Establish Guidance for Soils Properties―Based Prediction of Meander Migration Rate

Meander migration costs the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) millions of dollars to protect affected bridges and highway embankments, as illustrated by the case histories accumulated by this research team in phase 1 of this work. These histories include the SH 105 bridge over the Brazos River, the US 90 bridge over the Nueces River, the SH 105 bridge over the Trinity River, the US 59 bridge over the Guadalupe River, and the SH 80 bridge over the Guadalupe River. One recent meander migration threat (FM 787 at the Trinity River) required a $300,000 emergency countermeasure and a $5.6 million replacement bridge. Several solutions for predicting the movement of meanders have been proposed in the past. This report shows these solutions to be unreliable. The solution outlined in this report considers soil erodibility as an independent parameter influencing meander migration. Other conventional parameters such as flow velocity, meander radius of curvature, river width, and others are part of the proposed solution. Through a combination of well-instrumented large-scale flume tests, quality numerical simulations, and fundamental laboratory erosion tests, a simple and reliable solution is developed.

• Record URL:
  http://tti.tamu.edu/documents/0-4378-1.pdf
• 
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Project Title: Establish Guidance for Soils Properties–Based Prediction of Meander Migration Rate. Report Date: January 2007; Published Date: April 2007.
• Corporate Authors:

  Texas Transportation Institute

  Texas A&M University System, 3135 TAMU
  College Station, TX  United States  77843-3135

  Texas Department of Transportation

  Research and Technology Implementation Office, P.O. Box 5080
  Austin, TX  United States  78763-5080

  Federal Highway Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Briaud, Jean-Louis
  • Chen, Hamn-Ching
  • Chang, Kuang-An
  • Chung, Young-An
  • Park, Namgyu
  • Wang, Wei
  • Yeh, Po-Hung
• Publication Date: 2007-4

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Edition: Technical Report
• Features: Appendices; CD-ROM; Figures; Maps; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 338p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bridges; Costs; Embankments; Erosion; Laboratory tests; Meanders
• Uncontrolled Terms: Meander migration; Sediment transport; Soil properties
• Geographic Terms: Texas
• Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Finance; Geotechnology; Highways; Hydraulics and Hydrology; I26: Water Run-off - Freeze-thaw; I42: Soil Mechanics;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01053615
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: FHWA/TX-07/0-4378-1, Report 0-4378-1
• Contract Numbers: Project 0-4378
• Files: TRIS, USDOT, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Jul 18 2007 3:36PM