Arizona State University’s Metis Center for Infrastructure and Sustainable Engineering recently awarded the Arizona Department of Transportation’s (ADOT) Laguna Creek Bridge improvement project with a 2019 Sustainable Infrastructure Award.
The US 160 bridge project created a sustainable, resilient solution for erosion from a meandering creek on the Navajo reservation. The project was recognized for using cutting-edge data collection and modeling.
The project is located 25 miles east of Kayenta. Engineers installed metal cages filled with rocks to protect the creek banks and reduce the channel’s meandering at the bridge. The approach allowed the engineers to avoid disturbing a culturally significant site near the bridge.
“Beyond the Laguna Creek Bridge project, integrating this approach with ADOT’s design and operation of highway infrastructure will help enhance sustainability and resilience by looking at historic, current and potential conditions, including the impacts of extreme weather,” Steven Olmsted, National Environmental Policy Act assignment manager with ADOT Environmental Planning, said.
ADOT coordinated with the U.S. Geological Survey’s Arizona Water Science group. The project site was used as an area to test next-generation monitoring technologies including laser-aided surveying and 3-D surface modeling, video cameras, drones, and sensors and gauges providing real-time surface flow data during and after storms.