Abstract
The performance of road bridges undergoing liquefaction in the foundation soils and substantial lateral spreading during the 2010–2011 Christchurch earthquakes is discussed in this paper. Three, well-documented case studies are presented in detail to illustrate the performance of bridges and their typical damage associated with lateral spreading. The short-span bridges on pile foundations have a very stiff superstructure (deck), which was a key factor in the seismic response of the bridges. It led to a characteristic deformation mechanism for all bridges involving lateral spreading-deck pinning-abutment backrotation with consequent damage to the abutment piles and slumping of the approaches. Overall, road bridges performed relatively well in the 2010–2011 earthquakes compared to other engineering structures, despite the high seismic demands including substantial liquefaction and large kinematic and inertial loads due to spreading and strong ground shaking, respectively.
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Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge the financial support provided by the Earthquake Commission New Zealand (EQC), University of Canterbury and University of Auckland, and the assistance of all N.Z. and U.S. GEER team members who participated in the reconnaissance of the 2010–2011 earthquakes. Special thanks go to the Christchurch City Council and the New Zealand Transport Agency engineers for providing valuable geotechnical data and design drawings for the inspected bridges. The first author acknowledges the Erasmus Mundus Fellowship (at the ROSE School, EUCENTRE, Pavia) in the framework of the MEEES programme, and the support of the host academic Professor Carlo Lai, University of Pavia, during the preparation of the manuscript.
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Published In
Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 28 • Issue 1 • February 2014
Pages: 24 - 39
Copyright
© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 18, 2012
Accepted: Sep 12, 2012
Published online: Sep 18, 2012
Published in print: Feb 1, 2014
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