- Author
- Stone, W. C. | Cooper, J. D. | Carino, N. J.
- Title
- Performance of Bridge and Highway Structures.
- Coporate
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
- Sponsor
- Department of the Interior, Reston, VA
- Report
- NIST SP 778; ICCSSC TR11, January 1990, 201 p.
- Distribution
- Available from Government Printing Office
- Book or Conf
- Performance of Structures During the Loma Prieta Earthquake of October 17, 1990, Lew, H. S., Editors, 5/1-92 p., 1990
- Keywords
- earthquakes | building codes | fire safety | damage | bridges (structures) | highways | structural engineering | housing | geology | lifelines | seismic | specifications | viaducts
- Abstract
- The main highway network in the San Francisco Bay region sustained serious damage at several locations. The most notable is the damage to and collapse of the long, double decked viaduct sections of freeway in the San Francisco and Oakland areas. Except for the collapse of a single link span of the double-deck section of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, most bridges in the area of the San Francisco Bay survived the earthquake with relatively minor damage. Most bridges and viaducts had been strengthened in the California Department of Transportaion (Caltrans) Phase 1 seismic retrofit program which included identification of structures that are vulnerable to excessive displacements in the longtiudinal direction and have the potential to have spans collapse. Typically, these structures have narrow hinge seats or discontinuities in the superstructure across piers or abutments and were constructed prior to 1971. Cables or bars were placed across these joints, tying the elements of the superstructure together. This chapter describes damage to the Bay Bridge, and to I-880 (Nimitz Freeway) and other double-deck elevated highway structures. The results of preliminary analyses to determine the most likely causes of the collapse of I-880 are presented below.