Peggy A. Johnson, Professor of Civil Engineering at Penn State, paj6@psu.edu, 814-865-1330
Continuing Education (Short) Courses Available

Stream Stability at Bridges.  The primary cause of bridge failure in the United States is scour and channel instability around the bridge foundations.  Thus, the ability to assess channel stability in the vicinity of bridge is needed for mitigation and prediction of erosion at those structures, as well as for designing road crossings.  This information is also valuable for stream stabilization or restoration projects along reaches that include one or more bridges.  The objective of this short course is to introduce the concepts of stream stability and the impacts on bridges.   In the course, students learn to identify stream instabilities through the use of indicators, to assess stability, to apply the findings to bridge impacts, and how to mitigate against instability impacts.

Stream Mechanics and Restoration.  Stream modification activities are rapidly increasing across the country in a desire to rehabilitate stream corridors degraded by prior modifications, urbanization, land use changes, or natural flood events.  The purpose of this course is to introduce issues and methods for restorating or stabilizing river channels and for creating smooth transitions from the upstream waterway through bridges or culverts.  The course will cover river mechanics, including characteristics of natural stable channels, stream classification, stream stability, flow hydraulics, and sediment transport, and methods for designing stable channels and stabilization structures.  These concepts will be used to demonstrate the impacts of constraints, such as existing infrastructure, the need for rigid versus nonrigid channels and in-stream structures, and the implications at road crossings.

HEC-RAS for Stream Restoration and Stabilization Projects.  This course, co-taught with Arthur Miller (Distinguished Professor of Civil Engineering at Penn State), is geared toward using HEC-RAS to effectively design and evaluate stream restoration and stabilzation projects.  The course will cover concepts of river hydraulics, including flow resistance, energy, and water surface profiles.  In addition, concepts of stream restoration and stable channel design will be covered.  The course includes hands-on computer design and analyses of simple hypothetical cases, followed by a more complex design and analysis of a selected real-world project.