Performance of Kuparuk River Submersible Bridges and Low Water Roadway

For almost twenty years, road access between the Kuparuk oil field and the infrastructure at Prudhoe Bay/Deadhorse, Alaska was disrupted for an average of 6 weeks during spring flooding of the Kuparuk River. Although a permanent crossing was constructed across the Central Channel in 1981, the East and West Channel roadways were breached annually to allow passage of spring break-up flood waters. In 1999, permanent structures were constructed across the East and West Channels, providing access year-round, except for a maximum closure of one week during spring break-up. The innovative design of the east and west channel crossings involved a combination of low water roadways and submersible bridge designs. With this design, large spring floods are allowed to pass over low water roadways in all three channels and over the east and west channel bridges during extreme spring flood events. Since construction, the East and West Channel Crossings have experienced two break-up floods. This paper will discuss the observations and performance of the Kuparuk River Crossings during the 2000 and 2001 spring break-up floods and provide recommendations for future designs of similar crossings.

• Record URL:
  https://doi.org/10.1061/40621(254)35
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/9780784406212
• Supplemental Notes:
  • © 2002 American Society of Civil Engineers.
• Corporate Authors:

  American Society of Civil Engineers

  1801 Alexander Bell Drive
  Reston, VA  United States  20191-4400
• Authors:
  • Christopherson, Alan B
  • Braun, Kenton W
  • Thieman, Dempsey S
  • Hardison, III, Jasper H
• Conference:
  • 11th International Conference on Cold Regions Engineering
  • Location: Anchorage Alaska, United States
  • Date: 2022-5-20 to 2022-5-22
• Publication Date: 2002

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Pagination: pp 412-423
• Monograph Title: Cold Regions Engineering: Cold Regions Impacts on Transportation and Infrastructure

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bridge design; Bridges; Channels (Waterways); Floods; Submersibles
• Geographic Terms: Alaska
• Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Design; Highways;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01881278
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 9780784406212
• Files: TRIS, ASCE
• Created Date: Apr 26 2023 9:18AM