engleski

Seismic Retrofit of Bridges for Earthquake Resilient Society

In national codes and provisions duration of most bridges is supposed to be 50 years. Design codes are based on functionality criteria as well as safety. Some bridges which were built before 1970s which are still in use in either Europe or Japan or the U.S. have been designed with little or with no any consideration for seismic demand. Majority of these bridges lack the ductility and strength to resist earthquakes. Meanwhile strong earthquakes have revealed all vulnerable places and wrong detailing on almost all bridges built in seismically active regions more than fifty years ago. After the 1971 San Fernando earthquake the U.S. for the first time in the world started seismic retrofit programs for bridges. Japan also started similar programs, especially after the 1995 Kobe earthquake. European Union may not be out of this global problem and must have own retrofit programs for bridges. Thousands of existing bridges built more than fifty years ago in earthquake zones of EU are still in operation waiting to be retrofitted in order to withstand loading of strong intensity earthquakes. In this sense the first part of this paper is devoted to the latest knowledge of earthquake loading on bridges. Some solutions, recommendations and comments for retrofitting and rapid recovery of steel bridges after earthquake using the latest concepts for structural upgrading is presented in this paper as the main goal to contribute to the knowledge for earthquake resilient society.

Bridges ; Resilience ; Earthquake loading ; Seismic hazard ; Vulnerability ; Retrofit

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