Sponsor
Portland State University. Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
First Advisor
Peter Dusicka
Date of Publication
Summer 7-18-2018
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Civil & Environmental Engineering
Department
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Language
English
Subjects
Bridges -- Retrofitting -- Oregon, Earthquake hazard analysis, Bridges -- Oregon -- Maintenance and repair -- Management, Concrete bridges -- Earthquake effects -- Oregon
DOI
10.15760/etd.6393
Physical Description
1 online resource (xviii, 186 pages)
Abstract
Geologists have indicated that the question is not if a catastrophic earthquake will occur in Oregon but when one will occur. Scientists estimate that there is close to 40 percent conditional probability that a Cascadia subduction zone earthquake of magnitude 8.0 or above will strike Oregon in the next 50 years. In addition, the majority of Oregon's bridge inventory was built prior to the current understanding of bridge response and prior to current understanding of the expected earthquake demands. In order to minimize potential bridge damage in the case of an earthquake, one approach is to retrofit seismically deficient bridges. However, often times the decision maker is faced with the difficulty of selecting only a few bridges within the inadequate ones. Hence, the issue of prioritizing upgrading naturally arises. The goal of this study is to assess and refine bridge prioritization methodology to be utilized for ranking Oregon's bridge inventory. CFRP retrofit has been experimentally and analytically evaluated to demonstrate the effectiveness of the technique and was found to be an efficient and economical option. A vulnerability assessment estimates that close to 30 percent of Oregon's highway bridge inventory will sustain moderate damage to collapse. However, retrofitting two most common bridge types in the inventory will reduce the number of damaged bridges by about 70 percent. A cost-benefit assessment that takes into consideration direct and indirect costs associated with damaged bridges and retrofitting of bridges shows that the benefit is up to three times the cost to retrofit. The same principle was applied to rank twelve highway segments for seismic retrofit considered important by Oregon Department of Transportation. One selected segment was considered to be retrofitted and vulnerability assessed. The benefit to cost ratios for each assessment was compared and the highway segments were ranked accordingly. The top five segments in the ranking happen to be located in the East-West corridor connecting I-5 to US-101.
Rights
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Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/26202
Recommended Citation
Mehary, Selamawit Tesfayesus, "Assessment of Seismic Retrofit Prioritization Methodology for Oregon's Highway Bridges Based on the Vulnerability of Highway Segments" (2018). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 4509.
https://doi.org/10.15760/etd.6393