Screening Guide for Rapid Assessment of Liquefaction Hazard to Highway Bridges

Keywords: Liquefaction potential evaluation. Highway bridges. Local soil conditions. Rapid assessment methods. Screening guides.

Abstract: This guide is intended for use by highway engineers with expertise and experience in geotechnical engineering practice, but not necessarily specialized knowledge in seismic hazard evaluation. The guide presents a systematic application of standard criteria for assessing liquefaction, ground displacement potential and vulnerability of bridges to damage. The screening proceeds from least complex, least time-consuming, and least data-intensive evaluations to the more complex, time-consuming, and rigorous analyses. Thus, many bridge sites can be evaluated and classified as low hazard with very little time and effort. Only sites with significant hazard need to be evaluated with the more sophisticated and time consuming procedures. At each level of screening, a conservative assessment of hazard is made.