Performance of steel bridges during the 1995 Hyogoken-Nanbu (Kobe, Japan) earthquake - A North American perspective

A large number of steel bridges were damaged by the January 17, 1995, Hyogoken-Nanbu (Kobe, Japan) earthquake. This damage is particularly relevant to Eastern North America where considerably more steel bridges exist than in Western North America where bridges exposed to past earthquakes were mostly of reinforced concrete. Therefore, in light of the Kobe earthquake, a comparison of the steel design practice and design requirements in Japan and North America is instructive. In this paper, such a comparison is first presented, followed by a review of the observed damage to steel bridges and a review of the causes for this damage. Then, the relevance of these observations to North American bridge design practice is examined.