FloodBreak® Roadway Gates are a cost effective way to raise levees that must extend across roads and highways to meet FEMA accreditation requirements.
FloodBreak completed installation of passive Roadway Gates to connect raised levees along the Hidalgo County Floodway. This was a cost effective alternative for the IBWC instead of raising the bridge or creating road humps on each side. The levees were raised to meet new FEMA levee accreditation requirements. Read more about the IBWC Flood Control Project.
This is the third bridge that uses the automatic FloodBreak Roadway Gates instead of raising the bridge. The Borderland Bridge in Canutillo, TX and the Country Club Bridge in Sunland Park, NM had the passive flood barrier system installed earlier this year.
The passive flood barrier system is installed beneath grade at the bridge entrances and connects the levee at the designed levee height to meet the requirements for FEMA accreditation.
Fully passive, the floodgates are automatically lifted by the floodwaters without human intervention or power during a flood event but return to their lowered, hidden location when the floodwaters recede. This allows IBWC to meet the new levee elevation but not have to allocate resources to manually close floodgates or deploy temporary demountable systems.
