The Earthquake Engineering Online Archive

Damage to bridges during the 2001 Nisqually earthquake

Ranf, R. Tyler; Eberhard, Marc O.; Berry, Michael P.

PEER-2001/15, Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, 2001-11, 38 pages (400/P33/2001-15)

The 2001 Nisqually earthquake, which had a moment magnitude of 6.8, damaged at least 78 bridges in western Washington. Reports of damage sustained by bridges during this earthquake were used to correlate the likelihood of damage with the following parameters: distance to the epicenter, estimated peak ground acceleration, estimated spectral acceleration at periods of 0.3 s, 1.0 s, and 3.0 s; year built; and type of bridge. This goal was accomplished by collecting reports of bridge damage from state and local agencies, and comparing them with the population of bridges listed in the Washington State Bridge Inventory. The level of ground shaking at each bridge site was estimated from ShakeMaps, which were developed from data from the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network.

Available online: http://peer.berkeley.edu/publications/peer_reports/reports_2001/0115.pdf