COURSE DESCRIPTION:
Over 60,000 miles of roads in the United States are occasionally exposed to coastal storm surge and waves. Due to these unique design conditions, many highways and bridges suffer damage during coastal storms, including hurricanes, and many are slowly losing functionality because of increased flooding due to relative sea level rise.

The purpose of this course is to improve the resiliency and reliability of coastal highways through training on the concepts and terminology of coastal engineering and science that are applicable to planning, design, and operations.

The scope of this course (following that of HEC-25) is the best available and actionable engineering and science on coastal resilience within a framework that is adaptable to future improvements. The pace of research and application in some of these areas (e.g., sea level rise projections and response) will rapidly evolve.

This course focuses on tools directly applicable to coastal highways and does not address other aspects of coastal engineering more closely related to the maritime transportation industry. The scope encompasses roads near the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the Gulf of Mexico, the Great Lakes and, to some extent other large lakes including the Great Salt Lake.

OUTCOMES:
Upon completion of the course, participants will be able to:

The terminal learning outcome (TLO) and corresponding enabling learning outcomes (ELO) for this course are as follows:
1. Differentiate between coastal engineering and science concepts that can improve the resiliency and reliability of coastal roads. (TLO)
1.1 Explain the specialty field of coastal engineering.
1.2 Explain concepts of engineering wave mechanics.
1.3 Estimate projected future sea levels for design at any US location.
1.4 Design a coastal rock revetment.
1.5 Explain how waves on storm surge can damage bridges.
1.6 Classify beach sands in terms of grain size distribution.
1.7 Explain the common damage mechanism for coastal roads that overwash.
1.8 Describe the functional design principles of coastal structures and nature-based shoreline stabilization methods.
1.9 Discuss some of the capabilities of numerical models of tides, storm surge, and waves.
1.10 Differentiate between types of coastal scour based on bridge setting/location and governing processes.
1.11 Explain how to quantitatively evaluate coastal risk.
1.12 Determine the scope of a coastal vulnerability assessment in your region of the country.
1.13 Evaluate when coastal engineering expertise should be included in the design and planning of roads.

TARGET AUDIENCE:
The target audience for this course is FHWA, state, local agency, and consultant hydraulic engineers, coastal engineers, roadway designers, local roadway designers, consultants, planners, and environmental specialists. This course will be suitable for training a participant without an in-depth engineering background (and especially without a coastal engineering or coastal science background).

Credit Hours