Management of bridges with shallow foundations exposed to local scour

Abstract

The Serbian road network includes the large portion of bridges with shallow foundations that are vulnerable to local scour as tragically demonstrated during the extreme flooding in May 2014. In order to enhance preparedness for future flooding events, the novel methodology for quantitative vulnerability assessment is suggested as a tool to identify the most vulnerable bridges. Here, the essential task is evaluation of the conditional probability of a bridge failure due to local scour of a certain magnitude. In the evaluation, additional data is required besides the information from the Serbian bridge database, thus it is essential to establish precise practice-ready guidelines for its in-situ collection. The results of vulnerability assessments are the basis for development of vulnerability maps for flooding events of different magnitude. The maps give road operators the information necessary to plan timely maintenance actions and aid in assigning of appropriate quality control plans to vulnerable bridges.