Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Seismology

Volume 2, Number 1, March 2000, pp. 55-77

55
Seismic Performance of Highway Bridges
Kuo-Chun Chang 11 Dyi-Wei Chang 2) Meng-Hao Tsai 3) Yu-Chi Sung 4)
1) Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei,
Taiwan 10617, R.O.C.
2) Manager, Structure Department I, China Engineering Consultants Inc., No. 185,
Sec. 2, Hsin-Hai Road, Taipei, Taiwan 106, R.O.C.
3) Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Civil Engineering, National Taiwan
University, Taipei, Taiwan 10617, R.O.C.
4) Project Vice-Manager, Structure Department I, China Engineering Consultants
Inc., No. 185, Sec. 2, Hsin-Hai Road, Taipei, Taiwan 106, R.O.C.
ABSTRACT
The 921 Taiwan Chi-Chi earthquake incurred tremendous disaster to the
central region of the island, particularly to Taichung and Nantou counties.
Most of the bridges on the provincial and county routes in Taichung,
Nantou, Changhua, and Yunlin counties escaped from serious damage,
while approximately 20% of them suffered minor-to-major damage. The
construction completion dates of those bridges range from 1960 through
1999. Damage to these bridges include fault rupturing, collapsed spans,
landslides, soil settlement, slope failures, flexural and/or shear failures,
and liquefaction. This paper begins with a brief description on the
evolution of seismic design code for bridges in Taiwan, followed by a general
depiction of the performance of highway bridges located in the four
counties during the earthquake. Several major damaged bridges with
typical damage modes are illustrated and explored. Lessons learned
from the field observations and suggestions made on research needs are
also discussed.
INTRODUCTION
A devastating earthquake with the
magnitude of ML = 7.3 struck the central
region of Taiwan in the early morning on
September 21, 1999. It was known as
the 921 or Chi-Chi earthquake. As
exhibited by the statistics [1], over 2,350
people were killed, 10,000 were injured,
and 35 were missing in the earthquake.
Moreover, approximately 10,000
buildings or houses collapsed and 7,500
were damaged. About 20% of the bridge
inventory on the provincial and county
routes in the disaster area suffered
minor-to-major damage.
There are approximately 1,000
highway bridges spread on the provincial
and county routes in Taichung, Nantou,
Changhua, and Yunlin counties, which
were the regions with major catastrophe,
especially Taichung and Nantou counties.
56 Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Seismology, Vol. 2, No. 1
Most of the bridges escaped from serious
damage, while approximately 20% of
them suffered minor-to-major damage
due to fault rupturing, collapsed spans,
landslides, soil settlement, slope failures,
flexural and/or shear failures, and
liquefaction. The construction
completion dates of those bridges range
from 1960 through 1999.
This paper begins with a brief
description on the evolution of seismic
design code for bridges in Taiwan,
followed by a general depiction of the
performance of highway bridges located
in the four counties during the
earthquake. Several major damaged
bridges with typical damage modes are
illustrated and explored. Lessons
learned from the field observations and
suggestions made on research needs are
also discussed.
EVOLUTION OF SEISMIC
DESIGN CODES
In Taiwan, consideration of seismic
demand on bridge structures may be
traced back to the Pocket-Size
Engineering Handbook issued by Taipei
Branch of the Chinese Engineer
Association in 1954. It was suggested
that there were two different seismic
zones in Taiwan, corresponding to two
horizontal seismic design coefficients of
1.0 and 1.5, respectively. In 1960, the
Engineering Design Code for Highway
Bridges was announced by the Ministry
of Transportation [2]. However, there
was no specific guideline established for
seismic design in that design code.
Therefore, the suggestion provided by the
Pocket- Size Engineering Handbook was
adopted in that era.
Since the simple seismic coefficient
design approach adopted in 1960s was
out-of-date and did not conform to the
progress made in bridge engineering, the
Ministry of Transportation of Taiwan
issued the Design Code for Highway
Bridges in 1987 [3]. Seismic resistant
conception, geological characteristics of
local sites, and dynamic amplification
factors were included in that design code
announced in 1987. Complying with
more understanding of structural
dynamic behavior and development on
bridge engineering techniques, a need to
revise the seismic resistant design
approach described in the Design Code
for Highway Bridges was realized.
Based on the research on earthquake
engineer- ing in Taiwan with reference to
the seismic design methodologies for
bridges in Japan and United State, the
current Seismic Resistant Design Code
for Highway Bridges was elaborated and
announced by the Ministry of
Transportation in 1995 [4].
HIGHWAY BRIDGE
PERFORMANCE
General Observation
The primary disaster area in the 921
Chi-Chi earthquake is composed of four
counties, Taichung, Nantou, Changhua
and Yunlin. According to the
preliminary bridge-disaster
reconnaissance reports [5,6], there are
approximately 1,000 highway bridges
spread on the main provincial and
county routes in the disaster area. The
construction completion dates of those
bridges range from 1960 through 1999,
and hence are involved in the
evolutionary history of seismic design
codes. As shown in Table 1, most of the
damaged highway bridges are located in
Taichung and Nantou because of being
close to the epicenter. There were 52
Chang, Chang, Tsai, Sung: Seismic performance of highway bridges 57
and 13 bridges that experienced
minor-to-moderate and major damage,
respectively, in Taichung, as well as 82
and 13 bridges, respectively, in Nantou.
