USGS National Scour Countermeasures Evaluation

From the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS):

#SciSelfieSunday — Meet Justin Boldt, a hydrologist out of Louisville, Kentucky, with the USGS Indiana-Kentucky Water Science Center. In this shot, Justin is on the left bank of the Apalachicola River under the I-10 bridge. He is part of the USGS National Scour Countermeasures Evaluation team, which is working with the Federal Highway Administration to evaluate the effectiveness and long-term performance of scour countermeasures placed near bridges throughout the U.S. In the background is a USGS survey boat collecting multibeam data around the bridge piers. This piece of equipment uses sonar to create a bathymetric map of the river bottom and pier footings.

Bridge scour is the removal of material from around piers and abutments caused by flowing water, and scour countermeasures aim to prevent or reduce bridge scour by various techniques, such as aligning the upstream flow or stabilizing the river bottom around piers with gabion mattresses or riprap. The goal of this project is to identify the state of practice in the design, construction, and maintenance of a variety of countermeasure types in a range of locations and hydraulic environments. Identifying countermeasure sites surviving major floods, those experiencing necessary or reoccurring repairs, and those with indications of failure are all of interest in this project.

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