Issues in Seismic Risk Assessment of Transportation Networks

Seismic risk assessment of transportation networks has been the subject of several studies over the past two decades. Many advances have been made during this time, however, numerous issues remain. Recent research addressing some of these issues has demonstrated their importance for rational decision making. In this paper an overview is presented of the most commonly used transportation network risk assessment methodology. Important issues that have received limited attention over the years are identified and recent developments to address these issues are presented. The paper draws on research conducted under the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Center with many contributors (Moore et al., 2005; Fan and Nie, 2006; Kiremidjian et al., 2003; Lee and Kiremidjian 2006; Stergiou and Kiremidjian, 2006).