Monday, September 8, 2014

Sonoma County, California Bridges: Napa Slough Bridge during the South Napa Earthquake

September 2014 (38.1599 Degrees, -122.3802 Degrees) Napa Slough Bridge
Most bridges performed well during last month's South Napa Earthquake. One exception was the Napa Slough Bridge. This bridge is supported on battered pile extensions that were damaged during the earthquake. Caltrans has long been concerned about battered piles since they resist lateral load axially rather than in flexure. Also, these piles are in poorly consolidated soft sediments that can move like a bowl of Jello when shaken. In contrast to the poor performance of the Napa Slough Bridge was the nearby Sonoma Creek Bridge that we studied in my blog of August 11, 2014. That bridge had similar battered pile extensions and similar poor soil, but the bridge had been retrofitted with big CISS piles and there was no damage during the earthquake.
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Sonoma County, California Bridges: Napa Slough Bridge during the South Napa Earthquake by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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