Earthquake Damage to Bridges Introduction Effects of Site Conditions Correlation of Damage with Construction Era Effects of Changes in Condition Effects of Structural Configuration Unseating at Expansion Joints Bridges with Short Seats and Simple Spans • Skewed Bridges • Curved Bridges • Hinge Restrainers 34 Jack P. Moehle University of California, Berkeley Damage to Superstructures Damage to Bearings Damage to Substructures Columns • Beams • Joints • Abutments • Foundations • Approaches Marc O. Eberhard University of Washington Summary Introduction Earthquake damage to a bridge can have severe consequences. Clearly, the collapse of a bridge places people on or below the bridge. | Moehle . Eberhard . Earthquake Damage to Bridges. Bridge Engineering Handbook. Ed. Wai-Fah Chen and Lian Duan Boca Raton CRC Press 2000 34 Earthquake Damage to Bridges Introduction Effects of Site Conditions Correlation of Damage with Construction Era Effects of Changes in Condition Effects of Structural Configuration Unseating at Expansion Joints Bridges with Short Seats and Simple Spans Skewed Bridges Curved Bridges Hinge Restrainers Damage to Superstructures Damage to Bearings Jack P. Moehle Damage to Substructures University of California Berkeley Columns Beams Joints Abutments Marc O. Eberhard Foundations Approaches University of Washington Summary Introduction Earthquake damage to a bridge can have severe consequences. Clearly the collapse of a bridge places people on or below the bridge at risk and it must be replaced after the earthquake unless alternative transportation paths are identified. The consequences of less severe damage are less obvious and dramatic but they are nonetheless important. A bridge closure even if it is temporary can have tremendous consequences because bridges often provide vital links in a transportation system. In the immediate aftermath of an earthquake closure of a bridge can impair emergency response operations. Later the economic impact of a bridge closure increases with the length of time the bridge is closed the economic importance of the traffic using the route the traffic delay caused by following alternate routes and the replacement cost for the bridge. The purpose of this chapter is to identify and classify types of damage to bridges that earthquakes commonly induce and where possible to identify the causes of the damage. This task is not straightforward. Damage usually results from a complex and interacting set of contributing variables. The details of damage often are obscured by the damage itself so that some speculation is required in reconstructing the .
