Nebraska LTAP
Date of this Version
5-2022
Document Type
Article
Citation
Anderson, M.R. and Bundy, L.R. (May 2022). "An Investigation of Water Obstructions and Related Weather Conditions for Nebraska Roadways". NDOT Research Report FY21(001).
Abstract
Roadway resilience across the 10,000 miles of road and 3,500 bridges in Nebraska is critical to the economic success of productionand logistics. In a state where historical flooding scenarios, such as the one in March 2019 that caused $150 million in damage,could potentially be increasing, it has become essential to understand the spatial and temporal distribution of high-frequency waterobstruction areas on roadways. Therefore, in order to further investigate these areas, the main objectives of this research were toperform statistical and spatial analyses to quantify the relationship between water obstructions and their associated meteorologicalconditions, and identify the potential linkages between water obstructions and climate patterns. Nebraska Department ofTransportation (NDOT) historical water obstruction data were obtained for June 2016 through August 2021 to formulate 298 totalunique water obstructions, of which 174 came from March 2019, and 225 in total came from 2019 alone. While 2019 was anoutlier year, on a median basis, the state experiences 13 water obstructions annually and these occur primarily in the summerseason. A key finding in this analysis was that water obstructions over the study period were closely related with 30-yearclimatological data, which can then be used for water obstruction risk assessment on a seasonal and annual basis. Groundwater, icejamming, and long- and short-duration precipitation obstructions occurred most frequently in the northern and eastern domains ofNebraska. There is a greater risk of water obstructions reoccurring given the exposure to weather-related hazards on average, andthe higher density of roadways exposed to rivers such as the Elkhorn and Platte. In addition to identifying specific high-frequencywater obstruction locations, there is a predictable relationship between weather, climate, and roadway water obstructions. Afundamental understanding of the water obstruction spatiotemporal climatology, knowledge of where water obstructions haveoccurred the most, and identifying the precursor and future meteorological conditions, a more proactive approach can be taken inthe onset of potential water obstructions. Further, the identification of the high-frequency water obstruction locations can beconsidered for mitigation efforts to increase the resiliency of travel from water obstructions.