Designing Flood-Resilient Road-Stream Crossings: A Case Study from the July 2016 Northwest Wisconsin Flood
Meeting information
Date: February 10, 2026 Time: 12:00–1:00 PM Eastern (ET) / 6:00–7:00 PM Central European Time (CET)
Join by phone: +1 346-410-0496 (US) — find your local number Meeting ID: 221 754 079 198 92 Passcode: Pc9xQ6Qf
Registration
Not required. Participation is limited to 300 and is first-come, first-served—please join early.
About the webinar
Stream simulation (SS) culvert design integrates fluvial geomorphology, hydrology, civil engineering, and biology to create natural, dynamic stream channels through culverts or bridges at road–stream crossings. While originally developed to facilitate fish and aquatic organism passage, SS can also produce highly flood-resilient designs. Key requirements include: sizing a single-span structure wider than bankfull channel width; developing a natural streambed and banks at an appropriate slope; and checking hydraulic capacity to ensure a headwater-to-depth ratio < 0.8 at the 1% annual exceedance probability flood.
The July 2016 flood in northwest Wisconsin—driven by over 8 inches of rain in roughly 6 hours—caused major damage in the Chequamegon–Nicolet National Forest, including failures at numerous road–stream crossings. During flood recovery, high-water marks and peak flood-flow estimates were obtained at 26 crossing sites. These estimates helped quantify flood severity and differences among watersheds. Seventeen of the 26 sites were designed using SS; 16 survived, even though 13 overtopped.
A case study of these observations was published by the US Forest Service: https://doi.org/10.2737/NRS-GTR-231.
Join the authors to discuss flood drivers, factors affecting culvert survival and failure (including SS design and site characteristics), watershed influences on flood response, implications for vulnerability to future flood flows, and how SS culvert/bridge designs can be further enhanced for flood resilience—along with potential long-term cost benefits.
Questions
Direct questions to Andy Peters: andy@riverconnectivitysystems.com.