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Project Team

George Lee

Civil, Structural & Environmental Engineering;
University at Buffalo

Zach Liang
Adel Sadek
Qian Wang

Civil, Structural & Environmental Engineering;
University at Buffalo

Masanobu Shinozuka

University of California – Irvine

John Kulicki,
Thomas Murphy

Modjeski & Masters, Inc.

Harry Capers

Arora Associates

Sponsor

Principles of Multiple-Hazard Design for Highway Bridges (Project 012)

Safety is one of the highest priorities among all design considerations of highway bridges. Current AASHTO LRFD specifications for bridge design has been established by the probability based approach, but only calibrated for dead load and vehicular load. During the last decade, development of multi-hazard resilient structures has been a major research frontier in the US. This includes the design and construction of bridges to resist multiple extreme hazard load effects.

To begin to address this issue, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is supporting a study entitled “Principles of Multiple-Hazard Design for Highway Bridges.” The project objectives are to establish a number of fundamental design principles and a framework to systematically expand the current AASHTO Load and Resistance Factor Design (LRFD) bridge design specification into a multi-hazard (MH)-LRFD. This is carried out by working closely with Federal Highway Administration experts, the AASHTO Subcommittee on Bridges and Structures (SCOBS) Technical Committee on Loads and Load Combinations (T-5), and with selected individuals who were largely responsible for the development of the current AASHTO LRFD.

Several innovative technology developments for the mitigation of and response to extreme events are also part of this project. These include:

The above tasks are carried out by a team of researchers from several organizations, University at Buffalo (George C. Lee, Zach Liang, Adel Sadek, Qian Wang), University of California – Irvine (Masanobu Shinozuka), Modjeski & Masters, Inc. (John Kulicki and Thomas Murphy), Arora Associates (Harry Capers), coordinated by George Lee of the University at Buffalo.

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