In addition to meeting HS-25 specifications for vehicle loads, the system is specially coated for extreme wear conditions and is designed for long service life with heavy safety factors in the most demanding environments.
The International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) has responsibility for applying the boundary and water treaties between the United States and Mexico. It is rehabilitating 122 miles of Rio Grande flood control to comply with levee standards established by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). To comply, levees had to be raised to meet specific elevation requirements. Traditionally, this involved costly infrastructure changes like raising bridges or constructing road humps, which disrupted traffic and required extensive resources.
FloodBreak provided an innovative and cost-effective solution with passive automatic floodgates at bridge entrances and levee crossings. These automatic flood barriers were implemented in various locations on major highways and bridge crossings at Mission, TX, Ft. Hancock TX, Alamo TX, Pharr TX, Mercedes TX, Canutillo, TX, and Sunland Park, NM.
The gates are designed to be completely passive, meaning they require no human intervention or power. During flood events, they are lifted by floodwaters and return to their lowered position once the water recedes, seamlessly integrating with the raised levee height.
In addition to meeting HS-25 specifications for vehicle loads, the system is specially coated for extreme wear conditions and is designed for long service life with heavy safety factors in the most demanding environments.
The installation of FloodBreak gates allowed IBWC to meet FEMA’s accreditation requirements without the need for expensive modifications to existing infrastructure. This solution not only saved costs, but also minimized disruption to traffic and reduced the need for manual floodgate management.
