CYCLIC BEHAVIOR OF CONCRETE BRIDGE BENTS

During the planning of the seismic retrofit of Vancouver's 40-year-old Oak Street Bridge, it became evident that a test program of a typical bridge pier under slow cyclic loading would assist in the determination of appropriate retrofit techniques. A series of 0.45 scale models of an as-built pier were constructed. One was tested in the as-built condition, while the others received various retrofits. Slow cyclic lateral load was applied at the model deck elevation. Hysteretic behavior of the bents and the output from numerous strain gages and displacement transducers were recorded. The test program provided significant design information for the retrofit of the bridge and for the many similar bridge bents currently in use and needing seismic retrofit.