In fact, these two counties are the
disaster zones with the most casualties
during the Chi-Chi earthquake. In
addition, there were 17 highway bridges
in Changhua and 18 in Yunlin that
suffered moderate damage, while no
severely damaged bridge was found. It
should be noted that the damage degree
was evaluated by somewhat subjective
observation in the preliminary damage
survey. Most of those damaged highway
bridges have simply-supported,
reinforced or prestressed concrete
slab-and- girder superstructures,
although continuous steel plate-girders
and long-span cable-stayed girders are
also included.
Table 2 lists all the major damaged
highway bridges in the inventory, the
associated routes, and their primary
damage modes. Approximate locations
of these bridges and their proximity to the
Chelungpu fault are shown in Fig. 1,
Table 1 An aggregation of highway bridges by located counties and damaged extent
" Number
County _____
Total inspected
bridges
Minor-to-moderate
damaged
Major
damaged
Taichung 196 52 (26.5%)* 13 (6.6%)
Changhua 199 17 (8.5%) 0
Nantou 410 82 (20.0%) 13 (3.2%)
Yunlin 176 18 (10.2%) 0
* : the percentage is based on the total inspected bridges in each county.
Table 2 Major damaged highway bridge
Name Route Year Span(m) Length (m) Damaged mode
Shi-wei Provincial 3 1994 25 75 collapse
Chang-geng local 1987 25 300 collapse
Dong-feng Provincial 3 1962/1988 26 572 girder/column
Pi-feng local 1991 25 300 collapse
E-jian County 129 1972 11 264 collapse
Wu-shi Provincial 3 1981/1983 34.7 624 collapse / column
Mao-loh-shi Provincial 3 1999 40 ~ 70 500 column
Ming-tsu Provincial 3 1990 25 700 collapse
Ji-lu local 1999 150 300 pylon/ bearing
Tong-tou County 149 1980 40 160 collapse
Guang-long local 1986 28 56 deck/abutment
Guan-de local 1977 20 60 collapse
Bei-keng County 129 1959 5.7 5.7 deck/abutment
Long-an County 129 1986 35 280 column
Cheng-feng County 136 1986 25.6 184 column/abutment
Yan-feng Provincial 14 1984 35 455 column
Pu-ji Provincial 16 1979 35 105 pier cap
Hsing-shi-nan County 127 1994 50 500 column /bearing
Yan-ping Provincial 3 1986 13 78 abutment
Hsin-yi Provincial 21 1981 29 180 column
Long-men Tou 53 1982 40 480 collapse
Li-yu Tou 53 1988 39 546 bearing
Ping-lin Tou 6 1969 25 500 collapse / column
58 Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Seismology, Vol. 2, No. 1
Mo-keng No.1 Provincial 16 1996 14.6 14.6 abutment
Mo-keng No.2 Provincial 16 1996 40 40 abutment
Da-feng Chung 105 1992 _________^ deck
a
it
m

PGA.MAX

m f f
mm
Fig. 1 Location of the major damaged bridges and the Chelungpu fault [5]
Chang, Chang, Tsai, Sung: Seismic performance of highway bridges 55
where some peak ground accelerations
sensing stations by the Central Weather
Bureau, the main national freeway
(Chung-shan Freeway), and some provin
cial highways are shown as well. As
observed from Table 2 and Fig. 1, most of
the major damaged highway bridges are
located on or very close to the Chelungpu
fault, or are in the vicinity of the epicenter
at Chichi. It was noticed that for those
bridge sites where the Chelungpu fault
passes through, the highway bridges
experienced collapsed spans in most
cases, such as the Chang-geng bridge,
Pi-feng bridge, E-jian bridge, Wu-shi
bridge, Ming-tsu bridge, and Tong-tou
bridge. Most of these collapsed bridges
were installed with unseating prevention
devices. Moreover, it is seen that the
PGAs measured in the east of or close to
the Chelungpu fault are in the range of
400 gal to 980 gal, and are generally
larger than those in the west of it. Thus,
most of the damaged highway bridges are
close to or in the east of the Chelungpu
fault.
It should be noted that the main
north-south lengthwise freeway running
from Taipei in the north to Kaohsiung in
the south is far away from the Chelungpu
fault, so that it experienced only little
damage. Bridges of the north-south
lengthwise railway running from Taipei to
Pingtung also sustained only minor injury
compared to those highway bridges.
Only the Ta-Chia-shi bridge suffered
some damage to its bridge columns (Fig.
2(a)) [7]. Those damaged bridge columns
have been repaired by steel jacket (Fig.
