Notes on bridges and earthquakes

Abstract

Following the disastrous Napier earthquake in New Zealand (1931) seismic resistant construction has been a factor in bridge design in New Zealand. An early Government instruction is as follows; “wherever possible the structures should be made monolithic, and where this is not possible all parts of the structure should be well tied together. Piers should be designed to resist an acceleration of one-tenth the weight of the super-structure”.