Page 118 - Bridge and Highway Structure Rehabilitation and Repair

CHAPTER 3 BRIDGE FAILURE STUDIES AND SAFETY ENGINEERING 93

Table 3.5 History of failures due to design defi ciency.
U.S. Bridges Location Year Reasons for Failure
Tacoma Narrows suspension bridge Washington State 1940 Insuffi cient bending and torsion stiffness,
aerodynamic instability
King’s River Slough Bridge Near Fresno, California 1947 Overloading from an agricultural train
Elbow grade bridge, timber truss Willamette 1950 Parts of truss underdesigned
National Forest
Silver bridge, chain suspension bridge Ohio River 1967 Fatigue
Bridge over Kaslaski River Illinois 1970 Not anchored against uplift—design error

Syracuse bridge New York 1982 Torsional buckling due to lacking lateral support
Oakland highway bridge California 2007 Design defi ciency

Canadian Bridges
Second Narrows Bridge Vancouver, 1958 Web buckling of transverse girder due to
British Columbia design error

The Autoroute 19 Overpass bridge Laval, Quebec 2006 Design defi ciency
German Bridges

Continuous truss bridge over Near Leer 1960 Earth pressure horizontal load not considered
Leda River —design error
A2 bridge Near Lichtendorf, 1968 Moving supports due to creep, shrinkage, and low
Schwerte temperature-pier head destroyed, settlement of
bridge—design failure
Rodach River bridge Near Redwitz 1973 Bridge collapses under overload from ready-mix
concrete mixer—design failure

Vorland Bridge Hochheim 1973 High temperature resulting in support plates
moving – design failure
Zeulenroda Bridge East Germany 1973 Buckling of steel box section fl ange plate due to
lack of stiffeners

Austrian Bridges
Reichsbrücke Vienna 1976 Lack of reinforcement in pier footing

Indian Bridges
Assam bridge Assam 1977 Heavy train—overloading
Punjab Province bridge Punjab 1977 Packed coach on bridge—overloading
Dombivli Railway Station Dombivli 2004 Faulty design, not enough resistance—failed
foot overbridge during construction

South Korean Bridges
Seongsu Bridge Seoul 1994 Design defi ciency