Bridges of Mexico: Undercrossing over Calzada de la Viga in Mexico City

September 2017 (19.3696, -99.12248) UC Eje 2 Ote Calzada de la Viga

My next few blogs include photos taken by other earthquake reconnaissance team members and collaborators. Professor Eduardo Miranda of Stanford shared some photos of an undercrossing (where a highway goes over a road) that had some damage from the 9/19/2017 earthquake. This is where the Circuito Interior Avenida Rio Churubusco goes over Eje 2 Ote Calzada de la Viga.

I really like all the information In Prof. Miranda's photos. The photos show the direction of the camera and whether it is level, the latitude, longitude, azimuth, and bearing, the elevation above sea level and the time. The only problem with so much information is that it's hard to see the bridge! If we look closely we can see the undercrossing is two parallel continuous box girder superstructures supported on wide piers with shear keys at the ends of the drop bent caps.

In the photo above we see that the ground is torn up, most likely from rocking of the foundations that support the piers.

The photo above shows a masonry abutment which was damaged due to banging of the superstructure against the shear walls. It's not a good idea to built masonry elements on bridges unless they are well reinforced. I don't see any reinforcement in this abutment.

In the photo above we can see that the undercrossing has a long center span over the roadway and two very short spans with masonry abutments at the ends. It seems like the piers and the abutments couldn't laterally support the long center span, which resulted in rocking of the piers and damage to the abutments.

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