Assessment of Performance of Modern Bridges in the 1999 Chi-Chi, Taiwan Earthquake

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The 21 September 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake caused widespread damage and disruption to the transportation system throughout central Taiwan. Bridges in the epicentral region experienced severe ground motion and in many cases large fault offset. The thorough investigation of bridges in the earthquake will help reduce the seismic risk of the highway system in the United States. The two countries use similar structural systems for bridges and, as in Taiwan, large fault movement is expected in the western U.S. This project involves collecting data on damaged and collapsed bridges in Taiwan and analyzing the data to evaluate bridge performance. The tasks of the project are to: (1) document damage of bridges; (2) correlate fault movement and strong ground motion records with observed damage; (3) develop models for nonlinear dynamic analysis of selected bridges to assess performance and damage modes; (4) identify the factors affecting performance; (5) develop recommendations for U.S. specifications for seismic design of bridges; (6) develop recommendations for specific research needs; (7) publish findings in a report and on the World Wide Web, including access to databases. Of particular interest for investigation are bridges built after 1980, including the Mao-loh-shi viaduct bridge and the Ji-lu cable-stayed bridge.