Coastal Highways – Coastal Science Concepts - a PDH Online Course for Engineers, Architects and Surveyors

Coastal Highways – Coastal Science Concepts

Course Outline

This four-hour online course serves as an entry level primer for the planning and design of highways in the coastal environment. Coastal highways are influenced by tides and storms and have unique planning issues. The course includes coastal revetment design, planning and alternatives for highways that are threatened by coastal erosion and roads that overwash in storms. Also included are coastal bridge issues such as wave loads on bridge decks.

Some of the topics covered by the course:

Design of revetments or seawalls to resist wave attack.
Solutions for highways that are threatened by coastal shoreline recession.
Quantifying shoreline change rates and estimating future positions.
Solutions and effectiveness examples of prior repairs for threatened roads and bridges.
Weir action of coastal highways during storm surges and engineering strategies for overwashed highways.
Causes for bridge failures in coastal areas.
Available engineering tools for dealing with bridges under attack in a coastal environment.
Wave loads on bridge decks and estimation of wave runup.
Coastal sediment transport, littoral drift, cross-shore and longshore sand movement, dunes and barriers.

This course includes a multiple-choice quiz at the end, which is designed to enhance the understanding of the course materials.

Learning Objective

At the conclusion of this course, the student will have covered these topics:

Design of revetments or seawalls to resist wave attack;
Hudson’s equation for determining wave height and sizing revetment;
Methods for estimating design wave heights;
Solutions for highways that are threatened by coastal shoreline recession;
Quantifying shoreline change rates and estimating future positions;
Non-traditional solutions for coastal structures;
Solutions and effectiveness examples of prior repairs for threatened roads and bridges;
Weir action of coastal highways during storm surges and engineering strategies for overwashed highways;
Causes for bridge failures in coastal areas;
Available engineering tools for dealing with bridges under attack in a coastal environment;
Wave loads on bridge decks and estimation of wave runup;
Effect of tides and water level fluctuations caused by storm surges;
Coastal sediment transport, littoral drift, cross-shore and longshore sand movement, dunes and barriers;
Beach terminology, erosion processes and concepts;
Shoreline “weak points” caused by bridges, inlet canals, and drainage features; and
Action of tidal inlets on bays, barrier islands, and beaches.

Intended Audience

This course is intended for civil, roadway and hydraulic engineers, field inspectors, planners and project engineers.

Benefit to Attendees

The student will become familiar with the planning and design of highways in the coastal environment.

Course Introduction

There over 60,000 miles of coastal highways in the US which are exposed to storm surges, wave attack, tides and storms including hurricanes and El Niño events. The course presents some of the coastal engineering used for highway planning and design to deal with the unique coastal environments. The impacts of storms, waves, wave runup and washover on coastal highways are presented. It covers the design of revetments, shoreline protection, beach nourishment; rock groins and other structures and issues in bridge protection. Overall the course serves as a guide and reference in planning coastal highways.

Course Content

The course is based on Chapters 4, 6 - 10 of the US DOT Federal Highway Administration publication FHWA NHI-07-096, “Highways in the Coastal Environment”, (2008 Edition, 116 pages), PDF file. A glossary is included to for quick reference to the terms discussed in the FHWA NHI-07-096 text, 18 pages, PDF file. The link to the US DOT FHWA publication is “Highways in the Coastal Environment”, Chapters 4, 6 – 10 and “Glossary”.

FHWA NHI-07-096, “Highways in the Coastal Environment”, Chapter 4

FHWA NHI-07-096, “Highways in the Coastal Environment”, Chapters 6 – 10

Glossary

Please click on the above underlined hypertext to view, download or print the document for your study. Because of the large file size, we recommend that you first save the file to your computer by right clicking the mouse and choosing "Save Target As ...", and then open the file in Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you still experience any difficulty in downloading or opening this file, you may need to close some applications or reboot your computer to free up some memory.

Course Summary

This course should serve as a guide to assist engineers in understanding the natural coastal processes for highway planning and design. It should assist persons without experience in coastal engineering to understand and apply approaches unique to the coasts. It should also serve as reference in providing consultation and analysis for highway projects in a constantly changing environment. The influence of and principles of tides, waves, sediment processes, wave loads and runup are explained. Basics of sand are discussed to better understand the influence natural processes of sand transport and engineered projects have on coastal land forms.

Related Links

For additional technical information related to this subject, please refer to:

http://coastal.er.usgs.gov
Information on coastal and marine science, research projects by topics and location, publications and educational material for grade school too grad school.

http://www.tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov
Tide information around the US, sea level changes, algal blooms and publications.

Reference Book: “Basic Wave Mechanics for Coastal and Ocean Engineers”, Robert M Sorensen (John Wiley & Son, 1993)

Quiz

Once you finish studying the above course content, you need to take a quiz to obtain the PDH credits.

DISCLAIMER: The materials contained in the online course are not intended as a representation or warranty on the part of PDH Center or any other person/organization named herein. The materials are for general information only. They are not a substitute for competent professional advice. Application of this information to a specific project should be reviewed by a registered architect and/or professional engineer/surveyor. Anyone making use of the information set forth herein does so at their own risk and assumes any and all resulting liability arising therefrom.