70-foot-long concrete bridge survives series of simulated earthquakes at University of Nevada, Reno
A new, rocking, pre-tensioned concrete bridge support system has been developed by the University of Washington that reduces on-site construction time and minimizes earthquake damage. The 52-ton, 70-foot-long concrete bridge, built atop three 14- by 14-foot, 50-ton-capacity hydraulically driven shake tables at the University of Nevada, Reno, was shaken in a series of simulated earthquakes, culminating in the large ground motions recorded in the deadly and damaging 1995 magnitude 6.9 earthquake in Kobe, Japan.
The University of Nevada, Reno, earthquake simulation facility is managed as a national shared-use Network for Earthquake Engineering Systems (NEES) equipment site created and funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to provide new earthquake engineering research testing capabilities for large structural systems. The rocking bridge-bent accelerated bridge construction project is sponsored by NSF's George Brown NEES Research Program (Award #1207903). For more on the bridge test, see http://bit.ly/1mo3OD0
Credit: University of Nevada, Reno
Video Transcript: The video shows a 52-ton, 70-foot-long concrete bridge, built atop three 14- by 14-foot, 50-ton-capacity hydraulically driven shake tables as it is shaken in a series of simulated earthquakes.
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