Hydrogeological vulnerability analysis

Hydrogeological vulnerability analysis of a railway bridge for Italian rail company

One of the effects of climate change is an increase in the number and intensity of flash floods, which can seriously affect the stability of bridges. Rete Ferroviaria Italiana, the operator of the national railway network, commissioned CESI’s ISMES Division to analyze the hydraulic and geological vulnerability of a bridge on the Milan-Aosta railway line.

One of the greatest challenges in analysing the vulnerability of bridges during floods is to identify the set of possible failures or damage scenarios. In line with the Flood Directive of the Po River Water Authority, we developed the following activities:

• Two-dimensional hydraulic modeling of the river to calculate the water surface profile and velocity during floods in the vicinity of the bridge
• Determining the magnitude of scour near the bridge structure
• Estimating the rate of erosion along access embankments
• Assessing the stability of access embankments
• Evaluating the hydraulic pressure on the bridge
• Assessing the geotechnical and structural stability of the bridge