Cost-based resilience assessment of bridges subjected to earthquakes

Purpose Transport infrastructure resilience is of paramount importance for societies, therefore its quantification is urgently needed. A resilience assessment framework based on well-informed resilience indices is presented and applied for assessing the resilience of representative bridges exposed to earthquakes. Design/methodology/approach The framework quantifies the robustness of bridges against different seismic hazard scenarios, by using realistic fragility functions and the rapidity of the recovery and/or retrofitting after the occurrence of a certain degree of damage, based on realistic restoration functions. Findings Two different approaches for the modeling of the restoration tasks are examined. Both direct losses due to structural damage and indirect losses due to traffic disruption are estimated. Originality/value A new cost-based resilience index is introduced and alternate approaches for expressing the restoration strategies are examined and assessed. The results facilitate owners to enhance cost-based resilience management toward more resilient infrastructure.