Precast segmental bridge construction in seismic zones

Following the inspiration and pioneering work of Professor T.Y. Lin, California is finally embarking on segmental precast concrete construction for major bridges in areas of high seismicity. For many years, uncertainty of the behavior of match-cast epoxy bonded joints between precast concrete segments in bridge superstructures during seismic excitation prohibited the use of precast concrete segmental bridge construction in California. While pre-stressed concrete is widely used in cast-in-place multi-cell box-girders and in cast-in-place segmental construction, the Skyway of the new San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge East Bay spans constitute the first modem concrete segmental bridge erected in precast segmental cantilever construction. A summary of the precast segmental bridge research for seismic zones conducted in the Powell Structural Research Laboratories at the University of California, San Diego will be presented together with the example of the new San Francisco -Oakland Bay Bridge East Bay Skyway design and construction.