Our vehicular project, Inspired Living, shows how a bridge reduces impacts to the environment and water flow. The bridge was built at 40 feet above a flood plain to enter a senior living community. Originally, this project was considered to have several culverts installed rather than a bridge. However, with costs of mitigation included, the culvert project budget was going to be significantly higher than a bridge project. There was also significant fill required to raise the road nearly 20 feet in elevation to be above the 100-year flood level. Even with this planned increase in elevation, the 100-year flood flow test was not passed, and the culvert option was eliminated altogether. The final and accepted bridge solution reduced the impacts by 50,763 square feet, limiting environmental impacts to erosion control under the bridge and the fill areas to the bridge ends only. The natural flow is left uninhibited, and the area of flood impacts was limited to two 18 inch piling faces, ultimately increasing the flow clearance by 237 square feet within the flood area.

Not only was the bridge project less expensive, but it also allowed a large amount of land to be left to its natural state, which is key to maintaining undisturbed ecological systems. In turn, this leads to reduced environmental risks or repercussions at the bridge and downstream.