The impact of a PEER funded research project "Fracture of Deficient Steel Details in Pre-Northridge Transportation Infrastructure" is highlighted below. The project Principal Investigator (PI) is Amit Kanvinde, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, UC Davis. The research team includes James Malley, Group Director and Senior Principal, Degenkolb, San Francisco and Robert Pekelnicky, Senior Principal, Degenkolb, San Francisco.
Download the Research Project Highlight which includes the abstract. (PDF)
Research Impact:
Cumulatively, the work (including the PEER and other related projects involving academics and industry experts) will result in decision support frameworks and guidelines for retrofit of vulnerable pre-Northridge column splices, with the following broad impacts: (1) Averting a significant debacle (similar to or worse than the TransBay fracture) due to failure of pre-Northridge splices in the transportation infrastructure, (2) Achieving the above while minimizing unnecessary conservatisms through probabilistic performance assessment of retrofit strategies, and (3) Increased awareness regarding this issue, leading to cities/transportation districts examining and repairing their infrastructure.