Formation of Breakup Ice Jams at Bridges

Abstract

Bridges can impede the passage of river ice during the breakup event and promote formation of ice jams, with adverse socioeconomic and ecological impacts. Design for ice passage at bridges has largely been empirical and qualitative so that avoidance of ice-jam instigation is often uncertain. It is thus important to develop rational design criteria, based on a thorough understanding of the factors governing the interaction between bridges and ice. This concern is quantified by utilizing recent advances on breakup initiation and comparing driving and resisting forces when the sheet ice cover is about to be set in motion. Retention of ice sheets by in-stream piers can lead to jamming via accumulation of ice rubble that may be arriving from upriver. The resulting methodology is applied to two case studies and yields results that are in full accord with local experience. Though the present findings pertain to the obstruction created by in-stream piers, similar reasoning can be applied to constrictions that may be caused by protruding bridge abutments.