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Lessons in bridge damage learned from the Wenchuan earthquake

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Abstract

A strong earthquake occurred in Wenchuan County, Sichuan Province, China, on May 12, 2008. Shortly after the earthquake, the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center of the Federal Highway Administration, in partnership with the Research Institute of Highways, the Ministry of Communication of China, led a reconnaissance team to conduct a post-earthquake bridge performance investigation of the transportation system in the earthquake affected areas. The U.S. transportation system reconnaissance team visited the area during July 20–24, 2008. This paper presents the findings and lessons learned by the team.

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References

  • Burchfiel BC, Royden LH, van der Hilst RD, Hager BH, Chen Z, King RW, Li C, Lü J, Yao H and Kirby E (2008), “A Geological and Geophysical Context for the Wenchuan Earthquake of 12 May 2008, Sichuan, People’s Republic of China,” GSA Today, 18: 4–11.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center of Federal Highway Administration (FWHA), McLean, USA

    W. Phillip Yen

  2. Center for Transportation Infrastructure and Safety (CTIS), a National University Transportation Center at Missouri University of Science and Technology, Kansas, USA

    Genda Chen

  3. California Department of Transportation Representing the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI), Berkeley, USA

    Mark Yashinski

  4. University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and Representing Geo-Engineering Earthquake Reconnaissance (GEER), Chicago, USA

    Youssef Hashash

  5. Mid-America Earthquake Center (MAE), University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Chicago, USA

    Curtis Holub

  6. Research Institute of Highway, the Ministry of Communication of China, Beijing, China

    Kehai Wang

  7. Sichuan Province Highway Planning, Survey, Design, and Research Institute, Chengdu, China

    Xiaodong Guo

  8. Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center of Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), Office of Infrastructure R & D, Bridge Design & Hazard Mitigation T-111, 6300 Georgetown Pike, McLean, VA, 22101, USA

    W. Phillip Yen

Authors
  1. W. Phillip Yen
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  2. Genda Chen
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  3. Mark Yashinski
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  4. Youssef Hashash
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  5. Curtis Holub
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  6. Kehai Wang
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  7. Xiaodong Guo
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to W. Phillip Yen.

Additional information

Supported by: Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center of Federal Highway Administration

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Yen, W.P., Chen, G., Yashinski, M. et al. Lessons in bridge damage learned from the Wenchuan earthquake. Earthq. Eng. Eng. Vib. 8, 275–285 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11803-009-9064-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11803-009-9064-x

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