Seismic Vulnerability Assessment of Highway Bridges

In 2007 Sineco S.p.A. has launched an extensive study for the seismic risk assessment of existing bridges for Italian highway A11 and A12.

Numeria has been appointed by Sineco S.p.A. to define a methodology for seismic vulnerability assessment of highway bridges to be used by a task group of structural engineers.

Numeria staff have produced guidelines for specific seismic assessment methods and peer reviewed vulnerability assessment reports for more than 40 bridges.

The approach proposed by Numeria by combining vulnerability, hazard indices and bridge strategic importance, enabled to determinate which bridges should be more precisely analyzed and eventually retrofitted in priority.

Base isolation has been demonstrated to be one of the best solution to bring existing viaducts to performance levels compliant with current Italian seismic standards.