Development of Silt Fence Tieback Design Methodology for Highway Construction Installations

This research effort focuses on improving sediment control practices used at highway construction projects by employing properly designed and correctly installed silt fence applications. Previous research indi-cated that tying silt fence installations back into the contour and creat-ing a J-shaped hook (or a tieback) is an effective way to improve the efficiency of silt fence installations. Silt fences with tiebacks form a tem-porary detention basin, which helps facilitate sediment removal by sedimentation. The purpose of this research was to develop a rational numerical method for designing such silt fence tiebacks at highway construction sites. The proposed method employs a hydrological model to estimate the volume of runoff water generated by the water-shed and balances the water with the storage capacity of the silt fence installed with a tieback. First, the Soil Conservation Service's method is used to estimate the amount of storm water generated during a design storm event. Then, with the cross-sectional data from a highway con