Performance of Bridge Seismic Retrofits during Northridge Earthquake

Abstract

After the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, California's Department of Transportation (Caltrans) began an ambitious program to screen, prioritize, and retrofit 2,000 seismically deficient California bridges. It was unfortunate that before this program was completed the Northridge, Calif., earthquake occurred. This paper summarizes how bridges with a post-1989 seismic retrofit performed during the 1994 Northridge earthquake. A description of typical retrofit details is given. A table provides data on all retrofitted bridges where ground motion exceeded 0.25