2(b)). However, the north-south
lengthwise railway was closed for two
weeks because of the damage to the San-i
tunnel and some buckled rails.
Moreover, the east-west Chi-Chi Branch
of the railway, which only runs for
tourism nowadays, suffered devastating
(PGA) measured from ground motion
fault rupture and land dislocation. The
distorted rail and a vertical drop of about
3.0 meters are shown in Fig. 2(c) and Fig.
2(d). This branch of the railway still
remains closed today.
Fig. 2(a) Damage to the column of the
Ta-chia-shi bridge
Fig. 2(b) The repaired column of the
Ta-chia-shi bridge
Chang, Chang, Tsai, Sung: Seismic performance of highway bridges 59
Fig. 2(c) Distorted railway
Chi-Chi Branch
of the
failures due to slope instabilities, joint
failures in column-to-girder connections,
cable fracture, fault rupture, and
liquefaction. However, only Lyu-mei
and Wan-lun bridges located in Yuen-lin
town were observed to have liquefied
appearance since it was not easy to
distinguish when it occurred in a flowing
river.
Figure 3(a) shows a summary of com
parison among 11 different damage
modes. It should be noted that an
injured bridge often has more than one
damaged mode, so the total amount of all
terms exceeds 195, which is the number
of all injured bridges in the inventory. It
Fig. 2(d) A vertical drop at the Chi-Chi
Branch
Major Damage Modes
Most of the highway bridges in
Taichung, Nantou, Changhua, and
Yunlin counties escaped from severe
damage and experienced only minor
distress such as the settlement of
approach fills behind abutment
back-walls. Approximately 20% of the
bridge invento- ry suffered
minor-to-major damage. Damage to
these bridges include collapse of
superstructures, displaced bearings,
unseated girders from bearing supports,
shear failures in columns, pier walls, and
caissons, abutment back-wall failure,
settlement of approach slab, foundation
Fig. 3(a) A summary
damaged modes
of different
is seen that in these 195 bridges, the
ratios of damage to auxiliary facility,
abutment, deck, and approach slab are
35.6%, 32.5%, 26.3%, and 21.1%,
respectively, significantly larger than
those of other damage modes. From the
field observation, it was found that
pounding on abutments due to excessive
longitudi- nal vibration of the
superstructure usually occurred with
damage to the approach slabs and/or
bridge decks. The deck damage defined
in this paper includes the
expansion-joint failure. In addition, the
60 Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Seismology, Vol. 2, No. 1
ratio of column or pier damage (10.8%) is
greater than those of bearing (9.3%),
girder (8.2%), and foundation (7.2%).
From the reconnaissance results [5], it
was observed that half of those bridges
with injured bearings were also with
damage to the corresponding columns or
piers. Some damaged bearings were
due to crack of their pedestals, and
some were due to dislodg- ment by the
supported girder.
Damaged Bridges Related to
Construction Era
Table 3 shows the classification of
damaged bridges based on their complet
ed years, extent of damage, and
structural types. The percentage in the
parenthesis is obtained by dividing the
value by the total number of the damaged
bridges with same structural type. It is
seen that over half of those damaged
bridges were constructed before 1989,
generally before the issue of Design Code
for Highway Bridges in 1987. Moreover,
over 95% of those injured bridges before
1989 were simply supported. The
decreasing percentage of injured, simply-
supported bridges after 1989 may be
attributed to the decreasing of simply-
supported bridges and better seismic
design methods as well as construction
technologies.
Table 4 is the result of an aggregation
of some damaged modes by the completed
year of bridges. It is observed that the
amount of damaged abutment and deck
are usually in the first two ranks for any
construction period. Figure 3(b) exhibits
the relative percentage of damaged modes
for a specific construction period. It is
seen that for any construction period
considered, the abutment and deck are
more liable to damage than other
components under the earthquake. The
susceptibility of column or pier damage
decreases in the latest three construction
periods, while it is not the case for the
bearing systems. A decreasing trend of
Table 3 An aggregation of damaged bridges by their completed year, damaged extent,
and structural types
Classification of damaged bridges by completed year and damaged extent
1975 earlier 1975 ~ 1982 1983 ~ 1989 1990 ~ 1996 1996 later total
minor-to-moderate 33 44 48 19 25 169
major 3 6 7 7 2 25
total 36 50 55 26 27 194
Classification of damaged bridges by completed year and structural type
single span 19 (17%) 31 (28%) 33 (29%) 14 (12%) 16 (14%) 113
Chang, Chang, Tsai, Sung: Seismic performance of highway bridges 61
simply supported multi-span 15 (23%) 17 (27%) 20 (31%) 8 (13%) 4 (6%) 64
continuous multi-span 2 (22%) 1 (11%) 0 (0%) 3 (33%) 4 (44%) 9
other 0 1 2 1 3 6
Table 4 An aggregation of damaged bridges by their completed year and damaged
modes
Classification of damaged bridges by completed year and damaged mode
1975 earlier 1975 ~ 1982 1983 ~ 1989 1990 ~ 1996 1996 later total
column or pier 2 5 9 3 2 21
girder 2 7 3 2 2 16
abutment 8 10 26 9 10 63
bearing 2 4 4 5 3 18
deck 16 12 9 7 7 51
foundation 2 7 2 3 0 14
the damage ratio of column or pier in the
latest three construction periods may be
attributed to the improvement on seismic
design approaches.
