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Understanding Submersible Bridges

Low-water bridges are bridges that are meant to be crossed when water levels are low but become submerged and unsafe to cross during flood conditions. While convenient when dry, they pose several dangers when flooded as the bridge surface can be obscured by water and fast-moving currents can sweep vehicles and people away. Many accidents and deaths still occur from attempting to cross low-water bridges during floods despite warning signs.

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Vicces P. Estrada
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10 views1 page

Understanding Submersible Bridges

Low-water bridges are bridges that are meant to be crossed when water levels are low but become submerged and unsafe to cross during flood conditions. While convenient when dry, they pose several dangers when flooded as the bridge surface can be obscured by water and fast-moving currents can sweep vehicles and people away. Many accidents and deaths still occur from attempting to cross low-water bridges during floods despite warning signs.

Uploaded by

Vicces P. Estrada
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Navigation[edit]

A low-water bridge renders the waterway non-navigable. In almost all cases this is not a practical
concern, since the waterway would be non-navigable except during flood conditions anyway.

A low-water bridge is sometimes called a submersible bridge, but this is a misnomer. A true
submersible bridge is used on navigable waterways and is actively lowered into the water.

Safety[edit]
The concept behind low-water crossings is that they are convenient and safe to use in normal
conditions. Once the water level rises to the point where it crosses the bridge surface the bridge is
generally unsafe to use, and in developed countries this will usually be indicated by warning signs.
An additional hazard is that the bridge surface may become completely obscured by the water,
making it relatively easy to fall off the bridge surface into the deeper and more hazardous water on
either side. As a consequence, the line of the submerged bridge is often marked with poles or other
structures to indicate its course to unwary travelers and emergency users even when submerged.

The force of the moving water may be strong enough to physically push the vehicle off the bridge:
the higher the percentage of the vehicle in the water, the more likely the water's force will take the
vehicle off the bridge and send it downriver with substantial damage. An additional risk for trying to
cross a bridge under water, especially when more than a couple of feet deep, is the possibility of the
vehicle's engine stalling. As people will typically try to then get out of the vehicle, they may step into
water currents that cause them to fall or be pulled down into the water. As the current during floods
is often quite strong, it may sweep them downriver and carry them into debris, possibly causing
injury or death.

Despite the obvious dangers and warnings given there are still a significant number of emergencies
and even deaths attributable to the unwary use of low-water bridges during flood conditions.

One attempted solution/deterrent is the Stupid Motorist Law in the American state of Arizona. Drivers
who become stranded on flooded low-water bridges are charged with the cost incurred by
emergency services to come to their rescue.

Fish passage at low-water crossings[edit]


Since 1980, the ecological impact of road crossings on natural streams and rivers has been
recognised. Baffles may be installed along the culvert to provide some fish-friendly alternative.[1][2] But
baffles can reduce drastically the culvert discharge capacity for a given afflux,[3] thus increasing
substantially the total cost of the culvert structure to achieve the same design discharge and afflux,
or increasing the risk of road flooding in an existing structure.

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