On June 8, 2009 PEER hosted a Seismic Research Seminar highlighting recent transportation research projects sponsored and conducted by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and PEER. One hundred sixty attendees participated in the seminar at the Sacramento venue.Approximately 80 Caltrans employees were in the audience with an additional 75 practicing engineers or researchers plus nearly 15 students from UCLA, UC Davis and UC Irvine whose attendance was sponsored by PEER.
The seminar had three topic sessions with presentations that were followed by lively discussion and questions from the audience fielded by the speakers and other select panelists. The first session addressed the determination of seismic hazard using Next Generation Attenuation (NGA) Models and how the models have been implemented on recently designed and constructed Caltrans projects. The second session was focused on the seismic performance of rocking foundations with speakers explaining recent testing that has shown good behavior of rocking foundation systems. This was followed by case histories demonstrating where foundation rocking had occurred and provided benefit to bridge structures. The final session looked at the seismic analysis and design of abutments. Followed by lively discussion, the abutments session demonstrated the importance of considering abutment behavior during bridge design through a series of speakers showing case histories, analytical models and experimental testing results.
PEER thanks Caltrans for its contributions to the successful seminar.
For more information on the event, including the presentation files and videos of the sessions, visit the seminar website: http://apps.peer.berkeley.edu/events/caltrans-peer/agenda.html
posted June 29, 2009