Figure 3(c) shows the variation of the
six damaged modes with the construction
periods. It is observed that most of the
six damaged modes occur in terms of
higher damage percentage in a certain
construction period than in others, except
for the bearing-damaged mode.
Generally speaking, over 70% of the
damaged bridges for each mode other
than the bearing-damaged mode were
completed before 1989. Those bridges
with damaged bearing systems disperse
in each construction period with a nearly
uniform way.
Fig. 3(b) Relative percentage of damaged
modes for a specific
construction period
Fig. 3(c) Variation of the six damaged
modes with the constructed pe
riods
DETAILED DESCRIPTIONS
OF SEVERELY DAMAGED
HIGHWAY BRIDGES
Since the Chi-Chi earthquake was
mainly induced by rupture of the
Chelungpu fault passing through
Taichung and Nantou counties, those
bridges located on the highways near the
62 Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Seismology, Vol. 2, No. 1
fault experienced more severe damage.
Provincial Route 3 running from Taipei in
the north to Pingtung in the south is one
of the main provincial routes. Since the
section of Provincial Route 3 in Taichung
and Nantou counties is close to the
Chelungpu fault, some highway bridges
on that route were damaged seriously.
As for those bridges located across the
Chelungpu fault, it is probable to result in
collapse under the action of both fault
rupture and strong earthquake ground
motion. Insufficient unseating
prevention device, on the other hand,
may be responsible for collapsed spans
when the bridge is not located on or very
close to the ruptured fault.
Some typical major damaged bridges
as mentioned above, as well as an almost
completed, cable-stayed bridge as well as
a viaduct newly completed in 1999, are
described as follows.
Shi-wei Bridge
The Shi-wei bridge is located at the
milepost of 163km + 278m on Provincial
Route 3 is the main line for connecting
Dong-shih and Drao-lan. It was
reconstructed in 1994 as two individual,
3- span curved bridges on single column
bents supported by caissons. It has an
identical span length of 25m and each
span comprises five simply-supported
prestressed concrete girders and deck
slab. Those beam girders were support
ed on elastomeric pads with shear keys
for restricting transverse movement.
The Chelungpu fault crossed the bridge in
the vicinity of the southern abutments.
Closing to the southern abutments, two
consecutive spans of the southbound
bridge and one of the other collapsed, as
shown in Fig. 4(a). The retaining wall
near the southern abutment collapsed, as
shown in Fig. 4(b). The first pier includ
ing caisson in both bridges tilted away
from the southern abutment
northeastward, and the abutment tilted
north- wards (Fig. 5). Figure 6(a) shows
that some shear cracks occurred on the
first column bent extending from the
northern abutment of the northbound
bridge. Moreover, almost all the
concrete stoppers on the pier cap of the
second pier were crushed (Fig. 6(b)) and
transverse movement of the middle span,
which escaped from collapse, was
observed.
Since there is no significant flexural or
shear crack observed on the tilted column
bents, it seems that fault rupture near the
southern abutment may be responsible to
those tilted piers. It thus appears
that those two collapsed spans close to
the abutment were induced by the
tiltingcolumn bents. In addition, the
measured horizontal PGA is as high as
500 gal in the transverse direction and
350 gal in the other. Supported by one
tilted column bent, collapse of the middle
span of the southbound bridge may be
due to excessive in-plane displacement
under the strong ground motion.
However, the middle span of the
northbound bridge may have been
experienced less displacement and thus
escaped from collapse.
Chang, Chang, Tsai, Sung: Seismic performance of highway bridges 63
Fig. 4(a) Three spans collapsed (Shi-wei
bridge)
Fig. 4(b) The southern retaining wall
collapsed (Shi-wei bridge)
Fig. 5 The southern abutment tilted northwards
64 Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Seismology, Vol. 2, No. 1
northbound bridge
Dong-feng Bridge
The 22-span Tong-feng bridge is
located at the milepost of 168km + 337m
on Provincial Route 3, and is actually
three parallel bridges with a length of
572m for each. The central bridge is the
original one constructed in 1962, while
the other two were widened in 1982.
Each span of the original bridge and of
the other two is consisted of 5 and 4
prestressed concrete girders, respectively.
All spans have an identical length of 26m
and are supported by bearings at each
pier cap. The substructures of the
original and widened bridges comprise
wall-type piers and single column bents,
respectively, on spread footings. Under
the strike of the Chi-Chi earthquake,
strong transverse shaking moved the
superstructures southward and some
bearings were dislodged (Fig. 7). Even
more, as shown in Fig. 7, the prestressed
concrete girder was fractured near the
beam end. Figure 8 shows settlement of
the bridge deck due to loss of support by
bearings. Significant flexural/shear
cracking and spalling occurred in both
the sixth column bents extending from
the eastern abutments of those widened
bridges (Fig. 9(a) and 9(b)).
