Bridge Waterway Openings In a majority of cases the height and length of a bridge depend solely upon the amount of clear waterway opening that must be provided to accommodate the floodwaters of the stream. Actually, the problem goes beyond that of merely accommodating the floodwaters and requires prediction of the various magnitudes of floods for given time intervals. It would be impossible to state that some given magnitude is the maximum that will ever occur, and it is therefore impossible to design for the maximum, since it cannot be ascertained. It seems more logical to design for a predicted flood of some selected interval ---a flood magnitude that could reasonably be expected to occur once within a given number of years. For example, a bridge may be designed for a 50-year flood interval; that is, for a flood which is expected (according to the laws of probability) to occur on the average of one time in 50 years. Once this design flood frequency, or interval of expected occurrence, has been decided, the analysis to determine a magnitude is made. Whenever possible, this analysis is based upon gauged stream records. In areas and for streams where flood frequency and magnitude records are not available, an analysis can still be made. With data from gauged streams in the vicinity, regional flood frequencies can be worked out; with a correlation between the computed discharge for the ungauged stream and the regional flood frequency, a flood frequency curve can be computed for the stream in question.Highway Culverts Any closed conduit used to conduct surface runoff from one side of a roadway to the other is referred to as a culvert. Culverts vary in size from large multiple installatio...
