ABSTRACT
The Cardenal Raúl Silva Henríquez Bridge over the Maule River in Constitución was inaugurated in the year 2000. It has a total length of 912.5 m, which is divided into 22 spans of about 41.5 m length each. The continuous beam bridge deck is a steel concrete composite structure composed of three steel I beams and a concrete slab of 25 cm thickness (Fig. 2). At both bridge ends, the deck is supported by fixed bearings, while there is one expansion joint at the centre of the bridge, which divides the bridge deck into two 456.25 m long
1 INTRODUCTION
On February 27, 2010 the currently sixth largest earthquake measured in the world (Mw = 8.8) hit Chile with its epicentre close to Pelluhue (Barrientos 2010, Boroschek et al. 2010). From the epicentre, at a distance of about 70 km to the north, where the Maule River flows into the Pacific Ocean, the city Constitución is located. The highway bridge over the Maule River in Constitución, Cardenal Raúl Silva Henríquez Bridge (Fig. 1), was severely damage during the earthquake. The bridge site has an effective maximum design acceleration A0 of 0.4 g and an intensity VIII in the Modified Mercali Intensity (MMI) scale during this earthquake (Schanack et al., 2012). Several seismic damages to the bridge structure have been observed. The most particular one was a lower flange and web rupture at the abutment in all of the three
parts. The bridge deck is supported by elastomeric bearings on the piers, without any horizontal displacement restrictions and with transverse seismic stoppers. At the abutments, the bridge is supported by fixed steel bearings, i.e. the lower flange of the steel girder is directly welded onto a steel plate, which is anchored into the concrete abutment. Two vertical stiffeners strengthen this connection.