Fig. 7 Southward movement of the
superstructure and the fractured Fig. 8 Settlement of the bridge deck
girder (Dong-feng bridge)
Chang, Chang, Tsai, Sung: Seismic performance of highway bridges 65
Fig. 9(a) Flexural/shear cracks at the
6th column bent of the
westbound bridge
The Chelungpu fault did not pass
through the Tong-feng bridge, but evoked
strong ground motion in the vicinity of the
bridge with a horizontal PGA of 500 gal in
the longitudinal direction and of 350 gal
in the other. Such large shaking made
the bridge girders move southwards and
even fall down from their bearing
supports. As a consequence, sinking of
the bridge deck resulted from the
southward movement of girders.
Furthermore, since the column bents of
the widened bridges are not as wide as
the wall-type piers of the original one,
they reserve less shear and flexural
capacities than the old one does. It is
thus plausible that the column bents
experienced much more severe damage
than the wall pier.
Pi-feng Bridge
The 13-span Pi-feng bridge with a
span length of 30m is located
downstream of the Shih-kang dam on
Ta-chia river and completed in 1991. It
is consisted of 4 simply-supported,
pre- stressed concrete girders for each
span as the superstructure and of single
column bents on caissons as the
substructure. During the earthquake, 3
spans ex- tending from the southern
Fig. 9(b) Flexural/shear cracks at the
6th column bent of the
eastbound bridge
abutment collapsed, and the second
column bent along with its caisson was
uprooted and lay down on the riverbed,
as shown in Fig. 10 and Fig. 11. The
collapsed second and third spans rotated
clockwise as they fell down on the
riverbed. Except those collapsed spans,
there is no evident damage to the rest
components of the bridge.
Since there is no significant flexural or
shear crack observed in the lain down
pier, it is believable that ground rupture
through the pier toe led to its failure. A
permanent drop of the riverbed, as shown
in Fig. 12, verifies the pass of the
Chelungpu fault through the bridge.
Fig. 10 Three spans of the Pi-feng
66 Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Seismology, Vol. 2, No. 1
bridge collapsed
Fig. 11 The third collapsed span of the
Pi-feng bridge
Fig. 12 A permanent drop of the
riverbed induced by fault
rupturing
E-jian Bridge
Located at the milepost of
25km + 195m on County Route 129 and
constructed in 1972, the 24-span E-jian
bridge with an identical span length of
11m is an important passageway for the
Tai-ping city in Taichung county. Its
superstructure is composed of a pair of
simply-supported, reinforced concrete,
double-T girders and deck slab. The
substructure comprises unreinforced
concrete walls on spread footings. No
unseating prevention device was provided
between adjacent spans. The bridge was
being widened as the earthquake
occurred and new piers with a different
span length from the original ones had
been completed. Distinct damage to this
bridge is the seesaw-like collapse of nine
sequential spans extending from the
northern abutment (Fig. 13). The
Chelungpu fault crossed the northern
abutment with uplift and pressed the soil
layers to move along the longitudinal
direction towards the other abutment.
From the northern abutment to the
central pier of the bridge, some piers near
the abutment were crushed or snapped,
while the remaining piers moved towards
the other abutment as rigid bodies or
rotated with their spread footings due to
ground movement (Fig. 14). Relative
movements between adjacent spans were
observed for some of those spans
remaining supported by their piers, as
shown in Fig. 15.
A field examination indicated little
damage to those collapsed girders and to
the southern half of the bridge. It
appears that those collapses were caused
by large ground movements of their
foundations towards the southern
abutment rather than caused by
excessive structural vibration.
Chang, Chang, Tsai, Sung: Seismic performance of highway bridges 67
f
Fig. 13 The seesaw-like collapse of the
E-jian bridge
Fig. 14 Movement or rotation of the pier
walls (E-jian bridge)
Wu-shi Bridge
The Wu-shi bridge, located at the
milepost of 2 10km + 371m on Provincial
Route 3, is the main bridge connecting
Wu-feng town in Taichung county and
Tsou-tun town in Nantou county. It is
actually two parallel 18-span bridges with
a uniform span length of 34.7m. The
northbound bridge was completed in
1981 and the southbound one in 1983.
Both bridges have similar
superstructures as 5 simply-supported,
prestressed reinforced concrete girders
and similar substructures as wall-type
piers on caissons. However, the wall
piers of the southbound bridge were not
as wide as those of the northbound one.
Hence, different damaged characteristics
were exhibited although fault rupturing
occurred under the third span of both
bridges, as shown in Fig. 16, and similar
ground motions was experienced.
