Keith Bootle

This paper describes an investigation of riverbank erosion at the Trans Canada Highway at the bridge over the Beaver River. Fieldwork was conducted to gather information about river flow velocity, estimated discharge, bar pebble distribution and bank sediment size and cohesiveness. Further information was gathered including a retroactive field assessment, aerial photographs, historical climate data and discharge trends to help determine why the bank is eroding at this location, an estimation of a rate of erosion and the potential implications of the bank erosion. The methodology for the fieldwork was crude and therefore did not provide conclusive results. Results indicated that the Beaver River bank was eroding due to change in meander characteristics and bank erosion is exacerbated by high flow events in the summer months (May to July), less cohesive bank material, debris obstructions and possibly by poor rip-rap construction. Only a rough rate of erosion could be determined based on aerial photography review but still requires further field work at a later date for comparison with measurements taken during the field work conducted for this paper. The potential implications of bank erosion at this location included undermining of the bridge construction, a wash out of the Trans Canada Highway which would result in impact on B