Highway Bridge Seismic Design: How Current Research May Affect Future Design Practice

Under several contracts sponsored by FHWA, the Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research has been conducting a research program on highway structure seismic design and construction. Among its objectives, the program studies the seismic vulnerability of highway bridges, tunnels, and retaining structures and develops information that could be used, in the case of bridges, to revise current national design specifications. A specific requirement of the program is to have research results independently reviewed and assessed to determine the impact they may have on future seismic design specifications for highway structures. Some of the important results of the research that has been conducted under the program are summarized, and issues that resulted from this impact assessment about expected changes in future seismic design practice of highway bridges are discussed.