Extending from the northern
abutment of the southbound bridge,
severe shear failure occurred at the first
five pier walls and/or caissons under the
strong ground motion and fault rupture,
as seen in Fig. 17. Perhaps because of
the higher shear capacity of its pier walls,
Fig. 15 Relative movement of adjacent
spans (E-jian bridge)
the northbound bridge did not
experience such massive shear failure,
but flexural cracks with fractured
reinforcements were observed in the
third pier wall from the northern
abutment (Fig. 18). Moreo- ver, the first
two spans from the northern abutment of
the northbound bridge were unseated
(Fig. 19) due to the ground movement.
The bearings at these pier caps were
heavily damaged due to strong
transverse shaking, as shown in Fig. 20.
The third span especially exhibited a
westward permanent offset. In addition,
the super-structure of the southbound
bridge showed westward settlement (Fig.
21) due to sliding down of those injured
piers and caissons along their diagonal
shear cracks.
68 Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Seismology, Vol. 2, No. 1
Fig. I 9 The first two spans of the Fig. 20 Crushed bearings and
northbound bridge collapsed diaphragms at the pier cap
Chang, Chang, Tsai, Sung: Seismic performance of highway bridges 69
Fig. 21 Westward settlement of the superstructure
70 Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Seismology, Vol. 2, No. 1
Mao-loh-shi Bridge
Just finished in 1999, the Mao-loh-
shi bridge is a multi-span viaduct
connecting the Provincial Route 3 to the
Provincial Route 63. It is consisted of a
series of continuous segments, each of
which was constructed from 4 I-type steel
girders and steel cap girders as its super
structure supported on reinforced
concrete, single column bents. The steel
cap girders were rigidly anchored into the
corresponding single column bents.
Although the viaduct is not close to either
the Chelungpu fault or the epicenter as
compared to other major damaged
bridges, some joint injuries were observed
in the column-to-girder connections.
Fig. 22 The eccentric connections of the
Mao-loh-shi bridge
In an 8-span, curved segment, 4
single column bents are eccentrically
connected to their steel cap girders, as
shown in Fig. 22, in order to keep traffic
flow fluent for the highway below it.
During the earthquake, diagonal shear
cracks occurred at the upper portion of
those columns with eccentric connections
(Fig. 23). Even more, the confinement
hoops are exposed for some cases (Fig.
24). The steel cap girders were
temporarily shored to prevent sinking of
the superstructures. Since there is no
damage to those single column bents with
symmetrical connections, it appears that
the eccentric connection may be one of
the reasons for the damage.
Fig. 23 Diagonal shear cracks at the
column with eccentric
connection
Fig. 24 Exposed confinements of a column with eccentric connection
Chang, Chang, Tsai, Sung: Seismic performance of highway bridges 71
Ming-tsu Bridge
The 28-span, simply-supported Ming-
tsu bridge is located at the milepost of
233km + 564m on Provincial Route 3 and
was constructed in 1990. It is an
important highway bridge connecting
Ming-jian and Zhu-shan towns in Nantou
county. Each span has 4 prestressed,
reinforced concrete girders for both the
southbound and northbound lines, and
those girders were made continuous by
cast-in-place reinforced concrete deck
slab over intermediate bents. Each line
has its own single column bents support
ed by caissons. During the earthquake,
fault rupturing occurred near the
southern abutment and nine spans
collapsed as shown in Fig. 25. The first
six piers extending from the southern
abutment were tilted or fractured (Fig.
26). Moreo- ver, the back-wall of the
southern abutment was cracked by
the superstructure and thus was driven
back into the back-fill (Fig. 27) under the
strong longitudinal ground shaking.
From the field observation, ground
rupture may be responsible for those
tilted piers and collapse of the northern
segments. However, the collapse of the
spans in the southern segment appears to
be induced by the enormous impact of the
superstructure on the back-wall.
Fig. 25 Collapsed spans of the Ming-tsu
bridge
Fig. 26 Tilted or fractured column
bents of the Ming-tsu bridge
Fig. 27 Cracked back-wall of the southern abutment
72 Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Seismology, Vol. 2, No. 1
Ji-lu Bridge
The Ji-lu bridge is a cable-stayed
bridge with two 120m spans and a single
tower (Fig. 28). The tower, constructed
with reinforced concrete, is 58m high and
sustains the prestressed concrete
superstructure by 17 pairs of parallel
steel cables from each side of it. Each
end of the cable-stayed bridge is
connected to a simply-supported
approach span. At the time of the
earthquake, this bridge was almost
completed except for the guard rails and
a cantilevered section of the
superstructure at the base of the tower.
The tower, superstructure, and some
cables experienced significant damage.
As shown in Fig. 29, concrete at the base
of the tower was spalled off and some
horizontal cracks occurred. At the same
face of the tower and extending from
where concrete was spalled off, vertical
splits along the tower height were
observed (Fig. 30). Nevertheless,
damage to the opposite face of the tower
was not as severe. Furthermore, the
connection between the tower and the
superstructure at its base was smashed
(Fig. 31). Similar damage was observed
at the end of the superstructure on the
pier of the approach span, as shown in
Fig. 32. The approach span was
unseated from its elastomeric pads and
the associated pedestals under the
strong transverse ground motion (Fig.
