Common menu bar links
Related Information
Institutes & Programs
Areas of Research
Communities
Careers
News
Events
Business Contact
Garry Timco
Phone: 613-993-6673
Fax: 613-952-7679
Email: Garry.Timco@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca
Confederation Bridge
CHC participated in the assessment and design of scour protection works for the Confederation Bridge , a 13 km long water-spanning bridge across Northumberland Strait linking the Canadian Provinces of New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island .
The Confederation Bridge
Scour at the pier bases is one of the most common ways for water-spanning bridges to fail. Scouring is brought on by the presence of the pier itself -- through the pier's influence on the surrounding flow. The pier causes the flow to accelerate and induces a pattern of complex three-dimensional vortices which increase the erosive forces exerted on the seabed. These unsteady flows can lead quickly to scour whenever the bed is too weak to resist the increased erosive force. Once initiated, scour holes can grow quickly - destabilizing the piers and undermining the integrity of the bridge. Under contract to W.F. Baird and Associates, CHC conducted studies to develop and validate the performance of scour protection measures for the piers of the Confederation Bridge.
Physical simulation of shallow-water hydrodynamics and scour at a pier base
