Research Areas

From the day they are placed into service, highway systems are attacked by the erosive actions of the streams and rivers they cross.  Better understanding of these forces and the deteriorating effects they have on stream-crossing structures leads to safer, less costly designs of bridges, culverts, and highway storm drainage structures.

The collapse of the Schoharie Creek Bridge in April 1987 caused by hydraulic scour.

Conducting research to gain a better understanding is the business of the Federal Highway Administration's Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center J. Sterling Jones Hydraulics Research Laboratory.  Follow these links to learn more about the laboratory's research areas.

Bridge Hydraulics
Scour | Scour Countermeasures | Software

Culvert Hydraulics
Hydraulic Performance | Scour | Software

Highway Drainage
Junction Losses | Inlets | Software