Climate change will ultimately affect our bridges. But to what extent?
That is the essential question addressed by researchers David Yang and Dan M. Frangopol in a paper recently published in the ASCE Journal of Bridge Engineering.
“We know climate change will increase the frequency and intensity of natural hazards like hurricanes, heat waves, wildfires, and extreme rains,” says Yang, a postdoctoral research associate in civil and environmental engineering. “For this paper, we’re looking at increased temperature as well as increased precipitation and their impact on bridge safety. The challenge here was that we didn’t know how to quantify those impacts to predict scour risk.”
Scour is the primary source of bridge failure in the United States. It’s created when floodwaters erode the materials around a bridge’s foundation, creating scour holes that compromise the integrity of the structure.