Putting the wraps on quakes

In 1971, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) initiated significant changes in bridge design. These involved increasing minimum column ductility to assist lateral motions, providing wider seats for box girders and installing restrainers to restrict movement of adjacent spans. Almos...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Civil engineering (New York, N.Y. 1983) N.Y. 1983), 1997-07, Vol.67 (7), p.60-61
Main Authors: Cercone, Larry, Korff, James
Format: Magazinearticle
Language:English
Subjects:
Bridges
Building codes
Carbon fibers
Civil engineering
Composite materials
Cost control
Curing
Ductility
Earthquakes
Fiberglass
Public safety
Retrofitting
Seismology
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:In 1971, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) initiated significant changes in bridge design. These involved increasing minimum column ductility to assist lateral motions, providing wider seats for box girders and installing restrainers to restrict movement of adjacent spans. Almost all the failed bridges in the Northridge earthquake were scheduled to be retrofitted to meet current design requirements. These retrofits, which were to prevent bridge superstructures from falling off their supports, entailed cable and rod restrainers, shear keys, bearing replacements and catcher blocks. In 1987, Caltrans adopted a different approach to retrofitting. It began studying wrapping bridge columns in steel jackets to increase their shear and flexural capacities as well as to enhance ductility. Caltrans estimates that about 5,000 bridges in California are in need of some form of replacement or retrofit in order to meet current design practices.
ISSN:0885-7024
2381-0688