This report provides the results of a detailed Level II analysis of scour potential at structure BURKTH00070016 on Town Highway 7 crossing Dish Mill Brook, Burke, 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). Results of a Level I scour investigation also are included in Appendix E of this report. A Level I investigation provides a qualitative geomorphic characterization of the study site. Information on the bridge, gleaned from Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTAOT) files, was compiled prior to conducting Level I and Level II analyses and is found in Appendix D.

The site is in the White Mountain section of the New England physiographic province in northeastern Vermont. The 6.0-mi² drainage area is in a predominantly rural and forested basin. In the vicinity of the study site, the surface cover is forest except on the left bank upstream which is brushland.

In the study area, Dish Mill Brook has an incised, sinuous channel with a slope of approximately 0.04 ft/ft, an average channel top width of 40 ft and an average bank height of 6 ft. The channel bed material ranges from sand to boulder with a median grain size (D₅₀) of 94.1 mm (0.309 ft). The geomorphic assessment at the time of the Level I and Level II site visit on August 7, 1995, indicated that the reach was stable.

The Town Highway 7 crossing of Dish Mill Brook is a 28-ft-long, two-lane bridge consisting of one 24-foot steel-beam span (Vermont Agency of Transportation, written communication, March 24, 1995). The opening length of the structure parallel to the bridge face is 24.8 ft. The bridge is supported by vertical, concrete abutments with wingwalls. The channel is skewed approximately 35 degrees to the opening while the computed opening-skew-to-roadway is 35 degrees.

A scour hole 1.0 ft deeper than the mean thalweg depth was observed along the left and right abutments during the Level I assessment. In front of the upstream and downstream left wingwalls the scour depth was only 0.5 ft, while in front of the downstream right wingwall it was 0.75 ft and in front of the upstream right wingwall it was 0.3 ft. The scour countermeasures at the site include type-1 stone fill (less than 12 inches diameter) at the downstream end of the right abutment and along the downstream right wingwall. Type-2 stone fill (less than 36 inches diameter) is along the upstream left bank, the upstream and downstream left wingwalls, and at the upstream end of the upstream right wingwall. Additional details describing conditions at the site are included in the Level II Summary and Appendices D and E.

Scour depths and recommended rock rip-rap sizes were computed using the general guidelines described in Hydraulic Engineering Circular 18 (Richardson and others, 1995) for the 100- and 500-year discharges. In addition, the incipient roadway-overtopping discharge is determined and analyzed as another potential worst-case scour scenario. Total scour at a highway crossing is comprised of three components: 1) long-term streambed degradation; 2) contraction scour (due to accelerated flow caused by a reduction in flow area at a bridge) and; 3) local scour (caused by accelerated flow around piers and abutments). Total scour is the sum of the three components. Equations are available to compute depths for contraction and local scour and a summary of the results of these computations follows.

Contraction scour for all modelled flows ranged from 0.0 to 0.5 ft. The worst-case contraction scour occurred at the 500-year discharge. Abutment scour ranged from 6.7 to 9.3 ft. The worst-case abutment scour occurred at the 500-year discharge for the left abutment and at the incipient road-overtopping discharge for the right abutment. Additional information on scour depths and depths to armoring are included in the section titled “Scour Results”. Scoured-streambed elevations, based on the calculated scour depths, are presented in tables 1 and 2. A cross-section of the scour computed at the bridge is presented in figure 8. Scour depths were calculated assuming an infinite depth of erosive material and a homogeneous particle-size distribution.

It is generally accepted that the Froehlich equation (abutment scour) gives “excessively conservative estimates of scour depths” (Richardson and others, 1995, p. 47). Usually, computed scour depths are evaluated in combination with other information including (but not limited to) historical performance during flood events, the geomorphic stability assessment, existing scour protection measures, and the results of the hydraulic analyses. Therefore, scour depths adopted by VTAOT may differ from the computed values documented herein.