cover is replaced with streets and buildings, the rate of stormwater runoff, which starts as precipitation (rain, sleet, and… Read More »
Tags: Detention Facilities, Erosion, Flood, Floodwater, Pollutants, Pollution, Retention Facilities, Sediments, Stormwater, Stormwater Runoff, Water Quality
Battling Bridge Scour With Research, Inspections, And Training
Some of the most important foundational elements of a bridge are its least visible – the abutments, piers, piles, and footings submerged under the waterline. That’s where bridge inspectors look for scour – the erosion of soil surrounding a bridge foundation (piers and abutments). Bridge scour occurs when fast-moving water around a bridge removes sediment… Read More »
Tags: Bridge, Bridge Inspection, Hydraulic Analysis, Scour, Scour Inspection, Structural Inspection, Underwater Inspection, Unknown Foundations, Unmanned Surface Vessel, USV
Award Winning Project Adds Resilience to Canyon Highway
By John Hunt, PE In September 2013 a flood devastated parts of Colorado, taking lives, destroying homes, and damaging critical infrastructure and transportation networks. The flooding was especially crippling to many mountain corridors north of Denver, where hundreds of miles of road were washed out, cutting off access to many small mountain towns. Among the… Read More »
Tags: 1D Modeling, 2D Modeling, Flooding, Hydraul Shear Stresses, Hydraulic Engineering, Matrix Riprap, One-Dimensional Hydraulic Modeling, Riprap, Scour, Two-Dimensional Hydraulic Modeling