Bridge Lessons Learned from the Chile Earthquake in 2010

On February 27, 2010, a devastating earthquake, measuring 8.8 on the Richter scale, struck off the coast of the Maule region of Chile affecting a large area including Chile’s two biggest population cities: Concepcion and Santiago, the Chilean capital. A Transportation Infrastructure Reconnaissance Team (TIRT) was soon organized by the Federal Highway Administration of the U.S. Department of Transportation, which performed a thorough post-earthquake investigation of highway infrastructure from April 4 to April 13, focusing on structural and geotechnical concerns on and around bridges, and on retaining walls,. The reconnaissance team was greatly assisted by the Ministry of Public Work of Chile and two local Universities in Chile: University of Catholic and University of Chile (both located in Santiago). This paper presents the summary of the preliminary findings of the earthquake performance of the transportation infrastructure which the team visited during the reconnaissance.