SEISMIC DESIGN CRITERIA FOR BRIDGES AND OTHER HIGHWAY STRUCTURES

Abstract

This project consisted of a review of current design practice and criteria, ongoing research in seismic design criteria development, and philosophies behind the seismically resistant design of highway structures including bridges, tunnels, and retaining structures. Particular attention was given to foundation design requirements. Recommendations were developed for the future direction of seismic code requirements for bridge structures in the United States. The report is organized in twelve sections. Section 1 provides an introduction. An overview of the design philosophies of various codes throughout the world is discussed in Section 2 along with a summary of their seismic input requirements. Section 2 also includes key issues that need to be addressed in future codes. Sections 3 to 7 summarize the current worldwide design requirements for transportation structures. U.S. bridge requirements are given in Section 3 and New Zealand, Japanese, and European bridge requirements are presented in Section 4. A detailed summary of worldwide bridge code requirements is presented in tabular form in Section 4.4. A summary of worldwide foundation design requirements is given in Section 5 and abutment and retaining wall requirements are presented in Section 6. U.S. and foreign design requirements for tunnels are presented in Section 7. A detailed discussion of a two-level design approach is presented in Section 8, a proposed outline for a future code is presented in Section 9, and topics for additional research and development are presented in Section 10. Section 11 contains symbols and acronyms and Section 12 lists references.