3rd Conference on Sustainability in Civil Engineering (CSCE’21)

Department of Civil Engineering

Capital University of Science and Technology, Islamabad Pakistan

Flooding impacts on the Bridges- An overview

a
Syed Ali Shahbaz Shah
a: Department Of Civil Engineering, University Of Engineering & Technology Taxila, [email protected]

Abstract- Because of climate change and global warming, risks associated with floods
impose greater damages to infrastructure projects especially in case of bridges.
Destruction to these projects impacts local community and overall economy of the
country. So, the overall goal of this paper is to propose a design of bridge that will resist
every kind of flood. Unfortunately, if a bridge gets affected due to flood, my aim also
includes to provide mitigation measures. The specific purpose of my current research is
to identify the causes and effects of floods and provide adopted mitigation measures
during past floods in different areas worldwide. To achieve this purpose, I thoroughly
reviewed more than 20 peer reviewed articles of W platinum category. Major causes and
flooding impacts were identified during critical review. Then empirical finding are drawn
in which scouring showed seismic behavior on the bridge. Due to scouring,
seismic forces caused bridge piers to be displaced resulting in destruction of the
bridge. The obtained results are expected to be beneficial in general for similar
bridges under the same multi-hazard conditions.
Keywords- Flood effects, causes, scouring, bridge piers, mitigation

1 Introduction
Flood is ruinous hazard that is increasing as a results of temperature change and warming day by day. Bridges
are main course of movement over the rivers and floods in rivers affect the bridges. Several bridges folded
because of floods since the history. For example, cyclones and floods in Australia (2010–2012), hurricanes
named Ivan in 2004, Katrina in 2005, Ike of year 2008, Sandy in 2012 while Harvey, Irma and Maria which
happened in 2017, Florence (2018), tsunamis in the Indian Ocean in 2004 and Tohoku (2011), and typhoon of
Haiyan which occurred in 2013 resulted in destruction and collapse of plenty of bridges [5]. The impacts of
flooding have been aggravated in recent years by increase in population which implies increase of water tight
surfaces, unplanned land use flooding vulnerable areas and temperature change. Rain events that cause flooding
have become a lot of frequent and intense because of overall urbanization. Because of this development, floods
and scour are the most vital cause of bridge failures (>50% of all failures).
Human-being is making atmosphere worst in search of advance technologies. Greenhouse gas-induced climate
change in one of the example which is causing to boost the hydrological cycles. It results in higher water-
adoption capacity of the atmosphere which causes heavy precipitation. More precipitation in the atmosphere
causes extreme floods [6]. The main cause of bridge collapse in the whole world is scouring, which is mainly
caused due to flooding. Almost 6000 bridges of the United States of America and 140 railway bridges in United
Kingdom failed from 1846 to 2013, reported by the effect of scouring. Scouring is a phenomenon in which
water removes material from the channel. Due to scouring, stability of the bridge foundation reduces. If the
scour depth becomes significant, threat for bridge collision increases due to un-stability of the foundation [7].

Paper No. 21-XXX Page 1 of 7

 3rd Conference on Sustainability in Civil Engineering (CSCE’21)
Department of Civil Engineering
Capital University of Science and Technology, Islamabad Pakistan

Figure 1- Water level of 4 bridges without piers [2]

Bridge structure, especially piers are most exposed to floods and its effects. For example pressure of water and
high flow velocities near piers can cause erosions of the bed making bridge structure unstable. Impact of
riverine-floods on bridge piers is, therefore, of great importance for bridge design and for the management of
flood damage risks. Fig 1 and 2 shows difference in water level of 4 bridges in presence of piers and without
piers while table shows summarized computed data. It is obvious that in presence of piers, water level increases
due to back water effect hence making the bridge vulnerable to collision.

