Afflux at arch bridges - second interim report (SR 115)

A large number of Bridges in Britain today which, because of their structural design, cause substantial blockage to river flow during flood events, and effectively raise upstream river levels. Often in the design of a flood protection scheme engineers discover an immediately effective method of reducing flood levels would be to remove obstructions to flow. However, many bridge obstructions are of medieval arch design and are protected by preservation rulings. if the water levels upstream of a bridge during flood events could be accurately predicted then flood protection schemes could be designed accordingly.