ABSTRACT
Over the past couple decades, increasing seismic activity around the world has been identified as an impending threat to the strength and well-being of our bridges and Roads. Earthquakes have caused numerous bridge and Road collapses including in the U.S., Japan, Taiwan, China, Chile and Turkey. Therefore, we need to find ways to minimize seismic effects on bridges and Roads, both by improving existing bridges and Bridges and refining specifications and construction materials for future bridges and Roads.With the occurrence of every major earthquake, there has been in the past, almost a world-wide tendency to increase the capacity demand of the structure to counteract such events. It is only in the last decade that new strategies have been successfully developed to handle this problem economically. The current international practice has shifted towards a performance-based engineering design, wherein the accent is on serviceability and safety under different levels of magnitude of earthquakes. Also there is an increasing realization that apart from techniques for improving ductility, the structural engineer’s tool-box should include energy-dissipating and energy-sharing devices and those that can control the response of the system. There have also been further advances on appropriate methods and devices of preventing ‘dislodgement’ or ‘unseating’ of the superstructure in the event of severe ground shaking. How these technologies and smart materials can be used in Cost effective earthquake resistant design of bridges is the subject of this paper. Innovative Earthquake resistant Road construction technology presents an interesting picture.