33), and relative movement between
certain adjacent spans was observed (Fig.
34). In addition, one of those 68 cables
was torn off from its restrainer, as shown
in Fig. 35.
This bridge is very close to the
epicenter, and the horizontal PGA
measured nearby is about 600 gal and
400 gal in the transverse and longitudinal
directions, respectively. Such enormous
ground shaking may have been
responsible for the relative movement of
certain adjacent spans and for unseating
of the approach span. Moreover, since
there is an uninstalled cantilevered
section at the base of the tower, the
transverse vibration of the cable-stayed
bridge may have been unsymmetrical
about the longitudinal centerline of it.
Thus, damage to both the parallel faces
of the tower to the longitudinal direction
is unsymmetrical and the connection at
the base of the tower to the
superstructure was crushed due to
stress discontinuity.
Chang, Chang, Tsai, Sung: Seismic performance of highway bridges 73
Fig. 29 Concrete spalled off and
horizontal cracks at the tower
base
74 Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Seismology, Vol. 2, No. 1
Fig. 30 Vertical split along the tower
height
Fig. 32 Crush at the connection between
the cable-stayed and approach
spans
Fig. 31 Crush at the connection
between the tower and the
superstructure
Fig. 33 Unseated approach span from its
bearing
Fig. 34 Relative transverse movement Fig. 35 The torn-off cable from its
between adjacent spans anchorage
Chang, Chang, Tsai, Sung: Seismic performance of highway bridges 75
Tong-tou Bridge
The 4 span Tong-tou bridge is located
at the milepost of 13km+633m on County
Route 149 and connects Zhu-shan and
Tsou-ling towns in Nantou county. It
was constructed with 3 simply-supported,
prestressed reinforced concrete girders as
the superstructure and with single
circular columns on caissons as the
substructure. Each span is 40 meters
long. Most of the structural components
were destroyed under both the strong
ground shaking and fault rupturing (Fig.
36). According to the measured PGAs
nearby, the PGA is approximately 750 gal
in the north-south direction, which is
Fig. 36 A view on the collapsed
Tong-tou bridge
generally the longitudinal direction, and
360 gal in the other direction. During
the earthquake, all three single circular
columns were cut off by shear failure (Fig.
37) and the spans collapsed. It was
noticed that those large-diameter
caissons extended well above the riverbed
and thus reduced the relative height of
each circular column to the overall
height of both the column and its
caisson. Both abutments were damaged,
with the northern one impacted into its
back-fill and crushed severely, as shown
in Fig. 38. Furthermore, significant
settlement of the northern approach
slab occurred (Fig. 39).
Fig. 37 Shear failure of the single
circular column
Fig. 38 The crushed northern abutment Fig. 39 Settlement of the approach slab
of the Tong-tou bridge of the northern abutment
76 Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Seismology, Vol. 2, No. 1
Since the columns and spans
collapsed in an unsymmetrical scenario,
it appears that they did not fail at the
same instant. Extending from the
northern abutment, the first column was
snapped to the east, while the other two
were snapped to the west. The north
end of the second span rotated clockwise
about its south end, while the whole
third span was tilted to the west and
partially lay on the caps of both
fractured columns. It seems that the
northernmost column was destroyed one
moment before the others. Moreover,
because those two spans close to the
abutments still stayed at the longitudinal
centerline after their collapse, it seems
that they failed a moment before the
columns did.
Long-men Bridge
The 12-span, simply-supported Long-
men bridge was completed in 1982 and is
located on Tou-53 Route. It comprises 2
prestressed, reinforced concrete girders
with a span length of 40 meters as the
superstructure and single column bents
on caissons as the substructure. Under
the earthquake excitation, the second
and third spans extending from the
western abutment collapsed (Fig. 40).
Since there is no significant damage to
other structural components, it appears
that no unseated prevention device (Fig.
41) may have been the reason for its
collapse.
Fig. 40 Collapse of two spans of the
Long-men bridge
DAMAGE TO BRIDGES UNDER
CONSTRUCTION
In order to facilitate the east-to-west
transportation of Taiwan, several east-to-
west express highways or freeways are
under construction at present. Some of
the bridges on these new express
highways or freeways experienced
minor-to- moderate damage. Common
Fig. 41 No unseat prevention device
between adjacent spans
damage to those bridges is the fracture
or tumbling of the uninstalled,
cast-in-place, reinforced concrete girders,
as shown in Fig. 42(a) and Fig. 42(b).
The Feng-yuan viaduct, which is located
at the Taichung Branch of the Second
Freeway, suffered moderate damage to
the elastomeric bearing systems. Many
bearing pedestals of steel pot bearings
were crushed during the earthquake (Fig.
Chang, Chang, Tsai, Sung: Seismic performance of highway bridges 77
43) and the box girders supported by
them exhibited a permanent transverse
dislocation (Fig. 44).
