Road networks and critical road structures such as bridges, culverts and floodways have a vital role before, during and after extreme events to reduce the vulnerability of the community.

A major gap in the current research is the lack of assessment techniques and tools to reduce the vulnerability of road structures to enhance both community and structural resilience. This project is developing tools and techniques to enhance the resilience of road infrastructure to hazards such as floods, bushfires, earthquakes and climate change-related weather events.

The study is undertaking research to:

• Advance the understanding of the factors required for quantifying the impact of hazards on road structures.
• Understand failure mechanisms under different hazards and vulnerable structural forms, with structures grouped according to vulnerability.

Case studies have been completed and numerical analyses have been conducted to understand the vulnerability of roads to different hazards.

Flood, bushfire and earthquake have been investigated, with two case studies on bridges, and one on floodway failure. The project has also begun the development of the methodology for vulnerability modelling of bridges and floodways. A field study was undertaken to examine the community impact due to failure of road structures during the 2011 and 2013 floods in the Lockyer Valley in Queensland.

A number of workshops were also held to identify case study data and refine the methodology for vulnerability modelling.

Australian design standards for bridges and floodways have been examined and a comparative study of international standards undertaken, along with an analysis of design standards and applied loads on road structures under extreme events.

The next stage of the study will expand the vulnerability modelling and develop a GIS tool which can be used to demonstrate the benefits of the approaches developed.