Research
Funded Research
Failures of Riprap Protection Systems—Phase II
Dr. Paola Bandini, Civil Engineering
New Mexico State Highway and Transportation Department
$54,426
Riprap is a layer of stones or chunks of concrete on an embankment slope to prevent erosion. In Phase I of this project, the erosion problem at the outlet of small and medium size culverts was studied. In Phase II, the project objectives include: Monitoring new “test sites” and collecting data of the performance of these riprap systems designed and built, and monitoring existing riprap protections at culvert outlets and rundowns that have been identified as problem areas by the New Mexico Department of Transportation (NMDOT) Drainage staff and district maintenance engineers. The New Mexico State Highway and Transportation Department has awarded $54,426 for this research project.
The product of this research would be used by NMDOT personnel involved in drainage and riprap design, construction and maintenance. The recommendations from this research would assist them to improve the current design and construction of riprap protections to reduce the number of riprap failures in the state of New Mexico , therefore reducing the recurrent costs related to repairing riprap failures in rundowns.