78 Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Seismology, Vol. 2, No. 1
Fig. 42(a) Fracture of uninstalled, cast-
in-place, concrete girders
Fig. 42(b) Tumbling of uninstalled, cast-
in-place, concrete girders
Fig. 43 Damage to the pot bearing and Fig. 44 Transverse movement of the
its pedestal superstructure
LESSONS LEARNED AND
SUGGESTIONS
From the bridge-disaster
reconnaissance and field observations,
several impressive lessons were learned.
First of all, fault rupture under or across
bridge foundations is catastrophic to the
structure and usually leads to collapse of
spans, especially when the ground
dislocations are large. The Pi-feng bridge
is a good example of such a case.
However, since faults with different
magnitudes are widespread in Taiwan,
there may sometimes be no alternative
but to construct bridges across or near
active faults because of finite serviceable
area. Under such a situation, easy to
repair or reconstruct should be a priority
in the bridge design and construction,
and alternative routes should be outlined
in advance. Shorter spans may be
installed in bridges to facilitate urgent
restoration.
Moreover, the unusual characteristics
of near-fault earthquakes may lead to
unexpected damage to structures,
particularly to those older bridges. Even
long-span bridges are vulnerable to near
fault earthquakes. Seismic input energy
Chang, Chang, Tsai, Sung: Seismic performance of highway bridges 79
of near-fault earthquakes is usually
released in a very short instant, e.g., 1~2
seconds, and thus considerable
incremental velocity is brought forth. It
may be necessary to conduct site specific
hazard analyses to have thorough
comprehension on the near-fault effect.
Furthermore, unseating prevention
devices and sufficient seat widths should
be provided to protect from unintended
strikes. Ground failure, skewed spans,
and liquefaction, etc., may induce
addition structural movements, such as
the Shi-wei bridge. Well-designed shear
keys, restrainers, and concrete stoppers
are excellent equipment for unseating
prevention. Also, as noticed in the field
observation, the span next to either
abutment collapsed in all those bridges
with collapsed spans. Thus, adequate
design and construction of abutment
back-walls and fill-backs are essential
even for continuous spans.
In addition, column-to-girder joints
should be accurately designed and
constructed, especially for eccentric
connections, such that the seismic force
can be transferred by the expected load
path. Also, sufficient and well-
constructed hoop bars or confinements
should be provided to prevent from shear
failure in piers.
SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION
The 921 Chi-Chi earthquake brought
an intense impact on the seismic
resistant design and technical
development of bridge engineering.
From the bridge- disaster
reconnaissance, some valuable lessons
were learned to review and improve
the current seismic design code. Also,
as indicated by those observed
appearances, the realistic structural
behavior of bridges under real earthquake
ground motions is more complex than
analytical prediction. Some design
details, such as the near-fault effect,
confinement, and unseating prevention
device, etc., which may be roughly
estimated or overlooked, should be
comprehended thoroughly. Further
investigations on those major damaged
bridges and the confirmation of fault
locations may be needed.
It is necessary to proceed with both
the improvement of seismic design code
and retrofit of old bridges. When agree
ment on the opinions on major damaged
modes and modified bridge design
methodologies is reached, the seismic
design code of bridges can be revised for
future construction. In addition, many
verified seismic retrofit techniques [8,9]
should be applied to repair or strengthen
those minor damaged or old bridges.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors are grateful to the
National Center for Research on
Earthquake Engineering (NCREE) and
bridge-disaster reconnaissance group for
providing the relevant information on the
921 Chi-Chi earthquake.
REFERENCE
1. The Ji-Ji Earthquake Web Site,
http://921.ncree.gov.tw (1999).
National Center for Research on
Earthquake Engineering, Taipei,
Taiwan.
2. Design Code for Highway Bridge
Engineering, Issued No. 09499 (1960).
Taiwan Highway Bureau, Technical
Standard Committee, Ministry of
Transportation, November.
3. Design Code for Highway Bridges
(1987). Ministry of Transportation,
Taiwan, February.
80 Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Seismology, Vol. 2, No. 1
4. Seismic Resistant Design Code for
Highway Bridges (1995). Ministry of
Transportation, Taiwan, January.
5. National Center for Research on
Earthquake Engineering (1999). A
reconnaissance report of the 921 Chi
Chi earthquake for bridges and
transportation facilities Report No.
NCREE- 99-035, Taipei, Taiwan,
December.
6. China Engineering Consultants Inc.
(1999). A preliminary reconnaissance
report of the 921 chi-Chi earthquake for
bridges, Taipei, Taiwan, September 28.
7. Taiwan Construction Research Institute
(1999). Engineering suffering from
the 921 Chi-Chi earthquake Special
Issue, Construction News Record,
October.
8. Scientific and Technical Consultant
Division, Ministry of Transportation
(1998). A study on guidelines of seis
mic resistant evaluation and retrofit for
bridges, Technical Report, Taipei, Tai
wan, October.
9. Priestley, M.J.N., Sieble, F. and Calvi,
G.M., Seismic Design and Retrofit of
Bridges, Wiley-Interscience Publication,
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.