According to FHWA, almost 36,000 bridges are located within 15 miles of the United States coastline. Many of these coastal bridges are vulnerable to storm surge and hurricane wave forces, and this is expected to worsen with rising sea levels associated with changing climate. The primary goal of this proposal is to lay the ground work for the development of tools and techniques for rapid prediction of storm surge and wave effects on coastal bridges.

The intended outcome of the project is to develop a computational platform for the rapid prediction of joint storm surge and wave loadings on coastal bridges, using storm parameters (e.g., size, intensity and translational speed) as inputs. The computational tool could also be used in real time by first responders in the event of storm-surge flooding due to extreme wind storms such as hurricanes and Nor’easters, by DOTs and state and local Offices of Emergency Services for scenario planning, and by engineers and planners for risk assessment.