Category: Structural Design

What Is Riprap? And Why It Rocks!

What is Riprap? Riprap describes a range of rocky material placed along shorelines, bridge foundations, steep slopes, and other shoreline structures to protect from scour and erosion. Rocks used range from 4 inches to over 2 feet. The size of the rock needed on a project depends on the steepness of the slope and how… Read More »

What Is Bridge Scour? Why Should You Care?

The most common cause of bridge failures is from floods scouring bed material surrounding bridge foundations. What is scour? Simply put, scour is the engineering term for the erosion of soil surrounding a bridge foundation (piers and abutments). Bridge scour occurs when fast-moving water around a bridge removes sediment from… Read More »

Taking Notice: Is that a Bridge or a Culvert?

Drivers intent on getting from Point A to Point B probably don’t notice how many times their vehicles travel over culverts and bridges along the route. And that’s good: unless the structures are designed to capture attention and add to the scenery, bridges and culverts are purely functional, allowing traffic to pass over ravines, bodies of water, roadways, railroad… Read More »