Pavement Structures Damage Caused by Hurricane Katrina Flooding
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 134, Issue 5
Abstract
In September of 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and caused sustained flooding. Limited pre- and postflooding tests indicated that the pavement structures tested were adversely impacted by the flood water. Consequently, the Louisiana Dept. of Transportation and Development hired an independent contractor to structurally test approximately 383 km ( ) of the region’s federally aided urban highway system both inside and outside of the flooding area. Falling weight deflectometer (FWD) tests were performed every 161 m ( ) over each selected roadway, along with other field tests. The FWD data were imported into a geographical information system and plotted against a USGS geo-referenced map. Comparative analyses were made possible through the use of extensive flood maps made available through NOAA and FEMA. This arrangement made it possible to classify spatially and graphically all test points on the basis of flooding versus nonflooding, short flooding duration versus longer flooding duration, shallow flooding versus deep flooding, and thin pavements versus thick pavements. Three pavement types, asphaltic concrete, Portland cement concrete, and composite, were considered in this analysis. The statistical inference about the difference in the means of compared data groups was conducted with 95% confidence.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
AASHTO. (1993). AASHTO guide for design of pavement structures, Washington, D.C.
FEMA. (2006). South Louisiana receding floodwater map from hurricanes katrina, http://www.gismaps.fema.gov/2005pages (July 18, 2006 ).
Fugro Consultants LP. (2006). “Non-destructive roadway evaluation (LA DOTD District 2).” Draft Final Rep., State Project No. 736-92-0004, F.A.P. No. SPR-001-(029), Austin, Tex.
Kanji, G. K. (1999). 100 statistical tests, Sage, Calif.
Keller, G., Warrack, B., and Bartel, H. (1988). Statistics for management and economics, a systematic approach, WADSWORTH Publishing Company, Belmont, Calif.
Kinchen, R. W., and Temple, W. H. (1980). “Asphalt concrete overlays of rigid and flexible pavements.” Rep. No. FHWA/LA-80/147, Louisiana Dept. of Transportation and Development, Baton Rouge, La.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). (2006). Hurricane Katrina flood maps, http://www.katrina.noaa.gov/maps/maps.html (July 18, 2006 ), Washington, D.C.
USGS. (2006). “Seamless data distribution.” Center, Miss, http://seamless.usgs.gov/website/Seamless/ (July 18, 2006 ).
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
© 2008 ASCE.
History
Received: Apr 17, 2007
Accepted: Dec 5, 2007
Published online: May 1, 2008
Published in print: May 2008
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.