Level II scour analysis for Bridge 28 (BRIDTH00440028) on Town Highway 044 crossing Plymouth Brook, Bridgewater, Vermont

This report provides the results of a detailed Level II analysis of scour potential at structure
BRIDTH00440028 on town highway 44 crossing Plymouth Brook, Bridgewater, Vermont
(figures 1–8). A Level II study is a basic engineering analysis of the site, including a
quantitative analysis of stream stability and scour (U.S. Department of Transportation,
1993). A Level I study is included in Appendix E of this report. A Level I study provides
a qualitative geomorphic characterization of the study site. Information on the bridge
available from VTAOT files was compiled prior to conducting Level I and Level II
analyses and can be found in Appendix D.
The site is in the Green Mountain physiographic division of central Vermont in the town of
Bridgewater. The 11.3-mi² drainage area is a predominantly rural basin. In the vicinity of
the study site, the left and right banks are pasture.
In the study area, Plymouth Brook has an incised channel with a slope of approximately
0.0054 ft/ft, an average channel top width of 42 ft and an average channel depth of 3 ft. The
predominant channel bed material is gravel (D₅₀ is 62.3 mm or 0.204 ft). The geomorphic
assessment at the time of the Level I and Level II site visit on November 9, 1994, indicated
that the reach was stable.
The town highway 5 crossing of the Black River is a 70-ft-long, two-lane bridge consisting of one 65-foot clear span (Vermont Agency of Transportation, written commun., August 2, 1994). The bridge is supported by vertical, concrete abutments with wingwalls. There is also a retaining wall along the upstream side of the road embankments. The channel is skewed approximately 20 degrees to the opening while the opening-skew-to-roadway is 15 degrees. A scour hole 3.0 ft deeper than the mean thalweg depth was observed along the right abutment. The scour hole was 27 feet long, 15 feet wide, and was 2.5 feet below the abutment footing at the time of the Level I assessment. This right abutment had numerous cracks and had settled. Additional details describing conditions at the site are included in the Level II Summary and Appendices D and E. Scour depths and rock rip-rap sizes were computed using the general guidelines described in Hydraulic Engineering Circular 18 (Richardson and others, 1993). Scour depths were calculated assuming an infinite depth of erosive material and a homogeneous particle-size distribution. The scour analysis results are presented in tables 1 and 2 and a graph of the scour depths is presented in figure 8.