Risk-costs for Scour at Unknown Bridge Foundations

Authors

• G. Kenneth Young, GKY and Associates, Inc.
• Stuart M. Stein, GKY and Associates, Inc.
• Roy Trent, Federal Highway Administration

Date of this Version

1992

Comments

Published in Hydraulic Engineering: Saving a Threatened Resource—In Search of Solutions: Proceedings of the Hydraulic Engineering sessions at Water Forum ’92. Baltimore, Maryland, August 2–6, 1992. Published by American Society of Civil Engineers.

Abstract

A risk method sets priorities for bridge foundation information gathering. Scour failure risk is the product of failure cost and the probability of failure. The method is based on data (much of which is subjective) in the National Bridge Inventory, NBI. Risk determines the ranking of bridges for foundation data gathering in support of scour evaluation; high risks could vanish if substantial foundations are discovered.