Performance of steel bridges during the 1995 Hyogo-ken Nanbu (Kobe, Japan) earthquake

A large number of steel bridges were damaged by the January 17, 1995, Hyogo-ken Nanbu (Kobe, Japan) earthquake. The concentration of steel bridges in the area of severe shaking was considerably larger than for any previous earthquake this century. As a result, this earthquake has provided a unique opportunity to examine how steel bridges of various designs and configurations behave when subjected to severe ground shaking. In this paper, a description of the Japanese past and current bridge design requirements is first presented, followed by an in-depth overview of the observed damage to steel bridges. The relevance of these observations to the Canadian bridge design practice is also reviewed.