Successful Seismic Performance of Bridges after Sivrice Earthquake

Abstract

Most bridges in Turkey were proven to have successful seismic performance during recent earthquakes such as the Van earthquake, Mw 7.1, in 2011 and the Sivrice earthquake, Mw 6.7, in 2020. All bridges close to the epicenter of the earthquakes were still in service immediately after the catastrophic events, even though some of them were located near the vicinity of the fault line. This paper reports the performance of inspected bridges in the Sivrice earthquake zone, including the soil stability around abutments, and investigated the seismic performance of an old composite steel bridge that survived the earthquake. Field trips were conducted to the area for the postinspection of selected bridges. The geometric design of the old steel bridge was identified through classical measurement tools and point cloud models obtained from digital drone pictures in the absence of original design documents. The modern structural analysis of the old lightweight steel bridge with real-time earthquake records indicated that the bridge remained in the elastic state due to its flexibility.