15th Triennial International Conference
Port of San Francisco Seawall—Geotechnical Approach for Seismic Vulnerability Optimization
Publication: Ports 2019: Port Engineering
ABSTRACT
The three-mile long Port of San Francisco northern seawall was built more than a century ago to reclaim hundreds of acres of tidal mudflat and transform them into a major deep water port. The seawall was constructed by dredging a trench through soft Young Bay mud, filling the trench with rock, and building a bulkhead wall. The seawall retains up to 40 feet of potentially liquefiable heterogeneous fills. The soft foundation soils and retained fill are subject to significant strength degradation during strong shaking, which can lead to large displacements that can undermine the structural integrity and function of the seawall. The geotechnical approach adopted to assess the seawall seismic vulnerability emphasized collection of high quality geotechnical data and rigorous numerical analyses with appropriately calibrated constitutive models. The benefits include a reliable, rather than conservative, assessment of vulnerability which eliminates overengineering and allows the port to confidently prioritize retrofit funds.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The work presented in this paper was funded by the Port of San Francisco through Fugro’s client, Jacobs, as part of the San Francisco Seawall Earthquake Safety and Disaster Prevention Program. The site investigation program was completed successfully due to the hard work of Dillon Braud and Deron Van Hoff of Fugro and continued assistance from Matthew Wickens and Steven Reel from the Port of San Francisco. Deme Koutsoftas offered valuable suggestions for the planning and interpretation of the site investigation and laboratory testing program data. Members of the seismic peer review panel Shahriar Vahdani, Stephen Dickenson and Jonathan Bray also provided insightful comments during the planning and execution of this work.
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Information & Authors
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Published In
Ports 2019: Port Engineering
Pages: 402 - 414
Editors: Pooja Jain, Moffatt & Nichol and William S. Stahlman III, America's Central Port
ISBN (Online): 978-0-7844-8261-2
Copyright
© 2019 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Published online: Sep 12, 2019
Published in print: Sep 12, 2019
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