FHWA Research Activities

J. Sterling Jones

An overview of FHWA research in hydraulics and hydrology including work that is being conducted in the FHWA hydraulics laboratory will be followed by a more detailed description of a risk based procedure that has been developed for optimal selection of bridge scour countermeasures. This procedure was developed in response to the State Bridge Engineer for Minnesota DOT, Don Fleming (retired), who constantly searched for a procedure that would assist in countermeasure selection for bridges with limited service life remaining. If time permits, a couple of 2 to 5 minute videos of laboratory experiments will be shown. One is on testing that was done for the Debris Free sweepers that have been installed on a number of bridges in the U.S. The other is on flow visualization techniques being developed in the lab.