Chilean Bridges: Vespucio Norte POC

Speaking of earthquakes, we saw a few pedestrian overcrossings (POCs) that had collapsed during the February 27th earthquake in Chile. The superstructures were attached to the piers with two 5/8" rods that broke during the shaking.

This damage to the POC that went across the Vespucio Norte Expressway (the ring road around Santiago) was fairly typical. Of course, once it fell, it closed traffic on the expressway below (and was a hazard) until it was moved. Luckily the earthquake occurred at 3 AM.

Stronger connections between the girders and the piers and a global analysis to account for the complicated behavior of POCs when they are shaken should be routinely done to protect pedestrians and the traffic below POCs.

Chilean Bridges: Vespucio Norte POC by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.