Figure 2- Water distribution of Fengxian bridge after 10 years with dotted piers computed [2, 4]

Although, scour is recognized as the main threat, hydrodynamic forces caused by floods due to excessive force
alongside scouring can also be as critical for bridge piers on bedrock and for the decks of all flooded bridges.
Any bridge failure, caused by flooding or any other reason, is crucial owners or responsible authorities, costing
money and time [8]. During the purposed life span of bridges, they are vulnerable to many hazards for example
hurricanes, earthquakes and flooding. Risk copping for highway bridges is getting importance from research

Paper No. 21-XXX Page 2 of 7

 3rd Conference on Sustainability in Civil Engineering (CSCE’21)
Department of Civil Engineering
Capital University of Science and Technology, Islamabad Pakistan

workers and policy-defining people to assess the service, sustainability and possible loss of bridges under
natural hazards. To overcome the impact of hazards, structural resilience must be kept in mind by considering
structural consistency before, during and after an extreme event [9]. River bridges maybe of many types like
pile supported, arched, cable supported and many others. In case of pile supported river bridges, changes occurs
in the foundation system due to loads caused by floods. These loads may persuade other changes like pressure
beneath the piles and may cause to a total collapse of the bridge. For example increasing flood load may cause
pressure on the foundation while causing scour too and the combine effect will cause just the collision of bridge.
Bridge scour is basically a process in which flooding causes the removal of soil particles from bed of the flow
channel which leads the structure to collapse. Increase in scour depth has worst effect on the supports of the
bridges. This process makes the bridges unstable hence making it potential threat for the public [10].
Table 1- Difference in water level with and without piers [2]

1.1 Bridge Damages in world due to flood

Riverine flooding causes gigantic losses in the world (approximately $314 million per year). For instance, the
Schoharie Creek Bridge in the New York City was collapsed in the year of 1987, the Hatchie Bridge in
Tennessee was destroyed in the month of April 1989, and the Hintze Ribeiro Bridge in Portugal demolished in
2001. Reason behind the destruction of these bridges was floods [11].

Table2- Estimated Damages in local area of Pakistan [4]

1.2 Damages due to flooding in Europe and Canada

In Europe, 100 plus crucial floods occurred between the four years from 1998 to 2002. Those floods were more
than almost 30 floods per year. In Canada, flood in spring season in Quebec and Ontario in 2017 was regarded
as the third most noticeable consequence in Canada’s top ten weather stories listed in the Canadian
Meteorological and Oceanographic Society [12].
1.3 Damages due to floods in Pakistan 2010
Pakistan faces Flood almost every year which results in life loss, agricultural damages, infrastructure loss, and
other properties like livestock. In the year 2010, Pakistan faced a century worst flood generated by 4-day raining

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 3rd Conference on Sustainability in Civil Engineering (CSCE’21)
Department of Civil Engineering
Capital University of Science and Technology, Islamabad Pakistan

spell from July 27 to 30 in the north western part of Pakistan. As a result, more than 1900 people died with
enormous economic loss of billions US dollars [4]. Table 2 shows some damages in the some areas of District
Muzaffar Garh.

2 Causes of River Flooding

Floods may occur due to many reasons. Snow melts in summer in the areas of higher altitude which causes
flood. Flood caused by melting of snow maybe caused as snow-melt [13]. Floods are mostly caused by weather
effects but sometimes may occur due to malfunction of hydraulic structures too. Underground surface state like
presence of water amount also plays important role to trigger floods by causing more precipitation. Floods are
occurring since the history but intensity of floods is increasing in the previous years due of climate change and
human interference. Commonly, flood are produced by some factors like unexpected plenty of rainfall, huge
melting of glaciers, glacial lake blow up, breakage of river banks, and inefficient dams [4]. For example in the
year of 2010, Pakistan faced gigantic flood in its history due to 4 day continuous raining in the upper part of
the country. Due to lack of hydraulic structures, it was not possible to cop up with such disaster and many of
river levees were breached which costed many lives including human and livestock. Materialistic losses are yet
to be determined [4]. Figure below shows the raining scenario in NWFP province.

Figure 3- Intensity of rain in NWFP Province [3]

As for the result, rain from above and wetness under the surface which causes rain is the reason major reason
behind flood generating processes, and these factors have different impact at different areas of the Earth [14].
Due to atmospheric temperature increment, flood events in coming years will tend to grow that will cause scour
in rivers resulting in destruction of bridges. Keeping in mind this scenario, bridges must be designed to
withstand scouring effects in order to protect bridges [6].

