Bridge Design Guidelines for Tsunami Loads

PEER recently signed an important research contract to develop bridge design guidelines for tsunami loads. The project is funded by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) along with five western states: California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska and Hawaii. The project will develop the necessary probabilistic tsunami wave heights in coastal areas of the western states, followed by design guidelines for bridges to withstand tsunami loads.

The project is a multi-campus, multi-disciplinary research program that will last over three years. “This is the first such project in the US dealing with design of bridges for tsunami loads, and this project will have both national and international impacts,” said Dr. Yousef Bozorgnia, the Principal Investigator. “The federal government and five western states collectively agreed that the PEER team can successfully carry out such an important multi-disciplinary project. They recognize PEER’s successful ability to coordinate research of seismic and consequential events over ten core academic institutions with the engagement and interaction of numerous other universities and private firms.”

“PEER has already developed the first probabilistic tsunami map for coastal California and has other on-going tsunami engineering research projects including investigation of tsunami hazard, and validation of various methodologies and computer codes for simulations of tsunami waves,” noted Professor Steve Mahin, PEER Director. Read more about the PEER Tsunami Research Program.