The Gerald Desmond Cable-Stayed Bridge - A Case Study in Performance- Based Seismic Design

Design/Build delivery is underway for the replacement Gerald Desmond Cable-Stayed Bridge for the Port of Long Beach and the California Department of Transportation. This will be the first cable-stayed bridge built in California for highway or transit traffic. The replacement bridge is located adjacent to active seismic faults that can produce near-field ground motion effects that the bridge must accommodate. This will be the first large cable-stayed bridge built in the United States in a highly active seismic zone. Therefore, it will advance the state-of-practice for seismic design of cable-stayed bridges. In consideration of the large seismic threat and to provide a structure with superior seismic resistance, performance-based seismic design criteria were developed. For each evaluation earthquake, criteria specified the level of acceptable damage and maximum allowable material strains and residual drifts. Compliance with the performance-based design criteria is verified through detailed non-linear time-history analysis, which includes extensive soil-structure interaction modeling.