Working on behalf of the USDOT Federal Highway Administration – Central Federal Lands Highway Division (CFLHD), in collaboration with the Hawaii Department of Transportation, the GMC coastal team (formerly South Coast Engineers) performed a comprehensive assessment of bridge vulnerability in the Wainiha River valley on the island of Kauai, Hawaii.
The site location has a long history of exposure to coastal hazards, where three original bridges suffered damage during multiple tsunamis and extreme winter storm events. To support the replacement of three temporary ACROW bridges, our coastal team evaluated hydrodynamic loads on substructure and superstructure bridge elements for the 1% annual chance coastal storm and tsunami inundation scenarios.
Though analysis did show that the bridge superstructures could not practically withstand the tsunami loads, the team's guidance helped CFLHD implement some minor design improvements to the abutment walls, foundations, and approaches to improve their resilience. Ensuring the integrity of the abutment walls and approaches allows Hawaii DOT to rapidly respond with temporary bridge span trusses after an event.
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