3 Impacts of River Flooding on Bridge and it’s Piers

Flooding causes boost of scouring due to removal of particles from the piers of bridges. Due to scouring around
piers, back water causes damage to the bridge due to its forces combined with flow pressure [2]. With increase
in flood velocity, this flow pressure also increases so design of bridge must be made by keeping in mind the
velocity, pressure, viscosity and drag forces around the piers [11]. Centre of flow makes an angle with the piers
so scouring becomes less in downstream flow and scouring area becomes wider from upstream to downstream
[15].

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 3rd Conference on Sustainability in Civil Engineering (CSCE’21)
Department of Civil Engineering
Capital University of Science and Technology, Islamabad Pakistan

Figure 4- Effect of scouring around pier and bridge collapse [3]

Scouring causes retardation of sediments deposition in the flow channel and vice versa. So it cause un-stability
of foundation and flow characteristics [16]. The flooding forces cause devastation of the structure. Resilience
analysis show damage state of the bridge in UK of 1 in 500 years flood return period, that the flooding impact
on a highway bridge caused more than 500k Euros damages. 93.5% was indirect damages which caused due
to new route defining and construction delays [8]. Scouring depth can be calculated by formula (qm2/qm1) and
it can be determined that scouring will push the shear forces towards the slope of base of piers hence
endangering the structure [17]. As discussed in details, scouring increases due to flooding and more the scouring
will cause more the structure instability by effecting the piers [7].

Figure 5- Installation of Collar around pier [1]

4 Mitigation of Bridge Collapse
To control bridge collapse, piers must be protected from scouring. Studies have shown that without protection,
scouring appears all around the pier. To protect the pier, protection collars around piers can be used. These
collars are in the form of circle to protect piers from all sides [1]. When soil underneath the foundation of
bridges is eroded due to scoring, threat increases for bridge collapse. Foundation height must be kept in mind
so that erosion affects the foundation from above but not underneath it [18]. Scouring protection in USA and
China suggest that when pier width is small and the pier/sediment ratio is in a proper range effect of scouring
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 3rd Conference on Sustainability in Civil Engineering (CSCE’21)
Department of Civil Engineering
Capital University of Science and Technology, Islamabad Pakistan

is also minimum. These methods mainly focus on particle size distribution. Scouring depth can also be reduced
by using riprap design[19]. As discussed above, collars can improve protection but these collars also depend
upon the flood period. For instance, chances for protected pier failure increased almost four 4x when flow
period increases about twenty percent. But in the presence of protection collars , the reliability of bridge piers ,
reliability of bridges increases lower flow velocity [20]. As for as climate change issue in concerned, people
must be aware of flood triggering caused by modern technologies and they must have open idea about the
devastation of flooding caused by pollution [12]. Due to atmospheric changes, flooding phenomenon in coming
era is expected to be aggressive and can cause greater depths of scour around bridge piers. As discussed above,
hydraulic structures must be designed to cop the floods up to the flood level [6].

5 Conclusion
Researches have shown that due to increasing flooding in the world, capacity of bridges must be enough to
withstand floods. Today’s empirical methods for guessing flood impact help to design bridges in flood hazard
areas. Backwater effect due to floods have catastrophic effects on bridge piers and piers must be designed to
bear the flood load. Scouring shows seismic behavior on the bridge. Due to scouring, seismic forces cause
bridge piers to be displaced resulting in destruction of the bridge.
Due to atmospheric changes, floods are increasing day by day hence increasing scour at bridge piers. So piers
must be designed in order to mitigate the scouring effect. So as discussed, data gathered from the flood events
all over the world provides better idea about the flood occurrence and scouring caused by it on bridges. So
bridges can be designed much better to withstand scouring.

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 3rd Conference on Sustainability in Civil Engineering (CSCE’21)
Department of Civil Engineering
Capital University of Science and Technology, Islamabad Pakistan

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