Vehicular Safety During Wave-Overtopping of Coastal Highways

Coastal highway embankments can be subject to over-topping from waves during strong coastal storms impacting the safety and efficiency of vehicles and causing scour that can undermine the highway. Overtopping is of increasing concern due to sea level rise and climate changes to the intensity, duration, and number of storm events. Using test data from recent wave overtopping experiments conducted at the Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory at Oregon State University, this study will assess safety of different types of vehicles coincidently travelling on coastal highways subjected to overtopping. The test data included in this research are different combinations of wave forcing conditions and still water levels. Both grey infrastructure designs of embankments and a seaward nature-based wave attenuation design that used synthetic mangroves, will be considered. Applying different thresholds of overtopping conditions based on existing design standards (USACE Coastal Protection Manual), temporally variable system safety reliabilities will be evaluated. The temporal reliability is especially of interest for nature-based designs whose properties vary over the design life. Results can be used to evaluate safety probabilities of conventional designs and nature-based designs including the influence of sea level rise.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Project Partner: University Puerto Rico Mayaguez

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $100000
• Sponsor Organizations:

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590

  Coastal Research and Education Actions for Transportation Equity

  Texas State University
  San Marcos, TX  United States  77666

  Oregon State University, Corvallis

  Department of Civil Engineering
  202 Apperson Hall
  Corvallis, OR  United States  97331-2302
• Managing Organizations:

  Coastal Research and Education Actions for Transportation Equity

  Texas State University
  San Marcos, TX  United States  77666

  Oregon State University, Corvallis

  School of Civil and Construction Engineering
  101 Kearney Hall
  Corvallis, OR  United States  97331-2302
• Project Managers:

  Bruner, Britain

  Kulesza, Stacey

• Performing Organizations:

  Oregon State University, Corvallis

  School of Civil and Construction Engineering
  101 Kearney Hall
  Corvallis, OR  United States  97331-2302
• Principal Investigators:

  Cox, Daniel

• Start Date: 20231001
• Expected Completion Date: 20241231
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers Program

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Coasts; Floods; Highway design; Highways; Overtopping; Sea level; Vehicle safety
• Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Hydraulics and Hydrology; Safety and Human Factors; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01895252
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Coastal Research and Education Actions for Transportation Equity
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Oct 3 2023 9:57PM