ASCE will be sunsetting the Civil Engineering Database (CEDB) in the coming months. We encourage you to start using the ASCE Library to perform content searches. In the ASCE Library, you can save your search results as well as receive email content alerts when new content relevant to your area of interest is published. Try it out today at https://ascelibrary.org.

 

The Great Quake: On Site Reports

by
Civil Engineering magazine editorial staff, ASCE

Serial Information: Civil Engineering—ASCE, 1989, Vol. 59, Issue 12, Pg. 44-47


Document Type: Feature article

Abstract:

Written within two weeks of the Oct. 17, 1989 California earthquake, these comments cannot be considered definitive. But they do stress two points: 1) Earthquake codes do work. Buildings constructed under seismic provisions that have been added in the past 15 years stood firm, while many unreinforced masonry structures and older buildings of all types failed. 2) Money for maintenance and retrofit of bridges and highways is well spent. The exact cause of the Bay Bridge failure had not been determined, but most damage, including the fatal collapse of I-880, was reported on highways that had not been retrofitted to new seismic standards.

Subject Headings: Highway bridges | Bridge failures | Seismic tests | Seismic effects | Rehabilitation | Maintenance and operation | Earthquakes

Services: Buy this book/Buy this article

 

Return to search