Design of Highway Bridges against Extreme Hazard Events: Issues, Principles and Approaches

Abstract

After visiting areas affected by major natural and manmade disasters during the past several years in the U.S. and abroad, the authors of this report identified a need to consider the development of multi-hazard design principles and guidelines for highway bridges. They began by reviewing existing information with the aim to expand the methods and approaches established in earthquake engineering. During the past two years, a number of exploratory studies have been carried out to define a potential research project that may be accomplished within a period of several years with a moderate but reasonable budget. These pilot studies included the following: